bookswelike

bwl 110 - Autumn 2023

Fiction

Lucy Atkins - Windmill Hill

A crumbling windmill, two eccentric older women in retreat from their past lives, three indulged dachshunds plus a sprinkling of characters form the the backdrop for this very entertaining story. The narrative is mostly taken from thoughts Astrid has while travelling on a train, with a backstory running alongside - the windmill was inhabited in the 1920's by bohemians (creating local scandals) - and letters found amongst their possessions in the windmill are quoted throughout the book. Haunting, tragic but often funny! (Mary Standing)

John Banville - The Book of Evidence

Desperate for money to repay a loan, Freddie, a gifted scientist, visits his family home in the hope of retrieving some valuable paintings, only to find his mother has sold them to a friend. He decides to steal one, is disturbed by a maid and brutally kills her with a hammer. Awaiting trial in prison, he writes this astonishing confession as a meditation on evil and guilt. The prose is Nabakovian - poetic, compelling and darkly comic. Unforgettable! (Denise Lewis)

Eleanor Catton - The Luminaries

It's about a gold mining community in New Zealand in the 1860s. And a murder mystery. And about 12 fascinating principal characters. And about the ethnic variation of the population. And about the South Sea and Oriental Trade. And about the Zodiac. This is an amazing and profound book. This snapshot doesn't begin to describe how remarkable this book is. The 2013 Man Booker winner. (Herb Roselle)

R M Delderfield - A Horseman Riding By (trilogy)

Looking for a long Autumn read to while away those darkeninbg days? Look no further than this nostalgic saga in which idealistic Paul Craddock returning from the Boer war becomes squire of an estate in rural Devon. The three books follow his life, his loves, his hopes, his dreams and that of his tenants as two world wars disrupt their lives. Kick off your shoes, relax and enjoy! (Jenny Baker)

R M Delderfield - Long Summer Day

The first in the “Horseman “ trilogy, opening when Paul Craddock , on returning from the Boer war uses an inheritance to buy a remote Devon estate. Enchanted by the place he is determined to forge a new life and make a success as “Squire “ of Swallowfield. All who live there from tenants to gentry and professionals are brought vividly to life against the backdrop of the early twentieth century. A long but highly enjoyable read leaving me wanting to pursue the saga. (Sue Pratt)

Elly Griffiths - The Last Remains

The latest Ruth Galloway mystery: a walled up skeleton is found and enquiries start into a twenty year old murder. Set in a Norfolk of crime detection, archaeology and occult mythology, its locations are real with engaging police and academic cross-currents. The mystery progressively, sometimes dramatically, unravels while the relationships of sympathetic but very different main characters change significantly. A consistently absorbing read – in the author’s intelligent company – but the dark deeds and undertones nevertheless felt a bit cosy and unthreatening. (Tony Pratt)

Jenny Jackson - Pineapple Street

On the surface simply a lighthearted romp through the life of super-rich New Yorkers – what an eye-opener! It follows two sisters, Darley and Giorgiana and their sister-in-law Sasha unkindly christened the Gold Digger as she comes from a humbler background. Jackson is extremely funny about snobbery and entitlement – the appalling mother with her 'tablescapes' – but when Darley and Giorgiana find themselves facing real life problems, it went deeper than I expected. I enjoyed it! (Annabel Bedini)

Lisa Jewell - None of This is True

While celebrating their fortyfifth birthdays Alix and Josie meet and discover they are 'birthday twins', born on the same day in the same hospital. What follows is a cleverly constructed, dark psychological thriller where journalist Alix decides to tell Josie's story. But Josie has her own agenda, infiltrating and dominating every area of Alix's life, family and home. This is a compulsive page turner which you just know will not end well! (Sue Pratt)

Sadie Jones - Amy & Lan

A group of townie families hope to make a go of semi-communal farming and the story is told by two children, Amy & Lan. Inevitably their ideals and best intentions prove hard to fulfill and real life, human nature, not to mention the neighbours all get in the way. I found Amy & Lan's level of emotional maturity hard to believe sometimes but it's charming, entertaining and full of recognisable traits of contemporary British life. (Victoria Grey-Edwards)

