Adventures in Literature - 2022
The Adventures in Literature Group - Favourite Books of 2022
Christine chose 'If We Were Villians' by M.L. Rio
This a debut novel published in 2017. It is a murder mystery centred around a tightly knit group of seven Shakespearean thespians studying at a fictional elite arts academy in Illiinois. So tightly knit and pretentious are this group that they shun those outside this inner circle and communicate between themselves using Shakespearean quotes.
In the plays the group are always cast as the characters having the same personality traits as their own. However, for the annual Halloween performance the status quo is dropped and some of the re-cast main characters upstage the original “stars”. This results in elements of the (tragedy) plays spilling over into real life with the resultant tragic death of one of the group.
Detective Colbourne is in charge of the investigation and must pit his wits against the remaining group who are putting on their performances of a lifetime to convince him of their innocence.
Haunting and atmospheric, the novel has all the drama and intrigue of a Shakespeare tragedy. It evokes a sense of impending doom as one witnesses the gradual downward spiral of morality and betrayal. The style of the book takes the form of a play; each Part is an Act with a prologue, followed by Scenes, adding to the melodrama.
I believe the genre this book belongs to is called Dark Academia. It is reminiscent of “The Secret History” by Donna Tart and less so, the “Gentlemen and Players” trilogy by Joanne Harris.
***** from Christine Dove
Chris chose ‘Girl, Woman, Other’, Bernardine Evaristo, 2019
In 2019, Bernardine Evaristo was the first black woman to win the Booker Prize, apparently.
A marvellous kaleidoscope of a novel. About women, yes but also a warm hearted, wide-ranging exploration of human beings.Mostly about women of colour, about ‘intersectionality’ it’s true, but also about what binds people together and what forces them apart. Not a howl of rage, like some books that cover these topics, but a sensitive and deeply sympathetic study of women of all ages and all walks of life.
It is divided into chapters headed by the name of a main character, beginning with Amma, in middle age, on the opening night of her new play, ‘The Amazons of Dahomey’, at the National Theatre. And from the start we get life history, the relationships, the trials and tribulations, the success and failures, the challenges, trials and tribulations. Amma is a black, lesbian, feminist rebel, mellowing now. This kind of sets the theme of the novel. We discover that each character has connections with the previous ones: fiends, acquaintances, relatives, enemies, right up until the last chapter when we meet Penelope. An elderly, prim and proper lady in her early 80s, Penelope discovers, through an Ancestry DNA test that her real mother is Hattie (who we met earlier) of mixed descent. Hattie had Penelope when she was 14 and her father forced her to give the child away to avoid the stigma, especially the father was black.
The prose flows beautifully despite (or perhaps because of) Evaristo using little punctuation and eschewing capital letters at the start of a sentence, favouring instead to start a new line. Sometimes a chapter reads like a case history from a social studies book but mostly the writing sounds like thought. Evaristo is not judgmental; she tells it how it is and we can judge for ourselves. We get gentle reminders that white feminists sideline black women; that gender descriptions are infuriatingly complex and subject to fashion; that racial prejudice still exists; that lesbians (like all human beings) form cliques; that even the most politically correct feminists sometimes find it hard to accept trans women; and so on. It is a list touch though and love shines through everything and it is very moving. Excellent.
*****Chris Shaw, 2/1/23{12th December 2022 ‘Writers from Other Continents’}
Sharon first read David Baldacci’s, ‘True Blue’, an American cop thriller set in Washington. ‘Ridiculous’, was Sharon’s summary. Awful characters, an unbelievable female lead who ends up, clearly outnumbered by Russian assassins, in a massive shoot-out with those terrifying automatic weapons Americans seem to love. ‘A bog-standard’ page-turner. We got the message!
Much more to Sharon’s liking was ’Nine Perfect Strangers’, by Leanne Moriarty, which she thought was brilliant. Nine people attend what they imagine to be a regular health farm/spa in order to sort out their lives. Each character is unique and suffers from different problems and Sharon thought them exceptionally well-drawn by the author. Their experience is not what they expected and becomes more and more sinister, particularly when they are secretly given psychedelic drugs. ‘A good insight into human nature’. Recommended.
Jim chose Africa as his ‘other continent’. He considered J.M. Coetzee, the South African Nobel Prize winner, or Nigerian Chinua Acheba (‘Things Fall Apart’) but instead decided to read a long short story by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche (‘Half of a Yellow Sun’, Americanah’) called ’The Visit’, a strange science fiction world, in which gender roles are reversed, (Women are the dominant ones, men are the weaker ones), part of a series called ’Black Stars’. Jim - I didn’t record whether you would recommend this..
Alison read ’The Girl With the Louding Voice’, by a young Nigerian writer Abi Dare. Dare has been in the UK for 18 years, has a degree in Law and lives in Essex. The novel is narrated by Adoni, in a broken English, that you get used to. At the start of each chapter is a factual extract about Nigeria, that includes the huge size, population and disparity in wealth. An intense, harrowing story - Adoni is sold by her father as the 3rd bride to a rich man. Alison tells us that the author wrote the novel for her teenage daughter to show her the history that many Nigerians prefer to forget.
