The Onion Stone [Kindle Edition]

`People love their mysteries' thinks one of Mandy Pannett's characters in The Onion Stone, and her novel holds several of them. What was the nature of the relationship, dating back to their university years in the 1930s, of Ardie, Frances and the third member of their triangle, their friend Ellis? How are the consequences of that relationship playing out in the present? Who will win the ultimate prize and write the book revealing the real Shakespeare? Can Ardie's new assistant, Henry Shakspeare, be the great playwright's true descendant? And, in a second narrative made up of extracts from letters and journals, snaking through the first, we have the Tudor mystery itself: who was the real Shakespeare? Working through multiple voices, internal and external, past and present, the author leads us through the puzzle.
Mandy Pannett is a published poet and she clearly revels in sixteenth century prose, which glitters with the rich imagery reminiscent of literature of that period. Her writing fully inhabits the world of Tudor England without falling into the trap of heavy pastiche. She has a light touch and her use of short chapters and good pacing pulls the reader effortlessly towards the final revelations.
Themes are reflected back and forth between the time spans. We think of the Tudor era as a time of intrigue yet a leading university college may hold ambitions equally intense within its walls today. A noble lady in an arranged marriage in the sixteenth century may have had less freedom than a highly educated twentieth century woman, yet both have to manoeuvre within their social confines. Themes of envy, rivalry, love and disillusion are reflected in both eras and the passions of the past still have an impact down the centuries. This novel of just under 200 pages encompasses a greater expanse of time and ideas than many much heavier tomes, while remaining a highly enjoyable novel.

I've known Mandy for a long while now online as a superlative poet; well known for both her intensely erudite yet accessible poetry that draws its inspiration from the earliest poets to the modern day, and also as a respected and sought after judge for poetry competitions. I had no idea she wrote prose as well. If I'd thought about it, I'd have assumed she would write absorbing text books on Anglo Saxon poetic forms, or maybe intriguing new insights into Shakespeare's sonnets. I'd have been part right, as `The Onion Stone' has the age old question of who really wrote William Shakespeare's works as one of its themes, but it is so much more than merely a re-hash of the latest theories woven into some sort of a detective story. Goodness knows enough authors have been down that road. No, what Mandy Pannett does here is something quite different. She has created an utterly absorbing tale of two women; Anne Cecil and Frances Goodbody; one young but centuries old, the other elderly but living today. Both have to deal with monsters - Anne with Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford, and Frances with her appalling husband Ardie, along with an old lover who has his own streak of destructiveness - Ellis. Ardie and Ellis were friends (or thought they were) in their youth, but a combination of professional and personal jealousy has soured them and turned the once brilliant young men into vicious old ones. And then there's Gilbert, but you'll find no spoilers here, so I won't say any more about him. Amongst the intriguing dramatis personae there is also the somewhat creepy Henry Shakspeare in the present day, and the long suffering William Cecil, Lord Burghley, in the past, who for me is one of the more sympathetic characters.

So what happens when a poet writes a novel? Does she slip into rhyming couplets? Become wholly obscure? No, not even slightly. The poet creeps into the writing through the sense of place, the wonderful though brief descriptions of Sussex, Warwickshire, London etc. This feel for the countryside along with the pace of the story-telling put me in mind, quite randomly, of Margery Allingham. On the other hand, the depth of characterisation is much more Iris Murdoch. And running through it all, there's more than a hint of Virginia Woolf. Three very different writers. Put them together, stir well, and out comes Mandy Pannett wearing her novelist's hat.

The only problem I have with this book is the length. It is far too short. I wanted it to be four times as long so that all the themes could be developed further. I wanted more scenes in both the present and the past; I particularly wanted to witness conversations between Anne and Gilbert, and between Anne and Edward, but in a little under 200 pages, there just isn't room. I wanted to read Frances' book. Maybe Mandy will write that next. And I definitely wanted to give Ardie and Ellis a good slap.

I know Mandy Pannett as a versatile and dextrous poet, so I was curious to see how her skills would transfer to the novel form. I wasn't disappointed. In a sense the main story here is the backdrop against which several subtly overlapping narratives play out like a Shakespearean drama. It's a book about love, rivalry, masculine competitiveness and the sacrifices women make in service to it, and the potential for betrayal that lurks in every friendship or close acquaintance. The writer's poetic skill comes out in the pitch-perfect rendering of Elizabethan language, the artful dialogue and deft observations. Like Cathy, my main complaint was that the book was too short: so much is packed into 200 pages that it leaves you slightly breathless at the end and with possibly a few more questions in your head than a novel should leave. But if you want a story that combines page-turning intrigue with a keen eye for life's real mysteries, look no further.