Andrey Kurkov - Grey Bees

Sergey and his frenemy are the only inhabitants in a tiny abandoned village in Ukraine’s Grey Zone in the Donbas region. Under constant bombardment, with no electricity and very little food, Sergey, a simple, kindhearted man, decides to take his bees away from the shelling so they can fly safely and pollinate in peace. Although set in a war zone and addressing the history and politics of the region, for me it was magical, because it was so gentle and uplifting. (Denise Lewis)

Pierre Lemaitre - The Wide World: Book 1 of The Glorious World trilogy

The four children of a wealthy French, Beirut based, soap manufacturer embark on widely varied lives which bring them to postwar Paris and colonial Vietnam and into close contact with corruption in high places. The mix of secrets, ambition, murder, sex and drugs is irresistible. While the context of the novel is an overall series depicting France in the twentieth century, and loosely linked by certain characters and incidents, the novels stand perfectly well alone. Highly entertaining. (Tony Pratt)

Meg Mason - Sorrow and Bliss

There's a lot of sorrow and for me not very much bliss. It's been described as warm and hilarious, but instead of wanting to hug the narrator and have a giggle, I wanted to throw her out of the window as she goes on and on about how miserable she is, life's unfairness and people's failure to understand her. Maybe it's my British stiff upper lip not letting me find mental illness funny. (Jenny Baker)

Daniel Mason - The Piano Tuner

In 1886 the British War Office reluctantly agrees to send a piano tuner to the jungles of Burma to tune the piano of a highly influential British army doctor. Although the War Office is secretive about many details of the assignment, the middle-aged Edgar Drake dutifully accepts the commission, packs up his tools and heads for Burma. What follows is an adventure story that will stay with you long after the last page. (Sharron Calkins)

Ian McEwan - Lessons

The only book. I've been reading lately and not yet got to the end! All I can say when half way through is that it contains a lot more sex than piano lessons than I expected! However I like his style of writing and find him easy to carry my eye on to see what happens. (Aletha Anne Bloor)

Max Phillips - The Artist's Wife

The life of bold, ambitious, beautiful Alma Schindler reimagined by the author, and narrated in the voice of Alma herself. Called ‘the most beautiful girl in Vienna’, she was muse and wife to the much older composer Gustav Mahler. Fickle as well as passionate, Alma unapologetically moved on to mesmerise and bed many of the artistic geniuses of the day: the writer Franz Werfel; the painters Gustav Klimt and Oskar Kokoschka and the architect Walter Gropius. Fascinating from beginning to end. (Sharron Calkins)

J K Rowling - The Casual Vacancy

I don't totally agree with Melvin Bragg's opinion that this is a wonderful novel! It was however, accomplished, as one might expect of this author. With something of the insight of Jane Austen and the apt characterisation of Oscar Wilde, it is a keenly observed portrayal of the full range of pretensions and prejudices to be found in a typical conservative small English town. With its dialogue delivered in the vernacular of a much-maligned Housing Estate culture, might make this novel not a suitable Xmas gift for Granny! (Margaret Teh)

Kamila Shamsie - Best of Friends

A beautifully written, deeply perceptive examination of friendship. We follow bosom friends Zahra and Maryam, from fourteen-year-olds in Karachi to successful middle-aged women in London, Zahra a top human rights executive, Maryam accepting government patronage for her personally intrusive computer programme. Can the friendship survive? In a dramatic denouement simmering resentments emerge including an adolescent episode – Zahra got them into trouble, Maryam was punished – which has haunted their lives. I won't spoil it by divulging the ending! (Annabel Bedini)

Zadie Smith - On Beauty

In this fictional story two privileged families collide in the world of academia. The younger members of both families, new to the pitfalls of adulthood, can be forgiven their headstrong behaviour. Not so for their successful academic fathers. While much space is given in the book to two competing men with insufferable egos, it is the non-academic wives who bring the much needed dignity and gravitas to this tale. (Sharron Calkins)

Gabrielle Zevin - Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

To Sam and Sadie all the world's a literary video game. It's how they met as children and how as adults they lead their lives playing, inventing and creating new ones. For me a completely alien world yet I was drawn into their strange and complicated lives in which their friendship is the one constant sustaining them. It's weird but wonderful! (Jenny Baker)

