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Past Caring
Why should distinguished Edwardian Cabinet minister Edwin Strafford resign at the height of his parliamentary career? Why does the woman he loves so suddenly and coldly reject him? Why, sixty-seven years later, should people go to such lengths - even as far as murder - to prevent the truth from being revealed?
Martin Radford, history graduate, disaffected and unemployed, leaps at the chance to get to the island of Madeira and begin the hunt for a solution to the intriguing secret of Edwin Strafford's fall from grace. However, his seeming good fortune turns to nightmare as his investigation triggers a bizarre and violent train of events which remorselessly entangles him and those who believed they had escaped the spectre of crimes long past but never paid for...
Martin Radford, history graduate, disaffected and unemployed, leaps at the chance to get to the island of Madeira and begin the hunt for a solution to the intriguing secret of Edwin Strafford's fall from grace. However, his seeming good fortune turns to nightmare as his investigation triggers a bizarre and violent train of events which remorselessly entangles him and those who believed they had escaped the spectre of crimes long past but never paid for...
524 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1986
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1900 people want to read
About the author
Robert Goddard
111 books873 followersIn a writing career spanning more than twenty years, Robert Goddard's novels have been described in many different ways - mystery, thriller, crime, even historical romance. He is the master of the plot twist, a compelling and engrossing storyteller and one of the best known advocates for the traditional virtues of pace, plot and narrative drive.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 392 reviews
October 31, 2024
I was immersed in this throughout the month of August. It’s a compelling read about how an unemployed history teacher takes on an assignment of historical research into the life of former Home Secretary Edwin Strafford, at the time of the Suffragettes, and how hidden events surrounding his resignation reverberate with force a lifetime later. A great book with satisfying resolutions to the story threads.
By this reviewer:
By this reviewer:
February 5, 2009
I've just read this book for the second time and I have to single it out for a special recommendation. It is absolutely brilliant. Evocative of places I love - Madeira and Devon. Craftily hinged around historical detail. Amazingly cleverly plotted and so gripping I didn't want to go out!
Quite the best book I've rerad in years. I'd love to hear if anyone else shares my enthusiasm for it.
Quite the best book I've rerad in years. I'd love to hear if anyone else shares my enthusiasm for it.
February 26, 2017
This was my first Robert Goddard novel but it won't be my last.
This book tells two stories; one set in the present day and another set about seventy five years earlier. The book is structured so that the present-day protagonist, a historian, is researching the story of the 'way back when' protagonist. I've come across this kind of structure before and, when it's done well, it's a really entertaining way of unfolding and interweaving two related tales. Goddard does it well.
The thing I loved the most about this book is that Goddard doesn't let himself be constrained by genre or genre expectations. There are so many different elements of this book that you wouldn't normally find together in one novel. I don't want to say too much for fear of spoilers but I was really impressed by this. The story actually felt more realistic due to this blending of different genres and tones; life doesn't abide by genre conventions after all.
Why only three stars then? Well, as much as I enjoyed this book, it wasn't without flaws, the principle flaw being the pacing.
About three times during this book I found myself feeling that it was starting to drag. Each time, Goddard broke this feeling with a series of twists and revelations that nearly floored me on occasion, but I still feel this book could have done with a stricter editorial hand at the rudder. You could take virtually any passage from this book and it would read really well on its own, so I understand why you wouldn't want to cut any of it, but when you've got a pacing problem it's time to kill your darlings.
Despite its flaws, though, this was a good read. (Hey! That'd be a good name for a website about books...)
This book tells two stories; one set in the present day and another set about seventy five years earlier. The book is structured so that the present-day protagonist, a historian, is researching the story of the 'way back when' protagonist. I've come across this kind of structure before and, when it's done well, it's a really entertaining way of unfolding and interweaving two related tales. Goddard does it well.
The thing I loved the most about this book is that Goddard doesn't let himself be constrained by genre or genre expectations. There are so many different elements of this book that you wouldn't normally find together in one novel. I don't want to say too much for fear of spoilers but I was really impressed by this. The story actually felt more realistic due to this blending of different genres and tones; life doesn't abide by genre conventions after all.
Why only three stars then? Well, as much as I enjoyed this book, it wasn't without flaws, the principle flaw being the pacing.
About three times during this book I found myself feeling that it was starting to drag. Each time, Goddard broke this feeling with a series of twists and revelations that nearly floored me on occasion, but I still feel this book could have done with a stricter editorial hand at the rudder. You could take virtually any passage from this book and it would read really well on its own, so I understand why you wouldn't want to cut any of it, but when you've got a pacing problem it's time to kill your darlings.
Despite its flaws, though, this was a good read. (Hey! That'd be a good name for a website about books...)
November 12, 2018
Not a patch on “In Pale Battalions”, the only other book by Goddard I have read. An unlikeable narrator, a very complex plot, a femme fatale who is ludicrously brilliant and beautiful and sexy and bad news for our narrator. It was Goddard’s first book and has some good things in it in terms of the plot, but some of the characters are more than a little unbelievable. Oh, and there’s an embarrassingly bad sex scene too.
Mildly entertaining as holiday reading.
Mildly entertaining as holiday reading.
December 11, 2008
I stopped reading another book mid-stream because I was so excited when I got this one. I read a list of books recommended by some authors and Stephen King recommended this author so highly, it reminded me of me when I get excited about an author or book. So far I am in love with this book - it's a great mystery with several layers of mystery. I'm loving it! We'll see how it ends...
Great book!!!!
Great book!!!!
August 8, 2021
I have read a few Goddard's novels now and have enjoyed them all and this is no exception. There is a reason though for the three stars rather than four. Let me explain.