Sheryl told us about Yoko Agawa’s, ‘The Memory Police’. An unusual, dystopian novel that Sheryl describes as really dark, a ‘grim fairy tale’, that left her feeling disturbed (me too Sheryl!). In this totalitarian society, if the state decides that something must be forgotten (even if inexplicable like, say, birds), most people do forget. The Memory Police enforce this and try to eliminate people who cannot forget. Sheryl supposes that the story is some kind of metaphor, and we had a good discussion about what this must be.
Christine told us about ’The Sorrow of War’, 1994, by Mao Ninh, a Vietnamese writer. Kien, a North Vietnamese soldier during the war in Vietnam, is part of a contingent of soldiers on a post-war mission to collect the bones of fallen comrades. The harrowing narrative is broken by flashbacks of the war and in particular those about his girlfriend who gave up her life to save him. Christine says that the book was originally banned by the Communist party. The author still lives in Hanoi. (The book has an interesting history, reminiscent of Samizdat in USSR. Check on Wikipedia)
Chris has had a difficult reading month with four books on the go. Two by American professor Daniel Dennett*, about the evolution of human consciousness and the controversy this provokes in other philosophers. Much harder going though was, Ben Okri’s, ‘The Famished Road’, 1991. Okra was born in Nigeria but has since become something of a national treasure in the UK for his poetry, novels and short stories. ‘The Famished Road’ won the Booker prize in 1991. The novel is narrated by a young Nigerian boy, Azaro, living in an impoverished village during the civil war. He is a ’spirit child’ and everything Azaro describes is filtered through visions of this spirit world and its accompanying demons, monsters, ghosts, spirits and magical transformations. The real world is often only partially visible through these nightmares but the glimpses provide a child’s eye view of the poverty, squalor, violence and drunkenness of the villagers. These perceptions may be childlike, but the language is educated, poetic and adult. It is this disjunction and the sheer relentless that Chris is finding hard to take. (No sign of a let up on page 575 of 771!)
*Daniel Dennett. ‘Consciousness Explained’, 1991 & ‘From Bacteria to Bach and Back’, 2017.
Chris Shaw 14/12/22
14th November 2022, Celebrity Autobiographies
Margaret read Kate Adie’s, ‘The Kindness of Strangers’, about her experiences as a war correspondent, including during the ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland. Margaret was fascinated by the inclusion social history. Adie was concerned about what was happening to the ordinary people, including some horrific treatment of families and children during wars. She is still hosting the BBC’s regular ‘From Our Own Correspondent’ series on BBC4. Margaret was surprised to be impressed by Russell Brand’s, ‘My Bookie Wook’ an intelligent and observant autobiography which was easy to read and did not appear to have been subject to heavy editing.
Alison didn’t find an appropriate autobiography but instead read a fascinating prize-winning book called ’Square Haunting’, by Francesca Wade, 2020. This is about 5 women, all concerned with the emancipation of women, who at one point lived in Mecklenburgh Square, on the fringes of the radical Bloomsbury. The modernist poet H. D. (Hilda Doolittle), detective novelist Dorothy L. Sayers, classicist Jane Harrison, economic historian Eileen Power, and writer and publisher Virginia Woolf.
Anne did not enjoy David Jason’s, ‘A Del of a Life’ because it was mostly concerned with performances, details of productions and not so much about the author as a person. However, she did enjoy Shappi Khorsandi’s, ‘A Beginners Guide to Acting English’. Khorsandi was born in Tehran in 1973 and moved with her parents to London in 1976. They were both dissidents and exiled after the revolution in 1979. This hilarious autobiography is about her early childhood and life amongst diplomats and dissidents. She is a successful and popular comedian and humanist.
Another comedian was the choice of Martin who read Michael McIntyre’s, ‘Life and Laughing’. Written like one of his stage routines, with punchlines, Martin found himself laughing out loud. He was interested to learn that McIntyre’s father co-wrote scripts for Kenny Everett. A light-hearted story, though it appears that the author might have developed a sense of humour as a defence mechanism.
Sheryl, like most of us, wouldn’t normally read celebrity autobiographies but she found a book by the well known disabled artist, Alison Lapper famous not only for her work but also the sculpture of her that was erected as part of a series in Trafalgar Square and also as a part of the TV series, Child of our Time. This positive and strong-willed limbless artist and mother gave her autobiography the ironic title of ’My Life in My Hands’ and is both heartwarming and shocking.
(Sheryl, we hope you join our group!)
Sharon came across ’Rising to the Surface’, the second autobiography of Lenny Henry. First working the pubs and clubs and comedy circuit - the only black comedian, he got his big break on TV’s ‘New Faces’. Hugely popular as a comedian he has also been successful as a serious stage actor. Having faced racism in most areas of his life, he started his own production company and made sure he hired people from the BME community.
Minnie Driver’s autobiography, ’Managing Expectations’ is a beautifully written and unusual example of the genre. It selectively recalls key moments in her life up to date and the way that she puts her childhood recollections into wonderfully composed adult thoughts seems perfectly natural and believable. She appears to have been a precocious child, but as a grown up has a real grasp of the way that thought processes, speech and writing interact and evolve. Oh. In case you didn’t know, Minnie Driver is an award winning Hollywood film star and singer (She began her ‘show-biz’ career singing with a jazz band). The book ends with an account of her mother’s death. It is very moving. Please read it - Chris
10th October 2022 - Your Favourite Holiday Read
Jim had two holidays (Lucky Jim), the first in Venice where he read a detective mystery, ’The Venetian Game’ by Philip Gwynn, which he described as a ‘light murder’ story. The other break was a few days in Dublin where he read one of a spy trilogy, a thriller set immediately after WWII Dunkirk, from the viewpoint oof the Irish, by Joe Joyce. But Jim’s favourite was, ’Where The Crawdad’s Sing’, by Delia Owen. A young girl, abandoned by her mother in the swamps of South Carolina. She becomes an expert on the geography and natural history of the swamps but is accused of Murder. Recommended by Jim, although the film garnered mixed reviews. Jim also announced the new Robert Harris novel, ’Act of Oblivion’ which takes place in the period after the execution of Charles I, and the restoration of Charles II. Recommended.