Non-Fiction

Annabel Abbs - Windswept: Why Women Walk

Women have always walked – out of Africa and searching for food, water and shelter. However, post-industrial societies confined women more. Abbs, whilst searching for her own reasons for walking, follows the paths of seven very different women who broke with convention and walked in ‘the wilds’. Did they escape into freedom of thought and to gain a sense of belonging in the landscape? Who can say but it was essential to them. Fascinating and a beautiful, meditative read. (Christine Miller)

David Boyle - Tickbox

Ever filled in a Feedback which lets you award stars but not make a comment? In an often amusing but deadly book, the author skewers how organisations destroy complexity via bureaucratic categories and targets which provide useless information while impairing the end product. Want to set targets for NHS waiting lists or response times? Trolleys become beds, definitions change, but nothing actually improves. Call centres are a nightmare. The author sees few easy remedies but you feel better because he’s onto what’s wrong. (Tony Pratt)

Bill Browder - Freezing Order:A True Story of Russian Money Laundering, Murder,and Surviving Vladimir Putin's Wrath

For those prepared to be horrified, and confirmed in their opinion that the Russian state is indeed in the hands of an evil emperor and his retinue, this book is a staggering testimony. It is the true story of the pursuit of an individual who uncovered and reported large-scale money laundering, murder and revenge, implicating not just the oligarchs, but Putin himself. I agree with Stephen Fry that this book has a stunning plot, real heroism and is a cracking read. (Margaret Teh)

Chris Bryant - Code of Conduct: Why we need to fix parliament and how to do it

No one is more qualified to expound on this tale of corruption, sleaze, misdemeanours, lying, nepotism, cronyism and conflicts of interest amongst our elected legislators than the Chair of the Committees on Standards and Privileges. That he can do so with humour, lack of personal rancour and much good sense is the reason why this short but pithy tome is compulsive reading. Whatever you've read about recent scandals, this will tell you exactly what happened. (Jeremy Miller)

Winston S. Churchill - Great Contemporaries

Among his accomplishments he won the Nobel for Literature with his histories and biographies. The language is elegant, with delightful choices of word and phrase. He is free with both praise and condemnation, and his view is quite personal. His contemporaries have to share the page with WSC as well. He is always present. (Herb Roselle)

William Cook - One Leg Too Few

Two great talents: Cook - a brilliantly, original comic mind, instrumental in launching the Sixties' satire boom and Moore - an exceptional musician, a winning performer, who achieved film stardom. Both flawed, their quality overshadowed by womanising or drink, and their lives ended sadly and too soon. The account, in evoking their achievements, is a reminder of how much sheer entertainment they provided. While the relationship of ‘Pete’ and ‘Dud’ was often difficult, the frustrations, it is clear, reflected an underlying love, making this ultimately a very moving account (Tony Pratt)

Irving Finkel - The First Ghosts

When you think of the ancient past, do you think of ghosts as part of the culture? Here Irving Finkel introduces us to the ghosts of Assyria. And there are many and real. This is a fascinating journey through cuneiform tablets that open the door to an ancient belief in ghosts - and how to deal with them. Finkel is erudite, enthusiastic and amusing, the way history should be presented. (Ferelith Hordon)

Kate Fox - The Racing Tribe: Portrait of a British Subculture

No need to know which end of a horse is which or to have ever seen a race to relish this book, a hilarious read as well as a most seriously researched scientific treatise. In a first-ever in-depth study of the racing world, this seemingly insouciant young anthropologist has uncovered and described a complete tribal subculture in an extremely well-written book. Although her ability to laugh at herself is disarming, her professionalism is obvious, her style translucent, her conclusions undoubtedly valuable and her comments fair. Not to be missed. (Kathie Somerwil Ayrton)

Timothy Garton Ash - Homelands: A personal history of Europe

The author brings unprecedented first-hand experience as an academic, as a political commentator, and as a friend of many of the leading players in Europe over the last 30 years to shed light on Europe's spectacular progress and the subsequent uncertainty following the 2008 financial crisis, the Covid pandemic and the war in Ukraine. Whilst he stops short of expounding a road to recovery, his memoir gives us a profound sense of what Europe could be. (Jeremy Miller)

