Books - Review

The story of Griet, a young girl living in Delft, who becomes the new maid at Vermeer's house. Vermeer lives with his not very nice wife and his children (also not very nice), and his mother-in-law, who is a good egg. Anyway, Vermeer struggles a bit to make money, as he only paints very slowly, and then his patron insists on having a painting of Griet because he fancies her. The famous pearl earring gets borrowed from Vermeer's wife (without her knowledge) and she gets very annoyed when she sees the painting. Fortunately Griet can go off and marry the butcher's son anyway.

Very good. Great little story of jealousies and envy together with interesting facts about how to make paint in 17th Century Delft. Read this on the plane to Southampton.

Young Victorian girl growing up just after the death of Queen Victoria (so she's Edwardian really, not Victorian). Lives near a cemetery, has weird friend, angel on grave, parents are unhappy - he makes her go to wife-swapping - she decides to be a feminist instead...

Quite entertaining but seemed a tad contrived. Nice easy read though.