6 August 2020
My new novel Indoldrum is now out! It’s available on Amazon.
UK here – USA here – Or on your local Amazon site.
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Your Worlds
Authentic Tour Guides
In various blogs I’ve extolled the works of authors who write about the very different worlds they grew up with. Both Patrick Kavanagh’s The Green Fool and Laurie Lee’s Cider With Rosie tell of almost idyllic rustic childhoods of yesteryear, in a world so different from our own. There is a fascinating bit in The Green Fool where, in his Irish village in the early 1900s the author speaks about his family having “the only clock in the townland” and that “all the neighbours passing our house called in to inquire the time.”
Likewise Lee’s England, even though probably somewhat enhanced, is more of a foreign land to me than some of the places abroad that I have visited in the 21st century. I’ve been to the Cotsworlds a good few times, it’s lovely, but I still see the other visitors at Stow-on-the-Wold more than I know what it would have been like to live there now, let alone a hundred years ago.
This is the wonderful ability of books. I love travel, being in lock down has meant I’ve not left the country since my expedition to Albania in January 2020, mentioned on here at the time. Whilst that might not seem a big deal I have a very strong sense of wanderlust, and whilst I have adventured to some amazing places in England, the urge to see foreign locations, whilst always strong, is getting stronger.
The thing is, travel guides and tour guides aside what does the traveller really experience? Most of the time it’s a tourist view of that land, not the real lives. I lived in Dublin for a long time and know it extremely well (well I would do if it didn’t keep on changing). However speaking to people who visited it, even many times, the places I know, the experiences I had actually absorbed in to the the day to day living of the city is far more than just sitting outside a bar in Temple Bar, a visit to the Guinness factory and walk along the Liffey. Even then my experience compared to a born and bred Dubliner pales. Which is why, if you really want to know a place you should speak to a local. Which in turn is why autobiographies can open up a country or a culture far more than a visit (although do both if you can).
I spoke on here a while ago about the books from people who lived in North Korea, it’s not a place I will ever get the chance to visit; and, politics aside, even if everything changed and it became possible, it would be a different world to the ones that exists now. The same can be said of the past, so put those things together…
I was trying to think of a book that lets us see not only a culture we would find so different from our own, but also in a time which pushes it further from our understanding. The book Wild Swans by Jung Chang was quite popular in the early 2000s amongst my friends; having read it I can agree.
Starting in 1924 in Yixian, Manchuria it follows the life of Jung Chang’s grandmother, then her mother and then herself, all the way through the changes happening within China. History books can tell us of events, it’s books like these that tell us of the real lives, the real people who lived with them.
“As a child, my idea of the West was that it was a miasma of poverty and misery, like that of the homeless ‘Little Match Girl’in the Hans Christian Andersen story. When I was in the boarding nursery and did not want to finish my food, the teacher would say:’Think of all the starving children in the capitalist world!”
― Jung Chang, Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China
China today is not the China of 1924, or a lot of the other periods in which the action happens, so if we were to visit and even get to properly talk to a local it would still be different (and most likely just as worthwhile) as reading what happened from a local perspective. For how we speak and think can never really be picked up in a brief visit or a short chat, it works both ways.
There are many many more works that let us into worlds we could never dream of, maybe we can’t travel physically as much as we’d like to at the moment, but we can let our minds wander.
Buy Wild Swans by Jung Chang
Buy The Green Fool by Patrick Kavanagh
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The Kroagnon Effect
Everyone Should Read This, But No You Can’t See It…
Writing is personal, whether consciously or subconsciously parts of yourself, your inner-self, will bleed into your work; which is one of the reasons I hide behind a nom de plume, sorry Trevor. But there is more to it than that. The amount of work that goes into writing something, especially a novel, can make it very strange when it’s released into the wild to fend for itself. It’s all too easy to start worrying about what people will think about it, but then isn’t that the reason why it was made available? Either by traditional or self publishing.
The first book I self published via Amazon was my second novel Framed Of Rathgar and when my paperback copy came I was delighted I had a physical product of my own work. It led to me publish my first novel, Humanity, and start work on my third.
Indoldrum was published about a year ago and at that point I had social media set up to promote it and all of that. But as much I was so proud of it, I was also worried that people might read it. I’ve heard it said elsewhere, and I wholeheartedly agree, writers are a funny lot. We swing from shear shameless arrogance (this work of mine is so good strangers will give up hours of their life to read it) to being full of self doubt (everything I’ve ever done is utterly terrible), within seconds and often at the same time.
Yet that is the problem, we’ve done the work, the book exists and now we have to step into that role of actually telling people it’s good enough they should spend money and time on it when simultaneously not believing a word we are saying is true, and thinking we’re due an award.