Duncan Hamilton - Answered Prayers:England and the 1966 World Cup

Leading sportswriter Hamilton comes up with new perspectives on the world of football in those days. Central is Alf Ramsey - reserved, difficult, intensely private - who commanded his players' intense loyalty but never the full recognition he deserved. Highlighting the differences between todays and yesterday’s underpaid stars - mowing the grass, going to church rather than writing-off expensive cars - he goes wider than football and paints a portrait of a different nation. I watched the Final on TV and have read yards on it since but this account gave me new insights. (Tony Pratt)

Levison Wood and Geraint Jones - Escape from Kabul: The Inside Story

This – indeed 'inside' – account of the dramatic evacuation of Kabul draws on first hand testimony of those involved, as they struggled to bring some kind of order to what was in effect total and uncoordinated chaos. Harrowing beyond words, a shocking indictment of military and political failures, mitigated only by rare examples of selflessness and heroism. This should be obligatory reading for anyone who tries to whitewash what was in reality a catastrophic human disaster. (Annabel Bedini)

Andrew Roberts - Churchill: Walking with Destiny

This biography brings a lot of recently available material into the mix. It's a sympathetic portrait of an extraordinary leader, with the blemishes included. It's well written and pulls the reader along. It's a page turner, and that's a compliment. (Herb Roselle)

Roger Scruton - Against the Tide

Regardless of your political views, this is an exceptional presentation of the conservative (small c) view. His knowledge and intellect is broad and deep. His writing is clear and elegant. His orientation is Burkean. A diverse collection of articles and essays. (Herb Roselle)

Mark Thomson - The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front 1915-1919

Little has been written in English about the unprecedented violence of the prolonged campaign between Italy and Austria in the harsh and unforgiving territory of the Dolomites, Trentino and Trieste. The author recounts the twelve battles on the Isonzo river which resulted in losses far greater in proportion than those of the Western front. Italy sank into chaos and eventually fascism. The liberal traditions of Garibaldi were alas shattered, some say lost for ever. (Jeremy Miller)

Polly Toynbee - An Uneasy Inheritance

The author comes from a long line of radicals and rabble-rousers whose progressive views in support of the working classes were espoused from the prosperous middle-class purlieus of academia and journalism. Rather than succumbing to the guilt of inherited privilege, she explains her personal quest to eliminate its inherent contradictions. What shines through in this moving and absorbing memoir is her intellectual honesty where so much of what she writes is highly pertinent today. (Jeremy Miller)

Poetry

Matt Goodfellow - Let's Chase Stars Together

In this sequence of poems, beautifully packaged and presented by the publisher with the evocative illustrations of Oriol Vidal, Matt Goodfellow takes the reader through the experience of a 13 year old boy as he faces the problems, the sadness – and the joy in his life. The immediacy of the poems is instantly engaging, the language accessible, the emotions recognisable; an outstanding sequence of poems for young people (and adults). (Ferelith Hordon)

Feedback

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‘In Memoriam’ (fiction bwl 109) kept me reading and vividly depicted the transformation from privileged public schoolboys, absorbed in their own relationships, to the sacrificial officer class in the trenches of the First World War. The war was a traumatic episode in our national life, its ramifications felt throughout the century which has followed but for me, though, the whole subject has been just too thoroughly worked over. It started with the memoirs of Graves, Sassoon and others and has carried on with innumerable novels, plays and feature films. I finished the novel thinking that, for all its merits, it told me nothing I hadn’t already heard already. Am I alone in thinking that The War has become a literary cliché from which we need a rest? (Tony Pratt)

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Barbara Kingsolver is one of my favourite living north American writers, also an environmental activist and a progressive thinker/supporter of social change. I was just reading her autobiography on her website and it makes me happy to think she exists in our world, now. ( I might be a wee bit envious but she deserves admiration more than anything else!) I totally recommend her latest book - Demon Copperhead, bwl 108 (amongst several others) but this one I'm loving on Audible. At first the strong accent put me off but now I love it. It’s breaking my heart but I’m also flabbergasted at how we can learn and reflect about our world through the art of storytelling. (Sally Guttierez Diaz)

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I share Victoria Grey-Edwards enthusiasm (bwl 14) for Patricia Highsmith’s ‘The Talented Mr Ripley,’ a book which draws you into the amoral and-self absorbed central character as his faults lead him into committing unspeakable acts. One thing leads to another and the author’s great trick is to have you on tenterhooks as you find yourself rooting for a villain. Written nearly seventy years ago, the novel wears well. (Tony Pratt)

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