The premise of the book is wonderful. Set during the time of the Suffragette movement and Herbert Asquith as prime minister in 1910. He actually served as prime minister between 1908 and 1916. We are concerned with the fictional Home Secretary, at that time, called Edwin Strafford. Strafford had fallen in love with a suffragette, Elizabeth, but for reasons unbeknownst to us and Strafford himself, Elizabeth will not marry him due to something that Edwin had done and that he had kept from her. What was it?
Fast forward to 1977 and a wealthy South African, living in Madeira, has the original written memoir of Strafford. He employs an ex-teacher called Martin Radford to look into it as the memoir finishes abruptly. Martin turns into a historian detective. All of this is fascinating. I was completely gripped. There are many secrets and lies from 1910 and 1977 that have parallels. There are connections that come apparent early on and later. I felt that the actual pay-off was good but nowhere near as good as the build up. The conclusion did go on for too long. The beginning and middle raced but the end plodded. Such a shame.
Even with all of that, looking back, I did enjoy the book. Goddard really knows how to weave a story.
The premise of the book is wonderful. Set during the time of the Suffragette movement and Herbert Asquith as prime minister in 1910. He actually served as prime minister between 1908 and 1916. We are concerned with the fictional Home Secretary, at that time, called Edwin Strafford. Strafford had fallen in love with a suffragette, Elizabeth, but for reasons unbeknownst to us and Strafford himself, Elizabeth will not marry him due to something that Edwin had done and that he had kept from her. What was it?
Fast forward to 1977 and a wealthy South African, living in Madeira, has the original written memoir of Strafford. He employs an ex-teacher called Martin Radford to look into it as the memoir finishes abruptly. Martin turns into a historian detective. All of this is fascinating. I was completely gripped. There are many secrets and lies from 1910 and 1977 that have parallels. There are connections that come apparent early on and later. I felt that the actual pay-off was good but nowhere near as good as the build up. The conclusion did go on for too long. The beginning and middle raced but the end plodded. Such a shame.
Even with all of that, looking back, I did enjoy the book. Goddard really knows how to weave a story.
September 17, 2018
This is my first Goddard book and I listened to the audio version.
I thoroughly enjoyed this long, convoluted, unpredictable and clever novel! It does not clearly fit into any genre as it includes elements of political wheeling and dealing, crime, war and romance.
The story follows a young man, Edwin Strafford, who is starting out on his political career just before WW1. He falls in love with a suffragette which is not going to help his career but he is won over by her. One day he is sacked from his job,on arrival at his fiancee's house her mother wont let him see her and says he is despicable and must never contact her again. His life is thrown into chaos and he is unable to find out why. Fast forward to the present day and a young man, Martin, is hired by an 'interested party' to find out what exactly caused Strafford's downfall. Martin is then led into a whirlpool of lies and deceit, hidden manuscripts and murder.
This is in no way a fast paced, regular thriller kind of book. This is well-written, being rather literary in places and is considered and smooth in its pace. This is a steady, delectable, slow burn of a book, yet it does not flag or become bogged down.
Will read more of this author.
I thoroughly enjoyed this long, convoluted, unpredictable and clever novel! It does not clearly fit into any genre as it includes elements of political wheeling and dealing, crime, war and romance.
The story follows a young man, Edwin Strafford, who is starting out on his political career just before WW1. He falls in love with a suffragette which is not going to help his career but he is won over by her. One day he is sacked from his job,on arrival at his fiancee's house her mother wont let him see her and says he is despicable and must never contact her again. His life is thrown into chaos and he is unable to find out why. Fast forward to the present day and a young man, Martin, is hired by an 'interested party' to find out what exactly caused Strafford's downfall. Martin is then led into a whirlpool of lies and deceit, hidden manuscripts and murder.
This is in no way a fast paced, regular thriller kind of book. This is well-written, being rather literary in places and is considered and smooth in its pace. This is a steady, delectable, slow burn of a book, yet it does not flag or become bogged down.
Will read more of this author.
July 4, 2021
“After the Enlightenment, one day they’ll call this the Disillusionment.”
This is the third novel I’ve read by Robert Goddard (two of them many years ago) but this one (his first) surpasses them both for sheer narrative brilliance. As it was published in the 70’s, it lacks the hectic pace of modern thrillers - in fact, I wouldn’t class this as a thriller, as it’s described by the blurb, so much as mystery/psychological suspense - with an ingenious plot as twisty as any other classics of the genre and a theme as relevant today as when it was written:
‘For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?’
Highly recommended!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 18, 2023
Goddard's first novel is the very best I've read of him so far. An out of work historian is given an assignment to look into the life of a 1910 British politician turned governor of Madeira. The employer is a south African who bought the governor's mansion and stumbled upon his diary. A seemingly past-time interest soon proves to be of close personal interest to everybody involved and the tale that unravels are one of deceit and even murder, echoing into present time.
June 28, 2009
I am past caring about Past Caring.This book is painfully boring unless you're seriously interested in dusty old British politics. I read the first 85 pages and realized I was forcing myself to continue because I so enjoyed In Pale Batallions. I'll certainly try more by this author, but am abandoning this one.
August 26, 2017
Although I enjoyed this book immensely, it was let down by the absurdity of it's main premise: That two people who were very much in love could be broken up by a lie, in the way it was presented here.
So, for the first half of the book one is continually wondering what revelation could possible cause her (and Asquith) to behave in the way they did, and for the second half one is incredulous at the frankly bizarre and insipid behaviour of two people supposedly deeply in love.
Another minor annoyance with Goddard's writing style is the excessive use of the ("if only I had known") device. Once or twice in a book may be acceptable, but he must have used it a dozen times which became tiresome.