Because of the time and soul I have put into my work, knowingly and unwittingly, I have this fear that other people won’t see it in the way I do; which is stupid, because of course they won’t, it’s impossible. No book that I have ever read means the same to me as it does to another person, let alone the author. I’ve had reviews of Framed Of Rathgar where people have not remotely understood the concept of the novel, despite the fact it’s clearly written on the back (yes call me a hypocrite if you’ve read my blogs, I have said I never read the backs of novels – I’m happy to be a hypocrite it means I get to negatively judge people for doing things I do, you should try it sometime, it’s liberating). The result then is that I start to think maybe people shouldn’t read it. The fact that it exists is good enough and it only complicates things if others have a say or an opinion. I understand it’s amazing and no one should say a bad word about it, and that it’s so bad nobody should bother with it, which leads me to the same conclusion each time.
In 1987 there was a rather good Doctor Who story called Paradise Towers by the writer Stephen Wyatt. I say “rather good”, in fact I’m very fond of it. “SPOILERS” are coming to misquote a later character from the same programme. The concept of Paradise Towers was based on the novel High-Rise by JG Ballard. Ballard’s book is about a self contained block of flats where society collapses leading to all sorts of terrible things, it’s worth a read.
In Paradise Towers the incredibly designed eponymous Towers start out as Paradise but soon these too fall apart, but this time it’s because the Great Architect, Kroagnon, loves his building so much he doesn’t want people moving in and messing it up, therefore he’d set traps for them in the hope they will all be destroyed and he can have the his work back the way it was, without people.
Kroagnon is obviously the baddie of the piece, but I can kind of see where he is coming from, of course I’d never send cleaning machines to drag people down their own waste disposal system- that would be unethical, but was it the fear of a different way of understanding and use of his work that made him not want the very ones he’d designed the block for to have it?
‘Like everyone else in Paradise Towers,’ he began, ‘you seem terrified you seem terrified to face up to the reality of of what’s happening here. I mean, killing me won’t help you find out who is sending those robotic cleaners out to kill people… Unless, of course, you’re giving all those orders yourself.’
― Stephen Wyatt, Doctor Who: Paradise Towers
“A new social type was being created by the apartment building, a cool, unemotional personality impervious to the psychological pressures of high-rise life, with minimal needs for privacy, who thrived like an advanced species of machine in the neutral atmosphere. This was the sort of resident who was content to do nothing but sit in his over-priced apartment, watch television with the sound turned down, and wait for his neighbours to make a mistake.”
― J.G. Ballard, High-Rise
I’m getting close to the end of my next project, Beck’s Game, and I’m there again. I want everyone to read it, it’s that good… but what if people do read it? What will they think? Will they like it? Will they understand it? Will they realise it’s all a mistake and I should never have been allowed near a word processor? Will they discover I’m a fraud? I need to publish it after all the work I’ve put into it, but maybe I don’t want others to actually read it.
Buy Doctor Who: Paradise Towers by Stephen Wyatt
Buy High-Rise by J G Ballard
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The Down Side
Putting The Misery Into Tragedy
As my last blog was a bizarre shout at the planet to both slow down and get better I thought I would need to make the next one more upbeat… So I’m going to tell you about two of the most depressing books I’ve read. Be warned there are SPOILERS coming, I’ll try and keep them at a minimum but when blogging about a book’s tone you may need to refer to the end… just saying. If you want to know no more turn back now… otherwise “Abandon hope all ye who enter here.”
To be honest I’m not a misery and of course it’s not true that drama is tragedy; but try telling a compelling story where bad things don’t happen. It is so much harder to write anything with soul and heart that is upbeat. I don’t mean it’s impossible, I’m sure I’ll blog about my favourite upbeat books later (there is no real plan to what I do here), but it’s just harder. I guess this is why most people at the start of their writing experience, when charged with writing a story, go for tragedy over comedy.
Again I’m not saying that I think any less of the two books which follow, in fact they are both top quality writing, that’s not just my opinion, both writers have highly prodigious awards to prove it. My point is, although tragedy and depressive things aren’t necessary for a good story, we are kind of drawn to them and done well they will effect your soul.
I’ve waxed lyrical about my love for Les Misérables elsewhere (the book; I’ve not, and refuse to, access any other format of the story at this point), and my goodness it deserves the title. That nice lady with nice hair and teeth! But even then I wasn’t rendered stunned reading that as I was by the time I’d got to end of The Grapes Of Wrath.
Taking it’s name from the book of Revelation, John Steinbeck’s novel about a family trying to survive in the American Depression is what made me love this author. It was the second of his books I’d read and I am now on a mission to read them all, but sparingly. I really can’t say too much as the concept of what happens as we follow the Joads is the whole point of the plot and you really need to discover that as you read it. The Joads are a family who move from their farm in Oklahoma, which is no longer viable for them to survive, to California as they believe a better life awaits them. The book follows their journey, incorporating others who are doing the same. It’s not just them, these events happen to most of the characters. The fact is it’s not just a story. Whilst the events are fiction real people, real human beings like you and me, were making this journey as the book was being written in the 1930s and very similar challenges to the ones the Joads were facing were the life experiences of many many people who were around at the time of publication. When you know that it takes on a far more bitter taste.
