SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION From The Road to The Keys of the Kingdom

The first Saturday of the month is time to play Six Degrees of Separation. 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.

This month we're starting with Cormac McCarthy's The Road. It is a book I haven't read as I'm not a great fan of post apocalyptic novels. I'm quite happy to read about death and destruction in historical wars, but an apocalyptic war and its aftermath is not for me.

However, back in high school, I did pick up a post apocalyptic novel. This was On the Beach by Neville Shute, which was set in
1963 Melbourne. I was in my mid teens and living there at the time, so it did disturb me somewhat. Many years later I sat through the 2000 film adaptation starring Brian Brown and Rachel Ward. While not as disturbing as my initial reading of the novel, it left me feeling very sad.

My next book is a Victorian murder mystery also set in Melbourne and adapted for film. The Mystery of a Hansom Cab by Fergus Hume was published in 1886 and the television film released in 2012. Hume was a prolific writer, with over 100 novels and short stories published.

Catherine Cookson, too, wrote over 100 novels, many of which were turned into films. I've read some of her novels including the first of her books to make it to television. The Fifteen Streets starred Sean Bean and Owen Teale. The novel is set in Tyneside, Newcastle, in the early 1900s. It is about two young people, from different social classes, who fall in love.


Unlike Catherine Cookson, Georgette Heyer, out of 55 novels, only had one make it to the screen. This was The Reluctant Widow published in 1946. Set in 1813, a governess, by accident, arrives at a Sussex estate, is coerced into marriage and is widowed all in one night, and also becomes involved with Napoleonic spies.

Another novel published in 1946 was The Turquoise by Anya Seton. While this wasn't made into a film, another of her novels was. Dragonwyck, a gothic romance set in 1844, tells the story of a Connecticut farm girl, who accepts a position as a companion and goes to live with her wealthy cousin on his estate in Hudson, New York. She falls in love with both the mansion and the cousin. The 1950 film starred Gene Tierney and Vincent Price.

Vincent Price is the link to my final book. Alongside Gregory Peck, he starred in The Keys of the Kingdom, a 1944 film based on the novel of the same name by A.J. Cronin. In the novel, a young Scottish priest, Father Francis Chisholm (played by Peck in the film), finds his ideologies at odds with the teachings of the Catholic Church and is sent to China to establish a mission. The narrative spans 60 years, from Chisholm's early life in late 19th century Scotland, the years of his missionary in China and his final years back in Scotland on the eve of World War II.


As you can see, I've dusted off a few older novels for today's post. My chain has taken me from post-apocalyptic America, to Australia, England, back to America, to Scotland and China. Where did your chain take you?

Next month (June 6, 2020), we're starting with Normal People by Sally Rooney.