Sharon Picked up picked up a Michael Connelly novel in a telephone box book exchange. American crime not normally her choice. The series set in LA is a bit different with different characters in each novel rather than a single central character. She read, Fair Warning. A modern story, easy to read, a page turner about a rebel female cop, investigating the death of a journalist working for a consumer magazine. Recommended.
Anne read Sebastian Faulk’s, ‘Jeeves and The Wedding Bells’. Anne thought this was an enjoyable easy read in the style of P G Wodehouse, that ties up the end of the ‘Jeeves and Wooster’ series.
Alison used BorrowBox to find, ’Shanghai Girls’ by Lisa See’, 2009. She is a Chinese American, well, one-eighth. The story is about two sisters born in Shanghai whose father gambled away their money and decides to send for Chinese American husbands. So the sisters find themselves on Ellis Island where it takes two years to process their immigration. A slice of real 1930’s history at a time when anti-Chinese feelings were high due to the beginnings of Communism. A fascinating page-turner. There is a sequel called ’Dreams of Joy.’
Alison is also a fan of Donna Leon who writes the detective series set in Venice. Donna Leon is an American who now lives in Switzerland and has produces four novels in the last four years!
Chris didn’t go away on holiday this year but points out that being retired is pretty much like being on a self-catering holiday all the time anyway! He has been reading and re-reading one of his favourite authors, Nicola Barker. This is an author whose books are very much rooted in the English landscape and life on the margins, both physically (around the Thames Estuary and the South Coast for example) and psychologically (her characters are often on the margins of society). Otherwise Barker defies classification, which is maybe why her books are popular mostly in literary circles. Her latest novel, ’I am Sovereign’, takes place entirely in a period of 20 minutes during which time an estate agent is showing a Chinese lady and her daughter around a house owned by Charles, a 40 year old bespoke Teddy Bear maker. It is both fascinating and hilarious. The book that first drew Chris to Nicola Barker was ’Behindlings’, 2002. For a full review and list of Barker’s novels click here.
CJS 15/10/22
12th September Utopias/Dystopias 12th September
Alison told us about 'The History of Bees' by Maja Lunde, 2022. A moving novel set at three different points in history. In 1851 an English author, William Broughton Carr (who invented a new type of beehive, the 'WBC') first noticed a problem when all the worker bees suddenly died and were not replaced. Although this type of hive is now rarely used, in 2007 a bee farmer in the USA called George (related to Carr's daughter Charlotte) suffered with 'Colony Collapse Disorder', or CCD. His son Tom set to work writing the history of bees. Shifting to China in 2089 for the final part, we find women paid to pollinate fruit trees by hand, backbreaking work, necessary because all the bees have died out. But this tough life is nothing to what the young pollinator's family finds when they move to Beijing, to see if they might be allowed another child. A devastated city, deserted houses, people dying with no-one to take care of them. So this is the dystopia, where the collapse of the bee colonies is mirrored by the collapse of human civilisation. A warning.
Jim had already read Margaret Atwood's dystopian, 'The Handmaid's Tale' but told us instead about the Spring's Book Club choice, 'Free: Coming of Age at the End of History', by Lea Ypi. When the Soviet Union Collapsed, many of the people who lived in the former Soviet countries, including Le Ypi's Albania thought that they were living in a Utopia. Until the corrupt Enva Hoxha was toppled, Albania was the last bastion of Stalinism. But what was freedom? The teenage Lea Ypi's family, who had refused to even think about democracy, had to watch as work and society collapsed, corrupt officials grabbed the factories and farms and civil war ensued. Jim found the memoir witty, sardonic and easy to read.
Margaret reread H. G. Wells', 'The Time Machine'. The Victorian Age was well known for its 'gentleman' scientists and inventors and H. G. Wells was well known for his views on society and capitalism. A Time Traveller invents a machine and travels into the distant future. He first meets a new human species, the Eloi. Simple childlike beings who exist on a fruit based diet in an apparently idyllic setting. These people do not question the nightly disappearance of their fellow humans and the Time Traveller can find no trace of the buildings, machines and factories that filled his own time. He discovered that another race of ape-like humans have evolved who live underground, processing the Eloi for food. A kind of inversion of his own time where the rich live in luxury and the poor live a troglodytic existence in mines and factories!
Chris read three books that involved dystopias or utopias. The first, 'The War of Nerves', by Martin Sixsmith, is an incredible in-depth examination of the phenomenon that dominated the world in the 20th century, the Cold War. In Stalin's Russia and even from Kruschev to Gorbachev, people were clearly living in a dystopia where Marx's hopes for a Communist utopia had developed into a nightmare. In the USA, people thought that they were living in a Utopia and taunted the Russians with the riches and luxuries of capitalism. Fascinating revelations of delusions and paranoia.