So why read it? Why put yourself through the harrowing events? I could state it’s about greed and and how it’s a scream at the injustice happening back then which is still happening today, but we all know about that at this point, we’re not going to learn anything new. Instead the book is a master class in how to write tragedy to a very high standard, to invoke pathos without going too far. It’s human, it’s real, it’s gritty without needing any of those terms in the way that films bandy them about to make them look like they have depth. I said writing tragedy is easier, but to do it on this level is a gold standard I’ll try and aim for, but will fail at each time..
“I seen fellas like you before. You ain’t askin’ nothin’; you’re jus’ singin’ a kinda song. ‘What we comin’ to?’ You don’ wanta know. Country’s movin’ aroun’, goin’ places. They’s folks dyin’ all aroun’. Maybe you’ll die pretty soon, but you won’t know nothin’. I seen too many fellas like you. You don’t want to know nothin’. Just sing yourself to sleep with a song—‘What we comin’ to?”
― John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
The other reason you should read it is because it’s a great book. Ok when I finished it, pushing on through the last pages to see how it ends, desperate to know, I did actually go into a decline for a few days after. The images at the end, the implications, the meaning of it all ghosted me for a good while after. I couldn’t get them out of my head which no other book has done. I still say this is one of the best books I’ve read just because of what it did to me.
The other book I want to recommend is A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. Set in India in the 1970s and 1980s this is the story of a small group of people who, through events, form a community just to be able to continue to exist. Everything is against these people. They each have a story of their own and they are constantly fighting their own worst outcomes. Then they find each other. It doesn’t matter how the book ends, I don’t need to refer to anything in the second half of the book, to say it’s grim. This could very well pick up and work out well, it could not or it could be somewhere in the middle, discover that yourself, but as you reflect on what pushed the characters to get into the plot, to become part of the community in the first place, even that is enough to make anyone lose hope in any kind of reliability of the stability of their own life. Then you have the stories of the fringe characters… I will say no more, read the book, then we’ll talk.
I read this novel on a short break to the paradise of Placencia in Belize. Whilst I was sat on the beach looking out at the glorious Caribbean Sea I was slowly sinking into despondency… yeah I should have chosen another book to take with me. As the bars were alive with music and fun I was sat weeping into my cocktails and hot wings… well not quite.
“But nobody ever forgot anything, not really, though sometimes they pretended, when it suited them. Memories were permanent. Sorrowful ones remained sad even with the passing of time, yet happy ones could never be recreated – not with the same joy. Remembering bred its own peculiar sorrow. It seemed so unfair: that time should render both sadness and happiness into a source of pain.”
― Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance
I did really enjoy reading the book though. When I say that it feels like I’m taking pleasure in other’s misfortune, even if they are fictional. Don’t judge me you’ve done the same. I guess being inside the mind of people who aren’t real but are feeling things we’ve felt and thinking things we’ve thought somehow helps us process we’re normal? Or at least that there is someone out there who understands.
Tragedy done well can do more than change a reader’s emotions, it can make them think without preaching, this is a skill I wish I had. Upbeat books are harder to write than misery… but writing quality misery is a skill that should be prized because life is neither totally comedy nor tragedy and it won’t ring true unless it’s done well.
Buy The Grapes Of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Buy A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
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I’m Questioning How Much I’ve Achieved This Year… Is That Just Me?
Did January Actually Happen?
What happened to January? It went so fast that I didn’t properly notice to write a blog complaining about it until the third of February. I find it hard to believe that I was listening to the manic fireworks set off near where I live over a month ago, yet I was. What has this got to do with literature?
I don’t know about you but I was happy to start a new year, a fresh start. As well as drawing a line under 2020 I thought with excitement about all the new books I’d discover and the ones I’d been meaning to read that I would finally get round to. By this time last year I’d completed reading five books, was well underway in writing my novel Indoldrum and managed a few blog posts and a trip to Albania; this January… well I made myself finish reading the book I started in December last night (which I ended up microwaving but that’s a different story), and this is only my second blog of the year. It’s true I did finish writing the first draft of my biggest project, but that was on the 13th of January and I’d done the majority of the work between summer and December last year. So what have I been doing with my time? Between me and you I think “they” have stolen several minutes out of each hour and we’ve had a far shorter month. Amidst all the conspiracies, here’s the one “they’re” getting away with. I can think of no other explanation.