So, for the first half of the book one is continually wondering what revelation could possible cause her (and Asquith) to behave in the way they did, and for the second half one is incredulous at the frankly bizarre and insipid behaviour of two people supposedly deeply in love.
Another minor annoyance with Goddard's writing style is the excessive use of the ("if only I had known") device. Once or twice in a book may be acceptable, but he must have used it a dozen times which became tiresome.
July 20, 2009
Once I find a writer I like, I tend to binge on them. I stop when I have had enough or when I realize I am about to exhaust the oeuvre. In the mid-90s I read all of Robertson Davies and was sad when I all I had left was personal letters and the like. I similarly tore through Patrick Robinson's and Dennis Lehane's crime novels and the Barset Chronicles by Anthony Trollope. Robert Goddard's body of work turned out to be too large to consume all at once. Already in the teens when I started him, I read four or five in a row. loving them all, and then moved on. His books were great, but I guess I had enough of moody, English thrillers for the time.
I had forgotten about him until Stephen King came out calling him his top read for 2008. I picked up a copy of Past Caring late last year and just got to it this week. It was actually even better than I recalled.
Past Caring is lengthy, but that is because it has to fit in the diaries of a long dead British minister as well as the historical research of the less than ideal Martin Radford. Radford is a failed academic and teacher who seems to enjoy drink more than books. A chance visit to Madeira leads him to hunt down the story of Edwin Strafford, a rising political star in 1910 who disappeared from politics for mysterious reasons. As he digs deeper, Radford finds that there are those who wish to keep the story buried along with Strafford.
This book works better than most thrillers because he is interested in his characters as well as his plots. This makes the book twice as long as many similar books, but it is well worth the investment. At many points in the back half, I thought I could tell where the book was going only to have the plot shift in a surprising way. The ending was also true to the characters and did a great job tying it all together.
I think I am going to get on another Goddard jag now.
I had forgotten about him until Stephen King came out calling him his top read for 2008. I picked up a copy of Past Caring late last year and just got to it this week. It was actually even better than I recalled.
Past Caring is lengthy, but that is because it has to fit in the diaries of a long dead British minister as well as the historical research of the less than ideal Martin Radford. Radford is a failed academic and teacher who seems to enjoy drink more than books. A chance visit to Madeira leads him to hunt down the story of Edwin Strafford, a rising political star in 1910 who disappeared from politics for mysterious reasons. As he digs deeper, Radford finds that there are those who wish to keep the story buried along with Strafford.
This book works better than most thrillers because he is interested in his characters as well as his plots. This makes the book twice as long as many similar books, but it is well worth the investment. At many points in the back half, I thought I could tell where the book was going only to have the plot shift in a surprising way. The ending was also true to the characters and did a great job tying it all together.
I think I am going to get on another Goddard jag now.
June 1, 2014
In 1977 a young historian tainted by scandal is hired to research a mystery: why, in the early 1900's, did a British cabinet minister abruptly disappear from politics and public view, including not marrying the woman to whom he was engaged? The historian's initial resource is the minister's personal journal, which indicates that the minister himself did not understand his loss of standing in his party or his rejection by his fiancee. Interesting and initially engaging premise. What I liked best about the book is that Goddard did an excellent job of writing the journal and the historian's account in two distinctly different voices, lending an air of solid authenticity to the minister's recounting of his life story. I did not like that almost every single character is a bald-faced liar with a hidden agenda, or that the main villain turns out to be a puppetmaster type, having laid his plans umpteen moves in advance. The book is too long, with too many twists characterized by learning that yet another person is a liar. Unfortunately, by the end I was (apologies for this...) past caring.
April 9, 2021
A riveting and absorbing mystery!
This story was, probably, the best mystery/thriller I have ever read. It had me hooked from the very beginning. Real life historical characters and events were blended seamlessly into a tale of deceit, murder and mystery but, one of outstanding clarity. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.
This story was, probably, the best mystery/thriller I have ever read. It had me hooked from the very beginning. Real life historical characters and events were blended seamlessly into a tale of deceit, murder and mystery but, one of outstanding clarity. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.
December 4, 2011
Would have been even better without quite so many "if I'd only known"s.
July 27, 2021
A very satisfying read in every respect. I’m glad to have discovered this author and I look forward to reading more of his books.
March 26, 2011
Past Caring is my third and final book in the Great Transworld Crime Caper. The previous two books were easy picks, because I knew when I saw the subjects I definitely wanted to read those. The last book though was a tough choice, mostly because there were some amazing sounding books to choose from. In the end I picked Robert Goddard's book because it had a historical slant to it. And it turned out to be a good choice. The book is a fat novel, clocking in at 623 pages, but I had a hard time putting the novel down and letting go of the story, when I had to do other stuff.
The setting and concept are interesting. I always love a story within a story and with Stafford's Memoir we get exactly that. The parts of the book set in 1910, even though they do not concern real people, ring true and conjured Edwardian London in all of its tumultuous glory. For me, Martin's part of the story read a little historical as well, as it's set two years before I was born. It was funny to read about a world where not only did not everyone have a mobile phone, but not everyone had a land line either. The juxtaposition between the contemporary feel of the narrative and those reminders that this was 1977 instead of 2007, never once truly jarred me out the story, it is more a testament to Mr Goddard's wonderful writing.
Martin is the ultimate flawed protagonist. He has a scandal in his past, a weakness for alcohol, and is more inclined to take the easiest or most pleasurable path than doing what is right. He's a man adrift in the world and he seems not totally convinced he should be looking for an anchor. Despite all this, he is sympathetic and he seems redeemable, which in the end, in a way, he is. Martin finds an anchor in the memoir of Edwin Stafford, a man his total opposite: brave, courageous, honourable, ethical and choosing the hard way if it means doing what is right. Martin gets caught up by the Memoir's mystery and through his quest to solve it, Martin needs to confront the flaws in his own character and comes to take Edwin's goals as his own.
