SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION: From Sanditon to Khaki Town

It's the first Saturday of the month and time to play Six Degrees of Separation, the final one for 2019. This meme is hosted by Kate of Books Are My Favourite and Best. The aim is to link six books to each other from the starting point.

Today's starting point is Sanditon by Jane Austen. Again we're starting with a book I haven't read. It's not one I'm interested in reading at this stage, but I'm looking forward to the TV series. Jane Austen died before she could finish this book.

A number of authors have died leaving unfinished works, but the one that sprang to mind immediately
was Charles Dickens. Dickens died in 1870 leaving The Mystery of Edwin Drood unfinished.

My next link takes me to The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas. This classic I first read in primary school and have re-read it a number of times since then. Dumas also died in 1870.

From here, sticking with the military theme and the number three, I'm linking to The Three Colonels by Jack Caldwell. This is fan fiction featuring two colonels from Jane Austen's books, Colonel Christopher Brandon (Sense and Sensibility) and Colonel Richard Fitzwilliam (Pride and Prejudice), and a character created by Caldwell, Colonel Sir John Buford. The three colonels are recalled to duty when Napoleon escapes from Elba. The Napoleonic Wars take me to my next book.


Artist on Campaign by Caroline Miley is set in the year 1809. Ralph Oughtred is given a commission to paint portraits of Wellington's generals. They have all been deployed to Portugal and Spain, which leaves Ralph with no other choice but to follow them. This book combines art and history in a very unique and entertaining way.

Another novel that combines art and history, though not as lighthearted, is The Portrait of Mollie Dean by Katherine Kovacic. Mollie Dean, the muse of famous Australian artist Colin Colahan, was murdered in Melbourne in 1930. The murder remains unsolved to this day, but Kovacic presents a very plausible scenario of why Mollie was murdered and by whom.

At this point, I was stumped for my final link and went off to do some household chores, with the words Melbourne and murder running through my mind. As is usually the case, a break clears the head and I came back realising that my next link had been right there in the book description of Kovacics' novel: "An unsolved murder comes to light after seventy years ..."

A novel I finished recently, Judy Nunn's latest Khaki Town, also features the words seventy years in its description. The inspiration for Nunn's novel was " ... a wartime true story which the Government kept secret for over seventy years."


This month, my chain has taken me from a fishing village on the south coast of England to a coastal city in northern Queensland, Australia. As always, it's been fun getting here. Where will your chain take you?

Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Read is next month's starting point.