I think we’re all worn down with “the virus” and its affects. A lot of my friends productivity this year has slumped as well. I don’t feel low in myself, but there is a sense of lethargy in the air running parallel with the fact that time just seems to have sped up. I redrafted the fist two thirds of my work-in-progress several times last year; the third section is has remained unopened in its first drift since I completed it mid January. I know what I want to do with it and have notes stored in many places yet I’m still to sit down and get on with it.
This is not unusual, type “procrastination writers” in a search engine and you get many results, of which I am now adding to. As writers we are known for it it seems, read books or interviews by very successful authors and this doesn’t appear to change. The considered work ethic is delay, delay, delay, stay up until four o’clock in the morning because we’re on a roll. Although in general this is not totally me, there is more than some truth in it, I’ve done many a late late night at the keyboard. I hear of ones speaking about goals of “words per day” etc, but I’ve never been able to get my head round that. I love writing, although at times I’ll tell you a different story, but to push myself when I just don’t feel in the mode, to force myself everyday to achieve a target, would for me take the pleasure out of it, I’d be writing words not stories. I know I would have to come back and change it all later anyway and that would be a bigger stress. I can’t move forward until I’ve got at least the structure of the section passable, on the occasions I have just written it and moved forward I’ve had to go back anyway and the changes have messed up everything after that. I’d rather wait until I’ve got my head in the right place and I’m feeling inspired. That doesn’t mean I just give up at a hard part, there are times I’ve needed to just push on through a difficult passage, but I try and keep this to only when I have to rather than just to hit a target of words.
That is me as a writer, as a procrastinator in life in general I’m not, and this is probably half the reason I can find other things to do, that I decide I must do, before I can carry on writing. As I’ve convinced myself January was a shorter month than it usually is, the time I’ve had I’ve somehow filled with “work was really busy today so I need a rest” or just “stuff” that I don’t really remember doing.
It’s February and I really want to get some more books read and I must get round to completing what I’ve written. Way back last summer I assumed I’d be able to have it nearly finished by now – I’ve still a ton of work to do yet it sits there on my hard drive waiting for me to make the changes I know will make it so much better. So why am I writing a blog and not working on my novel? To slightly misquote Rusty Shackle “3 a.m. I’ll soon find you again”.
I don’t think it’s unusual that this year we’re all feeling a sense of ennui or listlessness and I wouldn’t beat myself up over it. It’s good to have a routine though, I’ve read this in many places. My problem is I can make a routine of a lot of things other than writing and from what I’ve read that’s normal in writers.
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The History Of Rome
A Lot To Discover
Personally speaking I’m glad I’m not a Roman, no offence is meant to modern natives of the Italian capital. Shockingly I’ve only been there once and I do need to visit again, and when I say I need to, it’s a burning desire that demands to be soon quenched (although of course that’s easier said than done). The reason? For as much as I’m glad I’m not a Roman, I find the history fascinating; and although there’s plenty of it where I grew up in England, I do want to see it properly in Italy.
Of course when I say Roman I mean the ancient Republic / Empire and any of the inhabitants living from the cold wet island in the west to the Caspian Sea. Growing up it was one of those things that we were indoctrinated into believing was boring, the assumption that we had to learn about it because “sorry it’s on the syllabus”. It wasn’t until after I left school and I realised how much I loved history that the real importance of the age became apparent. I knew names such as Nero and Constantine as well some of the other Emperors (the shock when I learnt that Julius Caesar wasn’t counted as Emperor!) along with the likes of Cleopatra, Mark Antony or even the Colosseum or Pompeii, but it was all just vague information that didn’t piece together. Where does Hadrian’s wall come into things? Or even this fighting woman I was supposed to know all about, Boudicca? What does crossing the Rubicon mean? Who was Hannibal?
The fact that much of the history is so well known it’s always assumed that people already know it and therefore they aren’t told. I found myself in this situation, I could give you a list of Roman names and things, I knew they had a meaning but I wouldn’t have been able to tell you much more. So after deciding I did want to do something about this I turned to books to teach me, and all these years later I still have a great interest the subject.
All this proved nicely useful when I also realised I loved Shakespeare; the third play I saw at the Globe was Antony and Cleopatra, although I was going straight to the airport afterwards so had to sit with all my luggage with me, it was so uncomfortable by the time we’d got to the asp scene I was just wishing she’d get on with it as I couldn’t feel my legs at that point. Regardless the span of Roman history covered by Shakespeare’s cannon covers several research projects in themselves and although I would have enjoyed the plays, knowing the history from our point of view and comparing it with the fictional version presented back in the Bard’s day is an interesting dimension to add to the experience.
I could tell you all the books I read in my youth that informed me, but instead I’m going list two more recent publications. The first is Veni Vidi Vici by Peter Jones (he’ll crop up in later blogs). I only read this book last year and although its designed to be a beginner’s guide to the Roman Empire I still enjoyed it immensely. Starting at the mythical Trojan war (yes that is important) and working its way chronologically through 1,200 years this really gives the big picture and well as a lot of detail. Written in nice sized chunks so it doesn’t feel so heavy there is wealth of information I really wish I could just recall at the appropriate time.