The novel is pervaded with a sense of unease. It's clear no one is what they seem to be and they all have hidden motives. This serves to keep the reader on her toes and kept me questioning most of the conclusions Martin draws about people. The one main character in the book that is exactly what he seems to be, is Edwin Stafford. Even his nephew Ambrose is more than the curmudgeonly drunk he seems when we meet him. The leading ladies in this book are one of its strengths; Elizabeth is awesome, such a strong and gentle woman, and Eve is such a delicious villain, living up to all the historical connotations of her name. Goddard's characters are well drawn and come to life, both the good and the bad; they all are coloured in shades of grey, only coming into full focus and shading at the end of the story. And even then, after I'd closed the covers, I found myself wondering about some of them.
Past Caring is a crime novel where the crime is not at the heart of the story, in my opinion. Yes, there is a mystery, a large one, which requires solving, but to me it was a tale about love, honour and whether sometimes keeping a secret is preferable to revealing the truth. The answer may surprise you, I know it surprised me. I've been very lucky, all the books I picked for my Crime Caper challenge were excellent and I truly enjoyed them, but unexpectedly this one is my favourite. Mr Goddard knows how to write an engrossing tale and I'm glad that there are plenty more for me to catch up on.
This book was sent to me for review as part of the Great Transworld Crime Caper.
The setting and concept are interesting. I always love a story within a story and with Stafford's Memoir we get exactly that. The parts of the book set in 1910, even though they do not concern real people, ring true and conjured Edwardian London in all of its tumultuous glory. For me, Martin's part of the story read a little historical as well, as it's set two years before I was born. It was funny to read about a world where not only did not everyone have a mobile phone, but not everyone had a land line either. The juxtaposition between the contemporary feel of the narrative and those reminders that this was 1977 instead of 2007, never once truly jarred me out the story, it is more a testament to Mr Goddard's wonderful writing.
Martin is the ultimate flawed protagonist. He has a scandal in his past, a weakness for alcohol, and is more inclined to take the easiest or most pleasurable path than doing what is right. He's a man adrift in the world and he seems not totally convinced he should be looking for an anchor. Despite all this, he is sympathetic and he seems redeemable, which in the end, in a way, he is. Martin finds an anchor in the memoir of Edwin Stafford, a man his total opposite: brave, courageous, honourable, ethical and choosing the hard way if it means doing what is right. Martin gets caught up by the Memoir's mystery and through his quest to solve it, Martin needs to confront the flaws in his own character and comes to take Edwin's goals as his own.
The novel is pervaded with a sense of unease. It's clear no one is what they seem to be and they all have hidden motives. This serves to keep the reader on her toes and kept me questioning most of the conclusions Martin draws about people. The one main character in the book that is exactly what he seems to be, is Edwin Stafford. Even his nephew Ambrose is more than the curmudgeonly drunk he seems when we meet him. The leading ladies in this book are one of its strengths; Elizabeth is awesome, such a strong and gentle woman, and Eve is such a delicious villain, living up to all the historical connotations of her name. Goddard's characters are well drawn and come to life, both the good and the bad; they all are coloured in shades of grey, only coming into full focus and shading at the end of the story. And even then, after I'd closed the covers, I found myself wondering about some of them.
Past Caring is a crime novel where the crime is not at the heart of the story, in my opinion. Yes, there is a mystery, a large one, which requires solving, but to me it was a tale about love, honour and whether sometimes keeping a secret is preferable to revealing the truth. The answer may surprise you, I know it surprised me. I've been very lucky, all the books I picked for my Crime Caper challenge were excellent and I truly enjoyed them, but unexpectedly this one is my favourite. Mr Goddard knows how to write an engrossing tale and I'm glad that there are plenty more for me to catch up on.
This book was sent to me for review as part of the Great Transworld Crime Caper.
August 11, 2021
I am a huge Robert Goddard fan having read...I thought...everything he’s ever written. Seems I was wrong since somehow this gem missed my radar. Like most all of Goddard’s books there are twists, double twists...red herrings...theories that seem plausible, until they aren’t...then at the last it all comes together. At the end, you feel Martin gave the book its title as events leads him to the point that he is “past caring”. The ending... despite its being somewhat expected... still felt right and the reader feels that things are finally as they should be.
October 31, 2017
Un roman prenant, avec des personnages attachants.
February 10, 2022
A historical mystery which had me struggling to finish and I feel would have benefited from some severe editing. I've enjoyed some of Robert Goddard's previous novels but reading this one was a chore and I found myself skipping pages throughout.
August 8, 2025
Martin Radford, ex-husband, ex-historian and ex-teacher, is at a loose end, so when a friend invites him to visit him in Madeira, Martin jumps at the chance—and soon finds himself drawn into a decades-old political mystery. His friend introduces him to another man, a wealthy South African named Leo Sellick, who has bought a house in Madeira that once belonged to Edwin Strafford. For a brief time, Strafford served as Home Secretary in Asquith’s pre-WW1 Cabinet, and then his career came to an abrupt and rather mysterious end. Sellick has found a notebook in the house, in which Strafford had written his memoir of that time, and it seems he was as baffled as everyone else as to why he suddenly became persona non grata in the political and social world of the time. On learning that Martin is an unemployed historian, Sellick asks him to research Strafford and see if he can shed light on this old mystery. But when Martin starts to dig, he finds that there are secrets some people are willing to do anything to keep hidden…
Not exactly a dual timeline, but the present day story (1980s) involves Martin reading Strafford’s memoirs of his life and these are given to us in their entirety, a book within a book, along with transcripts of various other letters and documents that Martin comes across in his researches.