'All Our Wrong Todays', by Elon Mastai is one of the most remarkable and complex novels about time travel and alternative worlds Chris has ever read. One world seems like a utopia with an inexhaustible energy source, where the only work is on technology to make our lives even better; one is an apocalyptic dystopia where people fight for survival; and the other is like ours, messy and uncertain. A gripping thriller, with a hopeful ending.
So, Chris thought he'd better search for a book with Utopia in the title and came up with 'Darcy's Utopia', by Fay Weldon, 1990. From the cover, you'd think this would be typical romantic fiction. But it is a witty and entertaining satire on marriage, Marxism, religion, democracy, capitalism... and the rest! In fact Weldon takes a pop at a wide range of topics as the protagonist, Apricot Smith, becomes Ellen Parkin and then Elenor Darcy. Abandoning her name and her disturbing family she marries Bernard Parkin, a devout Catholic who is thinking of becoming a priest. She diverts him from the priesthood by becoming extremely, and annoyingly devout herself. By her 'conversion' she demonstrates how ridiculous the Catholic faith is, not to mention devoid of sexual activity, and converts him to Marxism instead. Bernard's enthusiasm for protest and marching eventually bores Ellen and she leaves him for an affair with Julian Darcy. Julian Darcy is a middle aged academic and economic adviser to the government. Eleanor develops her ideas on her cashless, classless utopia, converts Bernard and wrecks his marriage. Between them they persuade the government to their new policies. Whereupon the economy collapses and Bernard is sent to jail. At this point Elenor is being interviewed by two journalists: Hugo, who writes a column on finance for a Sunday paper and Valerie who writes for a women's magazine. These two decide to join forces to compare notes and end up leaving their spouses and having a passionate week-long affair in a Holiday Inn. During which time Valerie writes a successful 'fictional biography' of Eleanor Darcy (The chapters of which alternate with transcripts of Hugo's tapes to form the basis of Fay Weldon's novel.) Confused? It ends with Eleanor starting a new religion based on her utopia. This utopia sounds ideal, very attractive but vague and implausible as all utopia are; nothing wrong with that! A half-serious bit of fun and very funny.
8th August 2022, Journalism/books by journalists
Jim told us that Graham Hurley used to write a weekly column for the Portsmouth News. He wrote about Portsmouth and used this theme in his first detective series, where Detective Joe Faraday solved crimes in recognisable places in the City. Jim read quite a few of these novels in the 80s and 90s. He remembers the first one was called ’Turnstone’. Hurley got his inspiration and details of police procedures from a mate who worked as an undercover cop! Now living in Plymouth, Graham Hurley has turned to writing WW2 stories, the latest one (coincidentally?) set in Kyiv! Jim reccomends all Graham Hurley's books.
Sharon read a new book by Bob Woodward, of ‘Watergate’ fame, called ’Fear: Trump in the White House’. “I’ll never look at the USA in the same way again!” Well, we’re all familiar with the subject. Woodward gives a short précis of all the characters involved, including those who were hired then fired, and provides a lot of dialogue which is apparently verbatim. Sharon was “appalled by his ignorance and lack of grasp of politics”. More of this coming to light at the moment of course.
This month’s topic evidently appealed to Alison who read 4 books:
’War Stories’ by Jeremy Bowen was like a travelogue of wars, places where Bowen worked in the Middle East between 1984 and 2001.
She didn’t care much for Frank Gardner’s, ‘Crisis’ a novel about an undercover CIA agent in Colombia—former SIS operative Luke Carlton. Gardner must have had a lot of inside knowledge. Alison found the killing and so on too graphic.
Sebastian Faulks’ ’Three Short Lives’ are stories of three men who died young. Christopher Wood a painter who worked with and befriended a number of well-known artists including Ben and Winifred Nicholson. He was bisexual and it was after a number of brief affairs he killed himself at the age of 29. Richard Hillary was an Australian Battle of Britain Spitfire pilot who after surviving being shot down over the North Sea, was killed on a training exercise in Berkshire. The third short life was Jeremy Woolfenden (son of Lord Wolfenden) who was a high flying Oxford student. Whilst night editor of The Times he was recruited by the SIS as a British spy and became Moscow correspondent of the Daily Telegraph. He came under pressure by the KGB and SIS (MI6) after homosexual affairs in Moscow. He died at the age of 31 ‘in suspicious circumstances’.
Finally, Alison read ’Spies’ and ’Headlong’ by Michael Frayn, both hugely entertaining and enjoyable. Frayn’s output has been prolific. As well as writing novels and columns for the Guardian and Observer, he is a hugely successful playwright, writer of screenplays and translator of Chekhov.
Martin revisited, ’Unreliable Memoirs’ by Clive James. James has written “at least 30 books” (I expect that most of us have at least one of them on our bookshelves). Martin chose this funny and down to earth autobiography of Clive James’ early life to “cheer myself up after all the gloomy nightly news”!