The problem with a group of people who accept impossible myths as their truth is how do we differentiate? Here the author is able to give their perspective and at the same time keep it as a factual as best as possible. Far from being dry history this is very readable.
“Vesuvius is the only active volcano on the European mainland. The name may derive from the Oscan dialect fesf, ‘smoke’, or perhaps from Veiovis, a mysterious early Roman god. The volcano’s base is 30 miles (48 km) in circumference and it is 4,000 feet (1,219 m) high. Before it obliterated Pompeii in AD 79 it was perhaps twice as high as it is now.”
― Peter Jones, Veni Vidi Vici
For a more detailed look at one of the many stories in the era I found a copy of The Spartacus War by Barry Strauss. I knew of the story but couldn’t really tell you how or if what I thought I knew was accurate and that was only last year, proof of the rich history of the age.
To me Spartacus was the legendary enemy of Rome, the leader so loved that everyone was willing to sacrifice themselves for the chance to save him. Barry Strauss’ account of the life of this warrior certainly does it’s best to give you the as much history as it can, a difficult task as not everything is proven and a lot when it comes to Spartacus is guesswork. History is certainly different to the Hollywood versions that some people think keep accurately to reality. Sadly a lot of what we assume happened may have been exaggerated or plain invented. That doesn’t stop this being a absorbing read. The author keeps things simple and chronological, so it’s easy to keep up with. When your subject matter is from so long ago (mainly about 73 to 71 BC) keeping things true and reliable is hard; history is written by the winners and in this case Rome lasted longer than Spartacus did, even if it’s Republican form was soon to end. Strauss is honest and when it’s supposition he shows the workings regardless of if it’s his conclusion or not. If you want to know the truth, as best as possible, about this notorious defier of Rome this is a good place to go.
“Gladiators didn’t have friends. They had allies, rivals, bosses, hangers-on, punks, spies, suppliers and double-crossers. The new gladiator learned whom to trust and whom to watch out for, who would cover his back and who would steal his food… One night a man shared a pre-combat meal with his comrades, the next day he killed his table-mate, and shortly after arranged for the victim’s tombstone.”
― Barry Strauss, The Spartacus War
Sometimes it can be a bit daunting taking on something like the history of Rome, then when we try and find good guides the number and variety can make things more overwhelming, however these are just two of a number of excellent works (and if you do get a chance to read I, Claudius and Claudius The God I’d recommend them very highly).
So what I learnt was whilst I love learning about the history of the Roman Empire, for all it’s civilisation, life was cheap and the average person, and therefore the slaves too, didn’t have the easiest of times to put it mildly. I like learning and reading about Rome, but I’m so glad I didn’t live there.
Buy Veni Vidi Vici by Peter Jones
Buy The Spartacus War by Barry Strauss
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2020 In Reading Part Two
My reads, not the books that came out this year…
This is the second of my look back at the books I’ve read in 2020. There were more then appears in these two blogs, some I’ve already written about, some I will do later, some I just read for fun. You can find Part One here (and last year’s batch here and here). So a new year is ahead and it’s quite exciting, I have a blank shelf again as it were. There are many books in my “To Be Read” pile but I’m sure I’ll add to it during the year; in December next year I could well be blogging about a book I’ve never heard of at this moment… well I find that interesting. Happy Reading all.
Cider With Rosie – Laurie Lee. As posted elsewhere I try to avoid knowing anything about a novel before I read it. I’d heard of this book in various places over the years and when I saw it in a second hand shop decided I’d see what it was about. The novel opens with a first person account of moving into a home in the Cotswolds at the age of three, it goes on to then describe what living in this very rural location was like. It soon became clear that this was during the First World War and as such the England that is being written about is certainly different from the one I know. Just as the author was over seeing the cusp of a dramatic change in society I too felt I was doing the same, only over one hundred years later and at a much older age than he was. One of the negative points about avoiding all spoilers is that you miss the things you are supposed to know and it wasn’t until awhile into the book that I realised that the viewpoint of the character I was following was male and not female, it was this revelation that made me do a little research and I discovered that the author’s name is LAURIE and not LAUREN as I’d been misreading it all this time! Cider With Rosie is in fact an account of his actual childhood and the first of a trilogy. The title is a mystery until you near complete the book when at only that point does it make any sense. Overall it’s beautifully written, evoking a simpler time deep in the real English countryside; very much like The Green Fool by Patrick Kavanagh, only his is in Ireland. I enjoyed it so much I’m planning on finishing reading the trilogy.
“I had learnt my first lesson, that I could not hit Vera, no matter how fuzzy her hair.”
