Xmas Adventures & Xmas Market

The special CiB meme ‘Xmas scenes from books, accompanied by carefully chosen pictures’ is back!

Every year I do a series of Xmas entries on the blog, helped and encouraged by suggestions and recommendations from my lovely readers. If you use Pinterest you can see some of the beautiful seasonal pictures on this page, and you can find (endless!) more Xmas books via the labels at the bottom of the page. You’d think I’d be running out of Xmas books and scenes by now, but far from it – I have to begin this feature earlier in December each year. More ideas still welcome in the comments. (If it’s a particularly good choice I will ditch one of the ones I have ready and give you credit…)



Trojan Gold by Elizabeth Peters


published 1988



Trojan Gold Xmas Market



Weihnachten [the Christmas period] in Bavaria is lots of fun. Streets and shops were strung with greens; Christmas trees sparkled in every square and plaza. The Kristkindlemarkt was in full swing, as it had been for over 150 years; booths and stands crowded the square under the shadow of der Alte peter, who is not an elderly gentleman but an elderly church. In the evening, lanterns and candles and strings of rainbow lights shone like fallen stars in the blue dusk, and trumpeters on the church tower played the old carols; the clear bright notes drifted down like music from heaven, blending with the gently falling snow. Every variety of Christmas decoration was for sale, from gilded gingerbread to handmade ornaments; and I lingered at the booths featuring the lovely carved creches. I couldn’t afford any of the ones I wanted, so I bought Pfeffernusse and sugared almonds and a gilded branch strung with hard candies – a kindly compromise of the old legend in which the saint brings sweeties to the good little children and switches to the naughty ones.



commentary: This was a recommendation from last year’s comments section on one of the Christmas books – staunch blogfriend Daniel Milford Cottam recommended it after reading this post. You have to scroll to the end: it’s a long way down, and Daniel had already by this time already recommended a couple of others, including Mistletoe and Murder by Carola Dunn (yes, coming soon). [He is also responsible for  Sunday’s entry, on  Bad Santa in the Jane books by Evadne Price.]

Elizabeth Peters was a very prolific and popular author – she died in 2013, though a few leftover manuscripts are still being completed and published. She is probably most famous for her Amelia Peabody Egyptology crime stories, but she also wrote these contemporary art history books, with narrator/heroine Vicky Bliss -  described thus on Wiki:
The Vicky Bliss novels follow the adventures of an American professor of art history, who keeps getting involved in international crime, and her love interest, a charming art thief known as Sir John Smythe.
I read a Peters book every few years, and always enjoy them, without being pushed to read more. This was a light-hearted romp with a large cast of characters chasing each other around Bavaria at Christmas-time: they are wondering about Trojan Goldthe fate of some gold recovered by Heinrik Schliemann in his Trojan excavations: this very gold here shown draped on his wife Sophia.

The book is nicely seasonal: there are snow-covered villages, little inns, olde-worlde craftsmen, and lots of villainous and untrustworthy characters. There are slightly slapstick ensemble scenes, which I’m not so fond of, and sometimes the crime plot is sacrificed to jokes and humour: I’m not sure I was really keeping up with the plot at all times, so I may be to blame. But she was a good strong 80s heroine: I kept trying to work out what it was that made her so very much of her time, but couldn’t decide. She had elements in common with the wonderful Nina from the Marissa Piesman books.

Altogether a good Christmas read.

Christmas Market picture from Wikimedia Commons.

Sophia Schliemann (née Engastromenos) wearing treasures recovered at Hisarlik















Comments

  1. I love Peters' other series but could never get into the Vicky Bliss books. I think the only Amelia Peabody story that is even vaguely Christmas-y is He Shall Thunder in the Sky but it is set at Christmas in 1914 so it's quite dark with war happenings and so on - not much seasonal cheer to be had :)

    I have been to the Bavarian Kristkindlemarkt - probably the only year I wasn't a Christmas grinch - even I (not a big fan of Christmas) had to admit it was all very beautiful.

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    1. Even a shoddy Xmas market looks beautiful lit up at twilight! We have a nice one in my town, and even though I am not in general susceptible to Christmas goings-on, it does look gorgeous in the evening (and is not at all shoddy).

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  2. I have the same response to the Peters books that you do. I've enjoyed the ones that I've read, but she's not the sort of writer that inspires me to go out and buy all of her stuff. Never even seen any of the Vicky Bliss series (her name is dangerously close to the Cockney rhyming slang, and I can't believe that it was deliberate).

    There has been a German Xmas market nearby to me for a few years now. It's really the case that it's like a normal British Xmas market but with lots of German sausage and all the market holders telling you that it's 'A German market.....REALLY!!!

    ggary

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    1. Yes, there's a level of author that you just - read occasionally. I sometimes use this catchy category: 'Not someone you would seek out, but if you were stuck in a B &B overnight with nothing to read, you'd be happy enough to find one on the shelf'.
      It is so memorable I don't know why it hasn't caught on as a description.

      The market near me has the advantage that they don't even pretend it is German. But I do have lovely memories of having German sausage and a German beer at 11 am at the Manchester market more than 10 years ago. It felt very transgressive and cosmopolitan (the markets weren't at all common then) and it was the day after a Bob Dylan concert at the Manchester Arena. We were all young once. (Bob would understand).

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  3. I like Peters' work, Moira, and it's nice to see one here. One of the things I like about her writing is that she was good at evoking a real sense of place and atmosphere. That shows here, just in the little snippet you've shared. It's good to be reminded of her work.

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    1. Yes, Margot, I think that too, I will try to read some more of her.

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  4. I have read a few books in the Amelia Peabody series and have a couple of Vicky Bliss books, which I may try some day.

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    1. I didn't really take to Amelia Peabody - I'd be more likely to read another in this series in fact.

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    2. I stopped at the point in the Amelia Peabody where she has a son, maybe 5th or 6th book. I really did not like her son.

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    3. I didn't get that far! Amelia annoyed me. This series suits me better...

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    4. I did try reading one of the later Peabody books, but grown-up Ramses is.... intolerable. I have to agree with this, I enjoyed the earlier ones I read just fine, but grown-up Ramses put me off persevering with the series, knowing that THAT was incubating.

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  5. The book DOES have great sleepwear in it! There is one pair of pyjamas I really wish I could see for myself, because they just sound so utterly extaordinary....

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    1. Oh dear, poor Ramses is obviously a horrible child if both you and Tracy dislike him. So which book has the good pyjamas in....?

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  6. Daniel Milford-Cottam19 December 2017 at 21:59

    This one. I'm sure I recall a scene where the sleazy guy drunkenly tries to get friendly with Vicky Bliss while wearing a pair of novelty print pyjamas that sound positively extraordinary....

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    1. Right yes, now I'm with you, you are right (I read it a little in advance!) but I think couldn't find the appropriate pic for PJs...

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