Chris introduced the topic of ‘Psychogeography’, a term coined by Will Self in a regular column written for the Independent between 2003 and 2007 and as a title for his 2007 book that brings together a number of these columns, illustrated by his friend and fellow psychogeographer Ralph Steadman. Chris owned up to adding this month’s Adventures topic to the list having read Joan Didion’s ‘Slouching Towards Bethlehem’ earlier in the year. This collection of 21 essays, first published in 1969, were written for several publications including the New York Times magazine, The American Scholar and mostly The Saturday Evening Post between 1961 and 1968. The personal reflections, descriptions of American towns, landscapes, places and events reminded Chris of Will Self’s book. Clearly Joan Didion was doing ‘psychogeography’ before Self came up with the word. What is psychogeography? It is to do with the way that the landscape and other man-made places such as towns and cities affect the human psyche. Highly personal, it describes what is obviously a cyclical process—humans build their environments and then their thoughts and actions are shaped by them. Chris then read Didion’s later collection of articles, ’The White Album’, published in 1979. A marvellous collection of stories mostly set in and around Los Angeles but also in more exotic places such as Bogotà & Hawaii. All three books recommended. (Joan Didion available on BorrowBox)
Chris Shaw 11/8/22
July 11th, Westerns
We generally enjoyed this topic. Most found classic westerns such as Shane, and The Virginian. Chris read a Western for the first time but Sharon was already a fan of Westerns from childhood.
Alison read ’The Legend of Caleb York’, which was a film script that Mickey Spillane was working on before he died. Spillane’s friend Max Allen Collins, also a screen and comic book writer, completed the writing as a novel. Alison describes it as a typical Western: a town is taken over by a crooked sheriff and the inhabitants look to a gunslinger to get rid of him. She also read ’True Grit’ by Charles Portis’ and ’Power of the Dog’ by Thomas Savage.
Sharon read ’The Virginian’, written in 1902 by Owen Wilson. This was the only novel he wrote. He was working as a bank clerk and suffered a nervous breakdown. Sent to Wyoming to recover, he was inspired to write. Written in dialect, a southern drawl, with it’s "yep", "nope" dialogue and with the strong silent cowboy type it helped establish the classic, good-guys-win Western.
Jim read ’Shane’, 1949 by Jack Shaefer. Jim remembers seeing the film version when he was 9 or 10, starring Alan Ladd. A mysterious gunslinger, a ‘dude’ dressed in black. He arrives at a ranch, dusty, exhausted and is looked after and begins working for the family. There is a gun battle, good prevails over evil and Shane rides off into the sunset. Jim found it "cleverly done".
Anne discovered ’Along The Tonto Rim’, by Will Jury. She thought this novel by an obscure writer was “not nice”! It was a story about rustlers along the Mexican border and was formulaic and not well written. Anne also found ’The Last Kind Words Saloon’ by Larry McMurtry. Although McMurtry was a well known author with a number of his many books being made into Oscar-winning films, Ann found this something of a “potboiler”. With Indians attacking a wagons train along with cattle stampedes, it also had the well known characters Wyatt Earp and Doc Halliday.
Chris and Margaret both read ’Riders of the Purple Sage’ by Zane Grey. Written in 1912, it could be said that this hugely popular novel set the model for the classic Western genre. Highly romantic with an exciting story with baddies, castle rustlers and a silent gunslinger out for revenge. It also has strong women characters. The baddies in this case are Mormons, which we might find strange today, but at their time they were widely hated for their practices. Taking place in the canyon country of Utah, the landscape also plays an important part in this powerful tale.
Author's Biographies, 13th June 2022.
Present Sharon, Martin, Jim, Chris
Sharon read Juliet Barker’s biography of the Brontës, a huge comprehensive book that she managed to complete on a cruise! There were six children altogether, the mother died and then her sister Elizabeth Branwell and her husband the Rev. Patrick Brontë looked after the children. Elizabeth and Charlotte were sent to boarding school. They wrote ferociously but only Emily, Anne and Charlotte were published, a collection of poetry coming first under the pseudonyms of Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. Charlotte’s ’Jane Eyre’ was a massive hit, but Anne’s, ’Wuthering Heights’ was not well understood or received. An impoverished but literary family, Charlotte was the longest lived, managing to survive to the age of 38, a month before her 39th birthday. Sharon found Juliet Barker’s biography a good read.
Martin read Agatha Christie’s autobiography, began in 1950 and completed in 1965. She wouldn’t let it be published until after she died. She was a very popular author, so much so that her publisher pushed her to complete her novels saying, ‘We must have one for Christmas’. Martin learned of Christie’s experience working in a lab and finding out how prison worked, amongst other things, but did not learn about the mysterious ‘disappearance’ or amnesia.
Having read a biography of Charles Dickens by Claire Tomalin, Jim enjoyed reading Colm Tóibin’s, ‘The Magician’ which is a biographical novel about the famous Nobel Prize winning German author, Thomas Mann. He came from a wealthy industrial family in Lubik. He moved his family to Davos Switzerland in 1912. He was anti-war and against Nazism. He was a best-selling author during the Depression. The title, ‘The Magician’ comes from Mann’s entertaining his 6 children with magic tricks. A fascinating story (how much is fiction?). Jim found it ‘a little heavy-going’.
Chris read ’Monsters’, by Alison Croggon. He did not find it a comfortable read: the novel defies categorisation and, as far as he could tell, is totally unlike any of her other published work. “Part autobiography, part philosophy, part history lesson, it is also an uncompromising howl of anguish”. For Chris’s comprehensive review click here Monsters.
