The starter book this month is The Lottery and other Stories by Shirley Jackson, a collection of chilling short stories. Her other novels include the well known We Have Always Lived in the Castle, The Haunting of Hill House and The Bird’s Nest.
The Birds and Other Stories by Daphne Du Maurier, the atmospheric and haunting tale of birds that turn, has been immortalised for many by Alfred Hitchcock which sees Tippi Hedren hounded by hundreds of avians.
Stella Gibbons is of course famous for Cold Comfort Farm, which sees orphan Flora having to descend on distant cousins on their farm, and soon finds herself taking the Starkadders in hand.
Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford is the sequel to The Persuit of Love and sees Polly shun her mother’s intentions to marry well and elopes with her uncle.
Six Degrees of Separation is the brainchild of Kate from Books Are My Favourite and My Best. Each month there is a different starter book and through six books, with what can be, on my part, extremely tenuous links, you see which book you end up at.
Which brings us finally to Pollyanna by Eleanor H Porter. This children’s classic sees Pollyanna go to live with her stern aunt. Slowly she wins over the surly neighbours with her positivity.
The Flight by Julie Clark sees humans being airbourne as two women meet in an airport and decide to swop lives. Things of course are not as they seem as one woman doesn’t make it back to solid ground.
So there we have it from The Lottery to Pollyanna in six halting steps. Have you read any of these books? Where would your degrees of separation take you?
Planes don’t fly themselves which leads us onto The Pilot’s Wife by Anita Shreve. In it Kathryn is woken to the news that her husband’s plane has been involved in a fatal crash. Rumours begin to emerge about her spouse and Kathryn uncovers secrets as she strives to protect his memory. Shreve’s back catalogue also includes Fortune’s Rocks and The Lives of Stella Bain.