Strafford had been a young high-flyer, already becoming one of the youngest Home Secretaries in history and seemingly marked for future greatness. This was all put at risk, though, when he fell in love with a young Suffragette, Elizabeth Latimer, who had ties to the Pankhursts and was therefore most certainly not considered safe marriage material for a Cabinet minister. Strafford wasn’t quite carried away enough to be willing to give up everything for love, but it seemed impossible to find a way for them to marry without destroying either his career or her standing among the Suffragettes. Eventually rumours reached Asquith, and Strafford offered his resignation, which Asquith accepted. To his shock and surprise, then, Elizabeth promptly broke off their engagement and refused to speak to him, letting him know that she had learned something so horribly scandalous about him that she wanted nothing more to do with him. But what?
It wouldn’t be a thriller, of course, if people would just talk to each other, but it is frustrating that everyone in Strafford’s social circle appears to know what this alleged scandal is but no one tells him over the course of the next fifty years! And the book is long enough that I felt I too had to live in ignorance for fifty or so metaphorical years until all was revealed. At which point, I felt the scandal certainly wasn’t great enough for people to still be trying to keep it secret seventy years later – in fact, I doubted if it would have really been seen as particularly scandalous even at the time, given the sheer number of young men who went out to the colonies and did some disreputable things in that era. The whole present-day strand suffered for me from this basic lack of credibility, and I fear it grew increasingly less credible as it went on, as we saw the extremes some people were willing to go to keep the truth from getting out.
In contrast, the earlier strand worked much better for me. It feels grounded in thorough research, and gives believable portraits of many of the big political names from that era – Asquith, Lloyd George, even my old mate Churchill. Goddard doesn’t take us into the world of the Suffragettes, so we don’t meet the Pankhursts, but we do get a clear picture of how they were seen by the Establishment at that time, and we are made privy to the debates at the highest levels of government as some begin to feel that their claims will have to be addressed while others feel they should be suppressed with the full force of the law. The young Strafford is an interesting character, showing how his youth is both a strength in enabling him to visualise change, but also a weakness, in that his personal feelings for Elizabeth affect his political judgement. But I felt it was unlikely that a man with the strength of character to rise so fast to a position of power would not put that strength to use in demanding to know what rumours were circulating about him.
Goddard writes well, so that, despite the length and the aspects that annoyed me, I never felt like giving up – I did want to know the secret and how it would all work out. I listened to the audiobook, and the narrator, Paul Shelley, did an excellent job, which helped to hold my interest through the duller patches. Overall, though, I enjoyed the glimpse into history far more than the unlikely events in the present, and I felt it would have benefited from being considerably shorter and less melodramatic. This was my first Goddard, and while it didn’t quite win me over, it intrigued me enough to give him another shot. 3½ stars for me, so rounded up!
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Not exactly a dual timeline, but the present day story (1980s) involves Martin reading Strafford’s memoirs of his life and these are given to us in their entirety, a book within a book, along with transcripts of various other letters and documents that Martin comes across in his researches.
Strafford had been a young high-flyer, already becoming one of the youngest Home Secretaries in history and seemingly marked for future greatness. This was all put at risk, though, when he fell in love with a young Suffragette, Elizabeth Latimer, who had ties to the Pankhursts and was therefore most certainly not considered safe marriage material for a Cabinet minister. Strafford wasn’t quite carried away enough to be willing to give up everything for love, but it seemed impossible to find a way for them to marry without destroying either his career or her standing among the Suffragettes. Eventually rumours reached Asquith, and Strafford offered his resignation, which Asquith accepted. To his shock and surprise, then, Elizabeth promptly broke off their engagement and refused to speak to him, letting him know that she had learned something so horribly scandalous about him that she wanted nothing more to do with him. But what?
It wouldn’t be a thriller, of course, if people would just talk to each other, but it is frustrating that everyone in Strafford’s social circle appears to know what this alleged scandal is but no one tells him over the course of the next fifty years! And the book is long enough that I felt I too had to live in ignorance for fifty or so metaphorical years until all was revealed. At which point, I felt the scandal certainly wasn’t great enough for people to still be trying to keep it secret seventy years later – in fact, I doubted if it would have really been seen as particularly scandalous even at the time, given the sheer number of young men who went out to the colonies and did some disreputable things in that era. The whole present-day strand suffered for me from this basic lack of credibility, and I fear it grew increasingly less credible as it went on, as we saw the extremes some people were willing to go to keep the truth from getting out.
In contrast, the earlier strand worked much better for me. It feels grounded in thorough research, and gives believable portraits of many of the big political names from that era – Asquith, Lloyd George, even my old mate Churchill. Goddard doesn’t take us into the world of the Suffragettes, so we don’t meet the Pankhursts, but we do get a clear picture of how they were seen by the Establishment at that time, and we are made privy to the debates at the highest levels of government as some begin to feel that their claims will have to be addressed while others feel they should be suppressed with the full force of the law. The young Strafford is an interesting character, showing how his youth is both a strength in enabling him to visualise change, but also a weakness, in that his personal feelings for Elizabeth affect his political judgement. But I felt it was unlikely that a man with the strength of character to rise so fast to a position of power would not put that strength to use in demanding to know what rumours were circulating about him.
Goddard writes well, so that, despite the length and the aspects that annoyed me, I never felt like giving up – I did want to know the secret and how it would all work out. I listened to the audiobook, and the narrator, Paul Shelley, did an excellent job, which helped to hold my interest through the duller patches. Overall, though, I enjoyed the glimpse into history far more than the unlikely events in the present, and I felt it would have benefited from being considerably shorter and less melodramatic. This was my first Goddard, and while it didn’t quite win me over, it intrigued me enough to give him another shot. 3½ stars for me, so rounded up!