Meeting at the Spring, 9th May 2022‘Nursing and Medical’
A somewhat depleted group with some members still catching up with previous topics but a lively discussion nevertheless.
Sharon read ’The Citadel’ by A. J. Cronin, a very popular author famous for the Dr. Findlay’s Casebook’ and other series. This novel was written in 1937 but set from the 1920’s. It describes the corrupt state of the medial profession at the time. A young doctor’s first appointment and first introduction to the system begins in a Scottish mining town where the medical committee is controlled by the mining companies in collusion with the doctors. Sharon found the book, “absolutely brilliant” and couldn’t put it down as the young doctor is eventually corrupted by the system before having an epiphany. The novel was so influential it was used as evidence for the reform of the profession that led to the creation of the NHS after the war.
Alison jumped to next month’s topic tor some reason and her contribution was ’A Kind Of Homecoming, 1962’ by E.R. Braithwaite. A memoir by the author of ’To Sir With Love’. Born in British Guyana to wealthy parents he attended University in New York, joined the RAF and obtained a PhD in Physics. The novel follows his journeys in Africa beginning in Guinea where, despite having recently gained its independence from France ,he was assumed to be African and treated as a second class citizen. Sierra Leone and Liberia followed and then back to Guyana. He lived to be 104 and consistently campaigned for equality and human rights.
Martin” read ’The English Patient’ by Michael Ondaatje’, 1992, which won that year’s Booker prize. The story centres on four main characters: the unrecognisably burned man who is assumed to be English, his Canadian Army nurse, a Sikh British Army Sapper and a Canadian thief who is a spy for the British. The story, set in Italy in a bomb damaged hospital, is told in multiple voices and time streams. Martin says it all came together and maintained his interest throughout.
Margaret took us back to last month’s topic with a ‘self-help’ book, The Celestine Prophecy: An Adventure’, a novel by James Redfield. Styled like an adventure of discovery, Margaret, along with other critics found it more of a polemic expounding a return to ancient more spiritual way of life. The 'manuscript, which the author found in the ruins of an ancient Mayan civilisation in Peru, points the way to a series of nine steps to an 'energy vibration level' allowing the devotee to 'cross over into a reality of pure spirituality'. According to Margaret, "a bit like 'mindfulness' before Mindfulness was a thing!
Chris started off the meeting with a brief summary of ’The Man Without A Shadow’, by Joyce Carol Oates, 2016. This audio novel was an account of the career of Professor Margot Sharpe which consisted almost entirely of research into the neuropsychology of a brain damaged man, Elihu Hoops. Hoops came from a rich family and contracted a cephalic fever from hepatitis carried by an insect whilst he was camping alone in the Adirondacks. He retains some memory from before the incident but loses the ability to form new memories. Margot Sharpe forgoes opportunities to gain fame and fortune from her work but becomes widely recognised as the leading authority in this area. However, she develops a close and intimate relationship with Elihu which she hides. Chris found the book a challenge: the narrative alternates between the thoughts of Sharpe and Hoops, along with the authorial voice and is quite repetitive, obsessional. This works as a literary device but gets irritating at times. Nevertheless, Chris persevered because he want to know what happens at the end!
We had a lot of discussions about film adaptations and CGI effects and then decided to make a group photo for the Havant U3a’s 10th anniversary. So Chris didn’t neglected to mention his excitement about ’Cutting for Stone’, by Abraham Verghese. Click on the link for a long review of this excellent novel.
Self-Help or Lifestyle, 11th April 2022
(Sharon, Alison, Anne, Jim, Chris)
Chris read 2 books; the first was ’Jump’ by Daniella Moyles, 2020. Daniella Moyles is a minor celebrity in Ireland. A successful fashion model and radio presenter who also appeared on various popular TV series, her career began when she came 3rd in a Miss Ireland competition. Her autobiography begins with a dramatic mental breakdown and goes on to describe the literally long journey to recovery through a behavioural therapy model she stumbled upon herself. This is not a book which offers to tell you how to get your life back on track but, at the end, does give a list of things the author found useful. The story is frank, charming and moving. Recommended. ***
Alison ‘got confused’ - she has missed a couple of sessions due to her operation, and Chris didn’t help by going on about ‘Mills and Boon’ in an email…She has read several books: ’Transit of Venus’ by Julian Evans, 1992, A passionate, witty, and lyrical elegy to the Pacific that captures the diverse worlds of the South Seas, the conflict between the traditional island cultures of the Pacific and European colonialism, and the effects of civilization on "paradise." One of the ‘Doctor’ series by Richard Gordon, and ’A Kind of Homecoming’ by E.R. Braithwaite. More importantly, Alison also re-read ’The Fish of the Seto Inland Sea’ by Ruri Pilgrim. This time she discovered more about the Russians and what they did to the Japanese between 1870 and the 1950s, through three generations of a Japanese family.
Anne read about ’Ikigai - “The Japanese Secret To A Long And Happy Life”’ by Héctor Garcia and Francesc Miralles. 10 pointers how to live and enjoy life at a quiet pace. Keep fit, smile, eat less, reconnect with nature, give thanks for what you have - who’d have guessed?! Ikigai means your passion or purpose. A popular international best-seller.
