Coach English - Nine Coaches Waiting

Nine Coaches Waiting is a romantic thriller by Mary Stewart, a British author. Usually, such books are not considered educative. However, a Mary Stewart can be a way to skim through classical English literature not only painlessly but with thrills and romance.

Still very popular, though first published in 1958, fast moving, griping, the novel is full of references to classical English writers. The title is inspired by lines in a drama from Shakespeare's times. Quotes from that play open nine of the twenty-nine chapters of the book. 

Those "coach" chapters involve travels by car, crucial to the story - the Ninth Coach is the last chapter. Car chases involving Bentleys and Mercedes are a highlight of Mary's mysteries.

Now, let's not put the coach before the horse and let's cut to the chase to tell you what it's all about. Linda Martin is going to the Château Valmy, a castle in France. 

Château De Menthon-Saint-Bernard Castle France by Pixaline

There, she will be governess to Philippe, a nine year old French aristocrat. She's only twenty-three. In the olden days, in England, rich people hired such ladies to tutor and look after their children.

Linda had lived in France, as her mother was French, until she lost her parents in a plane crash when she was only fourteen and was sent to an orphanage in England as her father was English. He was also a poet and this is another familiar theme in a Mary Stewart, besides the car chases. Somebody or the other, in her books, is a literary figure. 

When the novel opens, she has been working as a badly paid teacher. She is lonely, without family and friends. And this is why she is excited about the position in France. She was hired by the boy's aunt and, felt that, as the lady wanted an English person, she should not reveal her true background.

Since the boy is also an orphan, Linda feels a bond. After his parents' deaths, the child lived with an uncle, Léon de Valmy, an archaeologist who, due to the nature of his work, has only recently come into the boy's life.  And is now in a wheelchair. He is very dominating and Linda feels he can read her mind.

The aunt, Héloïse, is cold and the little boy is quiet, serious and well behaved. Some of the staff of the Chateau are friendly to Linda and others are not. The atmosphere is tense.

Linda, who had been excited to return to France, feels lonely. And, naturally, when Leon's son, Raoul, arrives and begins to take her out and more, she feels as if Prince Charming has come into her life. However, many accidents happen to young Philippe and Linda becomes suspicious. She takes matters into her own hands and flees from the castle with the child. She goes to an English friend, a man called William Blake, and hides in his cabin. It's a very scary part of the book.

Mary Stewart sets her action in very scenic locations. Here, we have the beautiful mountains of a part of France near Switzerland. The author will make you want to visit the area with her fine descriptions, including that of the famous Lac Leman.

Lac Leman, Delachaussée
CC BY-SA 3.0

The story will remind some of Jane Eyre. There are also Cinderella elements with the romance between a kind of lord and a common woman. The aristocrat in question, is, however, somewhat sinister, though also a Prince Charming.

Suspense, love, adventure in all kinds of adventurous terrain - what more can you ask for? Just the kind of book to curl up with this monsoon! Click the book cover at the top of this post to preview the book.

In Mary Stewart's own words, here's her recipe for her evergreen bestsellers: 

I take conventionally bizarre situations (the car chase, the closed-room murder, the wicked uncle tale) and send real people into them, normal, everyday people with normal, everyday reactions to violence and fear; people not 'heroic' in the conventional sense, but averagely intelligent men and women who could be shocked or outraged into defending, if necessary, with great physical bravery, what they held to be right.

theguardian.com

The novel is so well liked that many re-read it every year! 

From France, we travel next to Greece with My Brother Michael:  

Nothing ever happens to me. 

I wrote the words slowly, looked at them for a moment with a little sigh, then put my ballpoint pen down on the café table and rummaged in my handbag for a cigarette.

 As I breathed the smoke in I looked about me. It occurred to me, thinking of that last depressed sentence in my letter to Elizabeth, that enough was happening at the moment to satisfy all but the adventure-hungry. That is the impression that Athens gives you. Everyone is moving, talking, gesticulating - but particularly talking.

My Brother Michael