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February 27, 2024
The first of many cracking novels and sets the pattern for an astonishing series of books in which a slightly flawed protagonist is on a mission to reveal an uncomfortable historical truth or crime that has been concealed by individuals or sometimes more sinister authorities. The hero, in this case a young History graduate drummed out of the teaching profession for an “unpardonable misdemeanour”, is employed to find research the abrupt resignation, and subsequent complete disappearance from a glittering political career, of Asquith’s popular (fictional) Home Secretary, Edwin Strafford, prior to World War One.
Martin Radford, having read the potentially-great man’s unpublished memoir (we can read it too), sets out to trace the history of events that some wish to remain forgotten, keen to prevent the exoneration of the disgraced minister. It’s set in the late 1970s and the events referred to remain crucially within living memory.
I love this sort of intelligent puzzle, loosely wrapped up in real historical events and am always pleased by the geographical detail that the author puts into his writing: the river Teign, Dartmoor, Cambridge, Madeira, and I was delighted that Stafford’s family had made their fortune from brewing in Crediton (which has no history of a brewery — a fact I learned from a seller of antique beer bottles at Tavistock market) and other former haunts of mine, the Nobody Inn at Doddiscomleigh and the Dolphin Hotel at Chichester get a mention as well as Braunton Burrows (location of a scene indelibly etched on my brain). I like the way that a seeming impasse is overcome by one more revealing interaction which advances the plot and I am especially impressed by the frankly prodigious amount of alcohol consumed — enough to have befuddled me permanently.
Although the book is possibly 100 pages too long I became immersed in the intrigues of Lloyd George, Churchill, the Suffragettes and the particular life story of a survivor of that movement and grew to admire the honest, upright, ruthlessly discarded Mr Strafford.
Martin Radford, having read the potentially-great man’s unpublished memoir (we can read it too), sets out to trace the history of events that some wish to remain forgotten, keen to prevent the exoneration of the disgraced minister. It’s set in the late 1970s and the events referred to remain crucially within living memory.
I love this sort of intelligent puzzle, loosely wrapped up in real historical events and am always pleased by the geographical detail that the author puts into his writing: the river Teign, Dartmoor, Cambridge, Madeira, and I was delighted that Stafford’s family had made their fortune from brewing in Crediton (which has no history of a brewery — a fact I learned from a seller of antique beer bottles at Tavistock market) and other former haunts of mine, the Nobody Inn at Doddiscomleigh and the Dolphin Hotel at Chichester get a mention as well as Braunton Burrows (location of a scene indelibly etched on my brain). I like the way that a seeming impasse is overcome by one more revealing interaction which advances the plot and I am especially impressed by the frankly prodigious amount of alcohol consumed — enough to have befuddled me permanently.
Although the book is possibly 100 pages too long I became immersed in the intrigues of Lloyd George, Churchill, the Suffragettes and the particular life story of a survivor of that movement and grew to admire the honest, upright, ruthlessly discarded Mr Strafford.
February 26, 2023
Dear God, this book went on so. Damn. Long.
First it's a modern-day Madeira travelogue, then it's a long, long 1900s political memoir, then we're back in the modern day again and here's another long digression while the narrator woos an implausibly sexy Oxford historian in Inspector Morse country... and none of these episodes need to be half as long as they are, and we're not even half way through the damn book yet.
To be fair, there are several big tantalising mysteries set up at the start that you want resolved, and this kept me reading. On the other hand, I almost threw the book away when, halfway through, the solution to the biggest of these turned out to be precisely what I'd guessed 200 pages earlier. The solutions to some of the other, later mysteries were... adequate. Satisfactory.
Also, this book has one of the most excruciatingly bad sex scenes I've ever read. If your dad wrote porn, it would read like this.
The usual get-out clause, I suppose: I finished it, so it can't have been all that bad. But a lot of that time was spent wondering when the hell it was going to get there.
First it's a modern-day Madeira travelogue, then it's a long, long 1900s political memoir, then we're back in the modern day again and here's another long digression while the narrator woos an implausibly sexy Oxford historian in Inspector Morse country... and none of these episodes need to be half as long as they are, and we're not even half way through the damn book yet.
To be fair, there are several big tantalising mysteries set up at the start that you want resolved, and this kept me reading. On the other hand, I almost threw the book away when, halfway through, the solution to the biggest of these turned out to be precisely what I'd guessed 200 pages earlier. The solutions to some of the other, later mysteries were... adequate. Satisfactory.
Also, this book has one of the most excruciatingly bad sex scenes I've ever read. If your dad wrote porn, it would read like this.
The usual get-out clause, I suppose: I finished it, so it can't have been all that bad. But a lot of that time was spent wondering when the hell it was going to get there.
January 29, 2015
This novel tells two stories, firstly that of an early 20th century British cabinet minister, Edwin Strafford, who suddenly and mysteriously loses his job and his fiance without a clue as to why this is happening to him. His career is ruined and he ends up a minor consular official in Madeira. It is also about a young historian Martin Radford, divorced and unemployed and visiting a friend in Madeira in the 1970s. He is hired to investigate the story of Edwin Strafford, starting with a recenty discovered Strafford journal. The story is well plotted, well-written in a style reminiscent of the early 20th century. (I think I might have liked it if the style had varied more between the journal and the more modern story.)
July 24, 2020
One of the rare books that gave me 'book daze' for several hours after it ended. A masterpiece of its kind - and an author who can seamlessly weave Hardy's poetry and Jacobean tragedy allusions into a brisk narrative without the blessedly unencumbered (and wiser for it) ignorati noticing a thing. Such a light touch you immediately trust the writer and allow a few suspensions of disbelief. Perhaps for me, that's my sign of a great book or a great 'read'. I'm forgiving and trustful and allow myself to be swept away rather than antagonistic and 'demanding' to be won over.