Jim also appears to have been confused (look at the website guys!!!) but did tell us how reading helped him when his wife died. His go-to comfort reading is detective stories. His particular favourite author is Ian Rankin. Rebus, in any case, is an ageing detective with issues of his own and Jim read ’The Fall’. Investigating the murder of a young student, he links it to the cases of Burke and Hare, two famous ‘resurrectionists’ who dig up freshly buried bodies to sell to anatomists and end up committing murder to meet the demand.
Sharon read ’Overcoming Anger and Irritability’ by William Davies. “A good uncomplicated read”. Sharon learned what the triggers are and how to handle them - why some situations are worse than other. Examples of physical triggers can be hunger, lack of exercise, too much caffeine or alcohol etc. After each chapter there are projects, including a traffic light system for recognising triggers. - Stop; Reflect; React in a calm way. Sharon was impressed (so were we - she didn't get angry once!)
Chris’s second book, ’Monsters’ by Alison Groggon 2021 is, again, not really a self-help book but does explore some of those ‘triggers’ that Sharon was telling us about, albeit this time the psychological and emotional ones of a disturbed and abusive childhood, and the exploration of the awful effects of colonialism. Part autobiography, part philosophy, part history lesson, it is also an uncompromising howl of anguish - not an easy read. Watch this space for a longer review.
Meeting 14th March 2022 - ‘Conspiracies’
Starting us off was Pat with Robert Harris’ ‘Munich’, 2018, now a film starring Jeremy Irons. Just one of the plots against Hitler, this time set at the time of Chamberlain’s Munich agreement. Two young men at Bailliol in the 1930s, one German the other British take holidays together in Munich. However in September 1938 the Briton is acting as an interpreter for the meeting, whilst against his better judgement the German has joined the Nazi party. Pat told us that the two friends are fictional but the story is based around fact. Well, written, the plot keeps you on a knife edge. ‘A good read’.
Jim also read a Robert Harris novel, ‘An officer and a Spy’, 2014. Robert Harris is a good writer who rarely disappoints. In this account, he claims every character is real. This is the story of the 1893 French scandal, the Dreyfus Affair. In the turbulent years after the defeat of France in the Franco-Prussian wars there were many plots and counter plots. In 1896, a jewish military officer is accused of being a spy. In a conspiracy to cover up the real culprits, forged documents are produced and Dreyfus is sent to Devil’s Island, the notorious French penal colony. In a long campaign by many supporters, including the popular author Émile Zola and Georges Clemenceau, Dreyfus is retried, pardoned and released. In 1906 he is exonerated. ‘A good read’.
Carol read ’The Killing Kind’, 2021, by Jane Casey. A young barrister has successfully defended a man accused of murder. But afterwards the man covertly makes her life miserable in a series of shocking events, rendering her vulnerable and scared. He then insinuates himself into her life and offers to investigate. A tense and well written thriller.
In a continuation from last month’s topic, Margaret told us about the children’s book, ’When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit’ by Judith Kerr. However, for this month she read, ’The Catherine Howard Conspiracy’ , 2019, by Alexandra Walsh. A story about an archaeologist researcher who discovers a conspiracy in the Tudor period to falsify what actually happened in Henry VIII’s reign, to protect the kings reputation and keep England stable. ‘An easy read, recommended’.
Chris re-read ’Red Pill’ by Hari Kunzru, 2020. This tense and at times baffling conspiracy psycho-drama poses a question we all might have asked ourselves in the lead-up to Trump’s election to president in 2016: “Is liberal indignation and criticism any match for the ugly machinery of Alt-Right manipulation and conspiracy theorists”? For a full review, click here Adventures in Literature - Reviews
Meeting 14th February ‘Children’s Books
Everyone enjoyed this topic and found a lot of enjoyable books: some old favourites, others new discoveries.
Martin discovered ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ by Jeff Kinney—enjoyed by his Grandson. The humour and topics are very American but enjoyable nevertheless. The author's subject was originally a comic-strip and this is reflected in the illustrations and style of writing. It consists of a series of episodes about family dynamics. Some very funny, some “instantly forgettable.”
Ann sought out and found a new edition of 'Pippi Longstocking', by Astrid Lindgren. The series was first published in Sweden in 1945 and became a classic. Pippi is a very tall 9 year old girl, born on a ship, who now lives alone with her cat ‘Mr Nillsen’. Outrageously funny and ridiculous stories and presumably enjoyed by 9 year olds!
Alison discovered a series of books by Francesco Cavallo and Elena Favilli. These are aimed at establishing women’s place in the history books and providing good role models for girls. The first book was called ‘Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls’, 100 stories about extraordinary women, from scientists and computer programmers to politicians and film stars. Later series include '100 Immigrant Women Who Changed the World.’ And Volume 4 about black women. Unashamedly political, sometimes controversial, we all agreed that they should be read by boys too!
Alison also enjoyed ‘The Tree House Books’ a series of books about the strange inhabitants of a giant tree house. The first, ’13-storey Tree House’ (which Alison bought for her grandson), is followed by 26-storey, 39 storey…and so on,. Text by Andy Griffiths and pictures by Terry Denton.
Sharon became hooked on End Blyton books when she was a child, which she got from the travelling library. Her favourites were the ‘Famous Five’ series. Aimed at junior school kids, about 4 children and a Dog and their mystery-solving adventures. “It all came back to me” when she read, ‘Five Fall Into Adventure’. Straightforward stories which “draw you in”. Different times, Terribly good children, good yarns!
