Companion piece
Catherine Czerkawska’s new romantic tale from the fictional island of Garve has plenty of literary heft, writes Jane Bradley
Thirteen years after the success of The Curiosity Cabinet, which was published shortly after being shortlisted for the Dundee Book Prize in 2005, Catherine Czerkawska has written something which, while in her own words, “isn’t quite a sequel”, has definite links to what is perhaps her best-known work.
Set on the same fictional Scottish island of Garve, The Posy Ring runs along similar lines to the Ayrshirebased author’s previous book. In this latest novel, antiques dealer Daisy Graham visits the island to see a rambling property which has been left to her by her estranged grandmother, Viola. While there, she meets twinkly-eyed Cal Galbraith,whose family own a large antiques shop in Glasgow.
As the pair begin a burgeoning romance while sifting through Daisy’s grandmother’s house, they come across a mysterious and ancient ring – the “Posy Ring” of the title. In a series of chapters running parallel to the main story, we hear about a pair of 16th century cousins who end up on the island in the wake of the Spanish Armada. One of them falls in love with the daughter of the laird, to whom he gives the ring.
In many ways, it is difficult to mark out significant differences between this latest work and The Curiosity Cabinet, which tells the story of Alys Miller, who returns to Garve after many years, where she is reunited with childhood friend Donal Mcneill. As the pair begin a burgeoning romance, they investigate the origins of the “curiosity cabinet” of the title... you see where this is going. There is even a parallel story set hundreds of years earlier about a young woman who originally owned the cabinet.
Yet this is not necessarily a bad thing, and for dedicated fans of Czerkawska’s work, it is a positive boon. Readers clamoured for more stories of Garve after the Curiosity Cabinet was published and it is testament to Czerkawska’s dedication to her other projects (she is a published poet, screenwriter and playwright alongside her handful of novels and non-fiction works, including a history of the isle of Gigha) – that she has left it this long.
Indeed, many authors stick to a format – and why not? Fellow Scots romance writer Jenny Colgan’s stories of young, quirky women working in the media who leave the big city to set up a food-related business by the beach or deep in the country, never fail to be top sellers. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
And this novel – the first of a series of three books in the “Annals of Flowerfield” series to be published by Saraband – is a step above the norm in terms of its literary merit.
Czerkawska says that when starting out she was told that her books were “too well written to be really popular but not nearly experimental enough to be really literary” – and, although she says she had to “pick [herself ] up off the floor”, that is probably a fairly accurate assessment.
Her writing is far better than that of most romantic fiction – or indeed, historical fiction – authors, with a lyricism which conjours up vivid pictures of the island landscape and a sparse, readable style which drives the plot along.
However, there is nothing too surprising about the storyline and Czerkawska occasionally tends towards cliché. Cal, like every modern romantic hero, is proved to be a big softy beneath his tough exterior when he introduces Daisy to his pet dog, while she is from a Bohemian family. Meanwhile, the old Edinburghglasgow chestnut rears its head when Daisy, who was once mugged on the streets of the Capital, tells us that she “generally feels safe in the middle of Glasgow where people don’t walk on by, but can by relied on to help”. The odd jarring cliché aside, The
Posy Ring will undoubtedly do well: it is a solid and enjoyable novel, with a likeable cast of characters.