This was the first Goddard I've read and Goddard's first book. An incredible achievement and a promising future - for both of us.
This was the first Goddard I've read and Goddard's first book. An incredible achievement and a promising future - for both of us.
August 13, 2017
Thoroughly enjoyable read...and perfect for a holiday. A book that delivers on all the promises made by the blurbs at the back, this is indeed a compelling novel about betrayal, jealousy, lies and other great ingredients. While much of the book uses turn-of-the-last century British politics as a background, this does not make the book any less interesting. Goddard manages to weave in historical events such as the Suffragette movement and the Boer War seamlessly into his plot. Great twists and unpredictable revelations make this an ideal summer indulgence.For once, I was glad the author chose to drag out the novel as I was enjoying each page.
May 28, 2021
Robert Goddard is a great storyteller; a 4.5 star read for me.
November 2, 2022
April 02 2022: I just spent about thirty minutes searching for this book. Maybe even an hour. My only real clue was the Thomas Hardy poem at the beginning. I’d long forgotten the name of the book, but not those lines from After a Journey. Somewhere in my mind, I thought the name of the book might be A Man Forgotten. I knew it was about British politics. (I read it first as a teenager, when my Dad read it, in the late 1990s). I searched on Google for British political novels, searched for books about forgotten men, and then while searching on Goodreads, the name Past Caring suddenly popped into my mind and I burst out laughing, not amused, just awestruck by the total incomprehensibility of the mind.
November 02 2022:
Yes: I have re-entered your olden haunts at last;
Through the years, through the dead scenes I have tracked you;
What have you now found to say of our past -
Many years ago, when I was a teenager, my father read this book and was very moved by the story. I read it too, and like the Hardy poem the author quotes, I've felt haunted by this story for a long time, even after forgetting the name of the book and the names of the main characters.
Well, now I've revisited these olden haunts only to find the book as painful as ever because hidden in the mystery, suspense, and murder thriller is the core of betrayal, regret, and irredeemable loss.
The story starts with Martin Radford. he's a former teacher and maybe journalist who isn't doing much with his life when he receives an invitation to visit a friend in Madeira. While there, he meets a rich South African businessman named Leo Sellick. Sellick has in his possession a journal belonging to a forgotten Edwardian politician, a man named Edwin Strafford who was briefly a member of Asquith's cabinet. There are mysteries in the journal, like why Strafford lost his cabinet post as well as the woman he loved in a possible conspiracy, but how was it achieved and by whom exactly? And why does Strafford's dissolute friend Gerald Couchman benefit so much from his downfall, gaining both favor with Strafford's political enemies and even marrying Elizabeth Latimer, the woman Strafford loved?
Martin returns to England and starts to investigate. His research takes him to the Couchmans who are his ex-inlaws, and who all hate him, with the exception of the now elderly Elizabeth, to Oxford, where he meets the alluring Eve Randall, a historian who is interested in Strafford connection to the suffragettes, and to Barrowteign, Edwin Strafford's childhood home where his beloved nephew Ambrose, now an old man, still lives. Martin also returns to his past, to the sex scandal that put an end to his teaching career, and beneath all the betrayals, lies, coverups, and finally murder, he slowly uncovers what happened to Edwin Strafford.
Why did I think it was important to read this book again? Because my feelings about it have remained unresolved for two decades. How could a man so good, kind, and noble as Edwin be so betrayed? What kind of love does not even give the benefit of the doubt, does not even offer the chance for an explanation? So for the second time, I've read this book and my feelings remain unresolved. After this second read, I'm angry at all the characters for what they did to Edwin, and for thinking that any of the fruits of those betrayals were worth protecting. I hate that people kept preying on Edwin's goodness and his love for Elizabeth, and it tears me apart that someone he loved so much never even stopped to ask herself 'what if.'
5/5 Recommend. The book starts a bit slow, but generally picks up once the journals have been read. A five star read, if only for the emotions it evokes. Edwin Strafford deserved better.
November 02 2022:
Yes: I have re-entered your olden haunts at last;
Through the years, through the dead scenes I have tracked you;
What have you now found to say of our past -
Many years ago, when I was a teenager, my father read this book and was very moved by the story. I read it too, and like the Hardy poem the author quotes, I've felt haunted by this story for a long time, even after forgetting the name of the book and the names of the main characters.
Well, now I've revisited these olden haunts only to find the book as painful as ever because hidden in the mystery, suspense, and murder thriller is the core of betrayal, regret, and irredeemable loss.
The story starts with Martin Radford. he's a former teacher and maybe journalist who isn't doing much with his life when he receives an invitation to visit a friend in Madeira. While there, he meets a rich South African businessman named Leo Sellick. Sellick has in his possession a journal belonging to a forgotten Edwardian politician, a man named Edwin Strafford who was briefly a member of Asquith's cabinet. There are mysteries in the journal, like why Strafford lost his cabinet post as well as the woman he loved in a possible conspiracy, but how was it achieved and by whom exactly? And why does Strafford's dissolute friend Gerald Couchman benefit so much from his downfall, gaining both favor with Strafford's political enemies and even marrying Elizabeth Latimer, the woman Strafford loved?
Martin returns to England and starts to investigate. His research takes him to the Couchmans who are his ex-inlaws, and who all hate him, with the exception of the now elderly Elizabeth, to Oxford, where he meets the alluring Eve Randall, a historian who is interested in Strafford connection to the suffragettes, and to Barrowteign, Edwin Strafford's childhood home where his beloved nephew Ambrose, now an old man, still lives. Martin also returns to his past, to the sex scandal that put an end to his teaching career, and beneath all the betrayals, lies, coverups, and finally murder, he slowly uncovers what happened to Edwin Strafford.