“Eight to ten loaves came to the house every day, and they never grew dry. We tore them to pieces with their crusts still warm, and their monotony was brightened by the objects we found in them – string, nails, paper, and once a mouse; for those were days of happy-go-lucky baking.”
― Laurie Lee, Cider With Rosie
The Man In The High Castle – Philip K Dick. The concept of this 1962 novel is intriguing, set at the time of publication mainly in San Francisco (as well as some other other states in the west of what we call the USA), this is a world where the Axis Powers won the Second World War. Nazi Germany rules Europe and the eastern half of America, whilst the west is in the Japanese Empire. There is a book, forbidden in some places, that is a dystopian account of that would have happened if the Allies had won the Second World War. As a world this is very well thought out and and close enough to our own for it to feel totally alien, it’s only talk of going to colonise other planets and unrealistic rocket technology that break the spell. The concept is a good reason to read this novel. The plot, however, is… strange. Generally following the lives of a few citizens in San Francisco, it doesn’t properly lead anywhere. It does feel as if it has things to say, but doesn’t quite get to them. I believe the reason for this is because there was supposed to be a follow up that never happened. The result is with such a great concept and well built world, it feels like this should be amazing but is a missed the opportunity; still worth reading for the setting though.
“Send that,” he told her. “Sign it, et cetera. Work the sentences, if you wish, so that they will mean something.” As she started from the office he added, “Or so that they mean nothing. Whichever you prefer.”
― Philip K. Dick, The Man in the High Castle
It’s All Greek To Me – John Mole. This was a book a friend of mine had read and years ago commented to me that it was a amusing read. I’d made a note of it and it sat in my Amazon list for nearly a decade. It came up very cheap at some point last year and so I got round to ordering it, where is sat in my “to be read pile” until I decided I needed to read something light and fun. This did fit the bill. Telling the true story of the author’s attempt to build a house (or in fact refurbish a very old house) on a Greek island not that far from Athens. It doesn’t really stretch you as a reader, it does make you feel sorry for him when you realise the size of the challenge and smile if not laugh out loud. He paints a very vivid picture of the small Greek village and the people who live there. Not quite up to Gerald Durrell’s standard but this did exactly what I wanted it to do, take me away from England and think about a simpler life, well simple by watching – I’d not actually like to take that task on.
“Where I come from money isn’t to be talked about or flaunted in front of strangers. But Ajax snatched up the wad and counted it out loud, ceremonially, slapping the notes down on the table while the witnesses mouthed the amounts. It was all so public and embarrassing.”
― John Mole, It’s All Greek to Me!
The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie – Muriel Spark. This was a book that I went through stages of hearing about quite a bit, then I’d not hear it mentioned for years only for it regularly resurface once more. I found it in a second hand bookshop for a pound so decided to give it a go. It’s… eccentric. I had no idea what to really expect and it turns out it’s about a teacher at a 1930s girl’s school in Edinburgh; not generally my go to place for stories. The teacher, the eponymous Miss Jean Brodie is obsessed with her “prime” or the peak of her life in all its ways. She mentors groups of girls in what she thinks is the best for them, but as not everyone would agree with her methods it’s all very secretive. It’s a short book, my copy is 128 pages and this is enough. It’s written from the viewpoint of one of her groups of girls and it goes on to show what became of them, but it’s not chronological. It’s not a book I think I would have read if I had not been curious as to why it keeps coming up in various places, or what people mean when they refer to it; as it is there are interesting things to think about, like what is/ was my prime and did/do I take as much appreciation of it as out title character did.
“The word ‘education’ comes from the root e from ex, out, and duco, I lead. It means a leading out. To me education is a leading out of what is already there in the pupil’s soul. To Miss Mackay it is a putting in of something that is not there, and that is not what I call education, I call it intrusion, from the Latin root prefix in meaning in and the stem trudo, I thrust.”
― Muriel Spark, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Buy Cider With Rosie by Laurie Lee
Buy The Man In The High Castle by Philip K Dick
Buy It’s All Greek To Me by John Mole
Buy The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
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2020 In Reading Part One
My reads, not the books that came out this year…
December last year I complied a blog about some of the books I’d read during 2019. I normally do look back over what I’d read over the previous twelve months at this time of year as it gives me a sense of achievement and so I decided, as I had fun doing it in last time, to once again highlight some of my literary journeys of 2020; this is the first of a two parts.
It’s strange looking at last year’s blogs (which can be found here and here) as at the time of writing them I would not have believed what was coming, even only a few months later. If the me that is writing this here and now went back and had a word with myself I would think I too was telling a story.
Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh. Before you ask I did know the author of this was a man before I started reading it (that’s important for later). In January when the world was in its previous state I took a trip to Tirana in Albania taking a copy of this with me. I knew a few facts about it before I started, mainly there was a teddy bear called Aloysius and it was set in either Oxford or Cambridge University. As it turns out the teddy bear wasn’t as important as I expected (not that I was thinking he was a main character) and the setting of Oxford is only in part of the grand tale that is woven over many years. I seem to have, by chance, read a lot of books written in the first person this year (a coincidence as I spent the first half of this year completing my first novel told in this style). Set in the 1920s the narrator is Charles Ryder, at the start a new student at Oxford. At first he is looking to be independent, but soon befriends Sebastian Flyte (owner of Aloysius) and ends up very much tied to not just Sebastian but pretty much the whole family. Many think this is a book about the friendship between the two young men, whilst it starts off that way the later parts of the novel deal with the implications of Charles’ dealings with the whole Flyte family. It seems a long time ago I was sat in a bar in Tirana drinking raki engrossed in tales of Upper Class England and I wish I was back there.
“Oxford, in those days, was still a city of aquatint. In her spacious and quiet streets men walked and spoke as they had done in Newman’s day; her autumnal mists, her grey springtime, and the rare glory of her summer days – such as that day – when the chestnut was in flower and the bells rang out high and clear over her gables and cupolas, exhaled the soft airs of centuries of youth. It was this cloistral hush which gave our laughter its resonance, and carried it still, joyously, over the intervening clamour.”
― Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited
The Etymologicon – Mark Forsyth. Learning the origin of words is addictive. If you are looking for a fix and haven’t read this book, what’s wrong with you? To be honest this was the second time I’d read this. Starting with the word “book” the author leads you on a trail from one word to the next, as he goes he describes the history of each word as well as the secrets hidden in our vocabulary that once told you can’t believe you’d never noticed before. Words that we think of as unconnected are shown to basically be the same thing, or there are many occasions where meanings change so the original understanding may have been something completely different. “Down” is a great example of this, as is the fascinating connection between “black” and “white”. Also, why do we call some alcoholic drinks a punch? This is the type of book that you can start from the beginning and work your way through or just pick up and read a bit of every now and then, although that one section (generally about one or two pages long) will turn into several. The fun you will have discovering why men are gentle, what chickens have to do with pub games and why a race of people ended up being called British. I wish I could memorise it all and quote it at my friends, unfortunately my memory is not that good for which my friends are very grateful. My only wish is that there was an index as there isn’t one the edition I have, so trying to once more find something I vaguely recall is difficult.
“The medievals often mixed up their Gs and Ws, which is why another word for guarantee is warranty.”
― Mark Forsyth, The Etymologicon: A Circular Stroll Through the Hidden Connections of the English Language
The Clocks – Agatha Christie. I’ve given up trying to read Christie’s books in any kind of logical order. I see them cheap, I buy them and take a random one off the pile when I feel it’s time for another dose. The Clocks is typical of what you would expect, although billed as a Poirot novel he actually plays a small, although important, part; as it centres on a narrative by a Colin Lamb, who pretty much does all the leg work in investigating why a man was stabbed to death in odd circumstances. The clocks of the title are there for a reason, but the mystery as always isn’t always as straightforward as Christie wants you to believe it to be. I didn’t guess who was behind it all, but that doesn’t give away anything. This is comfort reading as you know exactly what you are dealing with here (rather ironic for a whodunit – but you know what I mean).
“He’s not dead. But I have a feeling he’s bored. That’s worse.”
― Agatha Christie, The Clocks
The Loneliness Of The Long-Distance Runner – Alan Sillitoe. I didn’t realise this was a collection of short stories. It wasn’t until half way through the second that it dawned on me. I previously heard a Radio 4 adaption of the first story (of the same name) several years ago and liked it although I didn’t remember enough of the plot to realise that the whole thing had finished at the end of what I thought was Chapter One; and so I was somewhat confused as Chapter Two was no longer written in the first person and about something entirely different. There are nine prose stories and a long poem in the volume I have and, as is the case with anthologies, some are better than others. The headliner, The Loneliness Of The Long-Distance Runner, is about a young man who has gone to Borstal and had been encouraged to train and compete in cross country races, during the practice sessions, alone in nature he has time to think. The text is very dense, reading a page felt like I’d read two or three, but I did enjoy it. The writer really gets into the head of this young man and presents the world from his viewpoint. The other stories are somewhat lighter, although mainly dealing with the working classes in the nineteen fifties and the tone is generally stark. It sounds like I’m being negative about this book, I’m not – I liked the worlds of which I was privy to, the private small scale worries of people trying to survive in a world that isn’t designed for them; sometimes grim and heavy is good, here it is.