Sharon also read Roald Dahl’s, ‘Matilda’. Everyone enjoyed Dahl’s wicked sense of humour.
Margaret read Ali Sparkes' ‘Frozen in Time’. Four children and a dog (sound familiar?) are left in the charge of an ‘absent-minded-professor’. Digging in the garden they discover a time-capsule containing two cryogenically preserved children from 1956. This provides the framework for a social history of Britain, gender politics and so "A heartwarming Tale" (The Guardian) that won a Blue Peter Award.
Margaret also explored ‘Rupert’ books which are ideal for children who can read and those who are learning. David Walliams', ‘Grandpa’s Great Escape’ was a book Margaret read to her grandchildren, along with Roald Dahl. We also discussed ‘How to Train Your Dragon’, a very successful series by Cressida Cowell, and ‘Frankie’s Magic Football’ a heavily marketed series by Frank Lampard (were they ghostwritten?)
Jim decided that it was about time he read a Harry Potter book and was pleasantly surprised by ‘Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets’. ‘Quite remarkable’. He found it very readable with good language and clever names! A series of books that definitely got boys reading more (and many adults too apparently).
Chris discovered Tom McLaughlin, an ex political cartoonists who writes and illustrates books for children. Aimed at Juniors and carefully crafted and tested on children, the stories challenge preconceptions and stereotypes and are absolutely hilarious. ‘Goodfellows' is a fast-paced yarn with clichés, puns and snappy dialogue about mistaken identity. There are clichés and caricatures too in ‘The Day Aliens (Nearly) Ate My Brains’, including a glorious send-up of president Putin. Also a running fart joke. In ‘The Queen of King Street’, the Royal Family gets the treatment, though the comedy version is not quite as bad as the real one!
Meeting January 17th 2022 - The Seaside
A good range of interpretations on this and some very interesting books.
Ann read, ’The Salt Path’ an autobiographical story by Raynor Winn. Winn and her partner had become homeless and decided to walk around the South West Coast path that stretches from Minehead in Somerset around the peninsula to Poole in Dorset. On the way they camped and wild-camped, living on social security. An engaging book that relates the journey and some of the people they met along the way. It discusses the vicissitudes of homelessness as well as the different attitudes to the homeless that they encountered.
Pat read ’The Life of Pi’ by Yann Martell. A very popular Booker prize winning book that was made into a film and is now a West End Show. Pi and his family is on a cargo ship sailing from India with the animals from his father’s zoo when the ship sinks. Pi is cast adrift on his own in a lifeboat along with a few animals that include a huge Bengal tiger. Both Pi and the tiger manage to survive, despite the rest of the animals eventually ending up inside the tiger. An enjoyable fantasy.
Sharon read ’Catch-22’ by Joseph Heller, 1962 - which was last month’s topic, ‘Post 1950’s American Novels’ and which we can include this month since it is set on a tiny island off the coast of Italy during the 2nd World War. Yossarian is an airman in the USAF and tasked with bombing raids on the mainland occupied by German troops. The number of bombing raids that each airman is allowed to go on is limited but the commander keeps increasing it. The well-known catch, which has passed into the English language, goes something like this. “If one is crazy, one does not have to fly missions; and one must be crazy to fly. But one has to apply to be excused, and applying demonstrates that one is not crazy. As a result, one must continue flying, either not applying to be excused, or applying and being refused.” (Wikipedia)
Sharon also read ’Brighton Rock’, by Graham Greene, 1938. This is set entirely in Brighton and conjures up the seedy atmosphere of the seaside town at that time. The main character is the horrendous 17 year old gangster, ‘Pinky’, whose main solution to problems he encounters is to bump people off!
Carol read, ’Seashaken Houses’, by Tom Nancollas, 2018. This non-fiction book is about the history of sea-based lighthouses, the most famous of which is the Eddystone Lighthouse. These lighthouses warn of hidden reefs and banks off the coast and were originally conceived when William, the son of Henry I was killed in a shipwreck. The early attempts were little more than conventional castles that were unable to withstand the sea and weather but eventually, engineers were employed to construct more durable buildings. Carol says that she picked the book because it appealed to her as someone "who had been brought up under the shadow of the Souter lighthouse in Northumberland."
Margaret also read ‘The Salt Path’ and asked us the question, ‘How reliable is she as an author?’ Which sparked a conversation about the authenticities of biography in general. Winn did write the book to provide an income.
Margaret also told us about, ’Death in Venice’, a ‘novella’ by Thomas Mann, 1912, about a well-to-do and famous author holidaying in Venice who encounters a beautiful 14 year old Polish boy and becomes obsessed with him. The author discovers that Venice is in the grip of a cholera epidemic. The authorities do not publicise this widely as they do not want to alarm the tourists. The author does not warn the boy’s family because he doesn’t want them to leave. The story is famous not only as literature but also for its origins, its themes and allusions.
Chris talked about, ’On Chapel Sands’, by Laura Cummings, 2019. This is an investigation in to her own family history by the art critic of the Guardian. She brings her own skills as an investigator and eye for detail into play when she finds a photograph of her mother as a 3 year old, playing in the sand with her parents at Chapel St. Leonards in Lincolnshire. She gets her mother to write what she remembers and probes local history, only to come up against evasion and secrets. A really moving and fascinating book with wonderful descriptions of landscape and weather, seasons, photographs and paintings. Terrific!