Why did I think it was important to read this book again? Because my feelings about it have remained unresolved for two decades. How could a man so good, kind, and noble as Edwin be so betrayed? What kind of love does not even give the benefit of the doubt, does not even offer the chance for an explanation? So for the second time, I've read this book and my feelings remain unresolved. After this second read, I'm angry at all the characters for what they did to Edwin, and for thinking that any of the fruits of those betrayals were worth protecting. I hate that people kept preying on Edwin's goodness and his love for Elizabeth, and it tears me apart that someone he loved so much never even stopped to ask herself 'what if.'
5/5 Recommend. The book starts a bit slow, but generally picks up once the journals have been read. A five star read, if only for the emotions it evokes. Edwin Strafford deserved better.
September 14, 2011
My first RG book was "Sight Unseen", picked up on a whim in a supermarket and enjoyed. Recently I came upon 6 of his books in a 3 for £5 promotion in Morrisons... so obviously I had to buy all 6 for £10! I decided to start with RG's first novel, the one I'm reviewing now. Martin, the narrator/protaganist, turns out to be a pretty pathetic chap. Despite being well qualified and having both teacher and historian on his CV, he is naive, gullible and misses some pretty obvious clues. Knowing that RG is an excellent writer, I guess I should give him credit for creating a flawed, vulnerable character rather than putting it down to him fitting the character to the story while finding his feet. To be fair, Past Caring is played out by an eclectic cast of well drawn characters, so perhaps my observations about Martin, who after all is quite likeable, are mischievous and unfair.
The story can be described as a historical mystery, starting with Martin in the late 1970s as a bit of a scrounging layabout. He visits a friend on the island of Madeira where he meets a rich South African who occupies the former residence of Edwin Strafford, a Cabinet minister in the early 20th century. We jump back in time as Martin reads Strafford's secret memoirs, which provide few answers but throw up many questions. Before long, he is back in England to solve the mystery behind the memoirs.
The more Martin discovers, the further the mystery deepens, as theories are arrived at then discarded. The reader is drawn in and becomes desperate to know the answers, but RG cleverly prods Martin in the wrong direction and keeps us in suspense. The plot weaves rather than twists and turns, but even at this early stage in his career, RG knows how to spin a good yarn and I was enthralled throughout. Good job really, after I bought all those books of his! Anyone who enjoys a good English mystery, particularly with a bit of history thrown in, should love Past Caring - as long as you can cope with a protaganist who's a bit slow on the uptake.
The story can be described as a historical mystery, starting with Martin in the late 1970s as a bit of a scrounging layabout. He visits a friend on the island of Madeira where he meets a rich South African who occupies the former residence of Edwin Strafford, a Cabinet minister in the early 20th century. We jump back in time as Martin reads Strafford's secret memoirs, which provide few answers but throw up many questions. Before long, he is back in England to solve the mystery behind the memoirs.
The more Martin discovers, the further the mystery deepens, as theories are arrived at then discarded. The reader is drawn in and becomes desperate to know the answers, but RG cleverly prods Martin in the wrong direction and keeps us in suspense. The plot weaves rather than twists and turns, but even at this early stage in his career, RG knows how to spin a good yarn and I was enthralled throughout. Good job really, after I bought all those books of his! Anyone who enjoys a good English mystery, particularly with a bit of history thrown in, should love Past Caring - as long as you can cope with a protaganist who's a bit slow on the uptake.
June 2, 2021
What an apt title. Describes me after about a quarter of the way in.
This novel is having an identity crisis, it doesn't know if it's a political "thriller", a family saga, (about an unspeakably unpleasant family) or a love story. Whichever it's supposed to be, it fails miserably.
Page after page of dull historical discussion (I studied this period for A level history and can't say Lloyd George and Asquith have ever seemed to me to be likely protagonists of anything "thrilling") not even livened up by the writer's strange attempt at shoehorning a suffragette or two into the narrative and saved only by being marginally less dull than the (seemingly endless) memoir that half the book is taken up with.
Only three female leads in a sea of grey indistinguishable blokes all speaking like something out of the 1950s rather than the 1970s, and one of them is a laughable caricature of "femme fatale" (whose clothes seem to be the most interesting thing to write about for the author) while another was a wild suffragette who seems to have morphed into a sweet old lady of the type you find in a Rosamund Pilcher.
The utterly ridiculous sex scene should be nominated for one of those worst descriptions in a book prize. Excruciatingly bad.
I read In Pale Battalions years ago, but this one may well be my last RG.
This novel is having an identity crisis, it doesn't know if it's a political "thriller", a family saga, (about an unspeakably unpleasant family) or a love story. Whichever it's supposed to be, it fails miserably.
Page after page of dull historical discussion (I studied this period for A level history and can't say Lloyd George and Asquith have ever seemed to me to be likely protagonists of anything "thrilling") not even livened up by the writer's strange attempt at shoehorning a suffragette or two into the narrative and saved only by being marginally less dull than the (seemingly endless) memoir that half the book is taken up with.
Only three female leads in a sea of grey indistinguishable blokes all speaking like something out of the 1950s rather than the 1970s, and one of them is a laughable caricature of "femme fatale" (whose clothes seem to be the most interesting thing to write about for the author) while another was a wild suffragette who seems to have morphed into a sweet old lady of the type you find in a Rosamund Pilcher.
The utterly ridiculous sex scene should be nominated for one of those worst descriptions in a book prize. Excruciatingly bad.
I read In Pale Battalions years ago, but this one may well be my last RG.
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