“I run to a steady jog-trot rhythm, and soon it was so smooth that I forgot I was running, and I was hardly able to know that my legs were lifting and falling and my arms going in and out, and my lungs didn’t seem to be working at all, and my heart stopped that wicked thumping I always get at the beginning of a run. Because you see I never race at all; I just run, and somehow I know that if I forget I’m racing and only jog-trot along until I don’t know I’m running I always win the race. For when my eyes recognise that I’m getting near the end of my course -by seeing a stile or cottage corner- I put on a spurt, and such a fast big spurt it is because I feel that up till then I haven’t been running and that I’ve used up no energy at all.”
― Alan Sillitoe, The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner
Buy Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
Buy The Etymologicon by Mark Forsyth
Buy The Clocks by Agatha Christie
Buy The Loneliness Of The Long-Distance Runner by Alan Sillitoe
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Watership Down, Rabbit Hunting (In A Good Way)
It’s A Real Place
Over the summer I took a number of road trips throughout southern England and I used it as an opportunity to learn some more about my own country. It’s ridiculous I’ve been to some far and obscure places and yet some of the obvious ones on my doorstep I’d not visited. Regardless I got in my car and drove away from them to tour some other options.
My first encounter with Watership Down was, probably like a lot of other people, as a child seeing the cartoon and hearing of its reputation to terrify. I do remember it being quite dark, even as a small kid, but at that age I think I’d confused it with Bambi and several other things; I must have been very small.
One day several years ago I was bored at work and was google mapping England (don’t tell my boss) and to my surprise, quite by accident, I came across a location near the town of Newbury, just over the county border, called Watership Down. I love that part of the country anyway and often go there, but I’d never realised there was an actual place called Watership Down. Memories of the film flashed through my mind, fragmented by the passage of time and the comprehension of a child.
It is the location the author Richard Adams had in mind, in 1920 he was born nearby and would have know the area well. He only passed four years ago.
A few days later I found myself in a bookshop and there on the shelf was a copy of the novel. I felt inspired to read it so took it home (I did pay for it) and started straight away. I loved it. There is some darkness there but it’s not as blatant or strange as the film is said to be; well for a story about a colony of rabbits and their need to survive. There is a lot of depth to it, this is not a children’s story but a myth to be passed down the generations and considered, to learn from, for at times the writing is so astute and rich with substance and intelligence…
“My heart has joined the Thousand, for my friend stopped running today.”
― Richard Adams, Watership Down
But what makes this book so brilliant is the fact that the author Richard Adams knows this world completely, the myths, the history, the relationships, it’s all there. Set in the Hampshire countryside this also benefits from creating beautiful imagery in the mind’s eye, which the reality does live up to.
A couple of years ago I watched the film again, or should I say for the first time not as a small child. It was no way as freaky as I was expecting, in fact I really enjoyed it and was hoping for a bit more weirdness, of course the book is so much better.
Having read the book the traveller in me demanded I went there. It took up until this summer to do so, when I couldn’t really go anywhere else. Just south of Newbury the Down is there and what is lovely is that it’s not been commercialised at all, so much so that you’ve really got to be looking to find it, the way it should be.
I parked a short distance away and decided to walk. Several people were heading back in the opposite direction, already near the end of their hike. The rolling hills of the countryside surrounded me, with Newbury clearly in the distance. It was a glorious Sunday afternoon, the sun was bright, the sky was cloudy but the day warm. There was the hollowness in the air that this type of landscape creates, perfectly ruined by the sound of hard-house emanating from a small isolated house in the valley below, I didn’t mind, others complained.
I was sure I was going in the right direction and stopped to ask what looked like some locals. They all said they weren’t too sure. There is a plaque which will confirm the site, but they didn’t know of it. Eventually I discovered it hidden away and ruined the whole atmosphere of the location by hollering to last group of people I’d asked that I’d found it. There was then a difficult moment when they felt they had to come back and look at it simply because I was standing there waiting to show them. It took them a few minutes to get back and I proudly indicated my find and they politely showed an interest until I walked away.
The whole area is beautiful regardless of the literary significance. I didn’t see any rabbits, I didn’t see much fauna, but the Down is lovely and I can understand why a group of rabbits would want to spend their days here.
“The rabbits mingled naturally. They did not talk for talking’s sake, in the artificial manner that human beings – and sometimes even their dogs and cats – do. But this did not mean that they were not communicating; merely that they were not communicating by talking.”
― Richard Adams, Watership Down
Buy Watership Down by Richard Adams
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Recent Interview
With SmartCherry (Twitter @SmartCherrysTho )
Yesterday I had the pleasure of being interviewed by SmartCherry. You can find his YouTube channel here.
These days I’m used to video chatting with people, as most of us are; it’s strange to watch it back though. I’m pleased to say, although I move about a bit and use the word “err” a little to much I think I come across alright. He’s very professional, you can see which one of us is used to it!
I suggested the title. If you want to watch me ramble on about my books click below.
Check out some of his other interviews as there are lots of good ideas and advice from other writers.
Thank you SmartCherry for taking the time to chat to me.
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Arthur Hofn - Literature 