Isabel Allende

So much light. I woke at 4.30, dozed till 5.30 having nightmares in which I was trying to put books up for auction on ebay but things kept going wrong, finally gave in and got up. Fought with the hose that is supposed to be rewindable but keeps coming unhinged and driving me likewise. There isn't really any need to water yet as we are having heavy haars, nearly as good as rain, but I have put in a few bedding plants that need cossetting. Whilst I was sprinkling them I noticed a hole where one of the plants with tiny little blue flowers - gentian - was earthed last Sunday. Where has it gone? I can only think some wretched bird has beautified its nest with it. Gulls will fly off with just about anything and the couple who have decided to cement their relationship by building a nest and establishing property rights on the roof I see from my bedroom skylight were tearing great chunks of moss from a neighbours' shed roof yesterday.

This has nothing to do with Isabel Allende but is working up to my breakfast time, when I sat out in the back yard with coffee and her book 'Ines of My Soul.' (Ines should have an acute accent on the 'e' and it's really annoying me that I can't do that..) Normally I hate historical novels especially C16 century, and especially anything to do with the Spaniards and their conquests - such brutal times. On the other hand I have always enjoyed Allende, each time against my expectations, so I thought I'd risk it and the risk was worth it. She is an excellent storyteller and this is an epic tale. The horrors are there in almost every page but she doesn't wallow in them, she deals with them, as does her eponymous heroine, and moves on. Ines was the only Spanish woman to accompany the conquistadors who founded Chile; she was a real character who appears in accounts of the times as the mistress of Pedro De Valdivia, but has left no writings of her own. To survive as she did she must have had the intelligence, determination, humour, strength that Allende endows her with. She must also have had in her the pioneering spirit and ambitions as strong as the men she bedded. She follows her man for love as he set out to claim the fabled riches of the New World, their blood beating with the the lust for gold and land, for founding cities and an empire and she never falters from her role as supporter and helpmeet. Ines enables Allende to express the vision and the chaos of that time, through the eyes of a woman who began her journey as an escape from the suffocating restrictions that Spanish women had to endure and travelled alone in a time when it was unheard of for a woman to do such a thing. When Pedro's affections inexplicably wane she doesn't crumble as many would have done, she accepts the circumstance and allows herself to recognise the change in her own heart so she can finally wed a man who has loved her from the shadows. As Allende paints her Ines is a warrior as valiant and hot-blooded as her lovers and their ambitions become her own, but she also has the ability to see the terrible cruelties and injustices they inflict on the indigenous peoples and her admiration grows for the Mapuche, a warrior people who love the land but have no wish or need for possessions so they always travel free. Ines, breathed back to life by Allende, is a very inspiring woman.

So different to the book I read just before that one: 'Warlock' by Wilbur Smith. Set in ancient Egypt which always has an appeal for me. Several customers had told me how good it was. I should have noted that they were all men. Smith revels in the horrors. He wallows in them even. Once begun I wanted to finish the story but had to leave out great chunks because I could see they were going to be nightmarish. That's the last time I try HIS novels.