bwl 112 - Spring 2024
Fiction
| Edwin A. Abbott - Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions
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| This wonderful caprice, first published in 1884, follows the adventures of geometric characters in a two-dimensional world where the number of sides an inhabitant has indicates social status. Women are represented by straight lines – how un-PC is that! But then this is a Victorian jeu d'esprit. Workers are triangles, professional men are squares and so on. You get the drift. The excitement comes when a three-dimensional object invades Flatland - I mustn’t give away any spoilers! (Jeremy Miller)
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| Candace Cartey Williams - Queenie
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| Meet Queenie, the truly annoying heroine of her story – but she certainly cannot be ignored. You will tear your hair as she falls from one inappropriate relationship to another in an effort to drown her misery in the wake of a failed love affair. You will either hate or love this novel and it could provide fodder for discussion – is the author being subtly ironic or are the clichés just that? (Ferelith Hordon)
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| Jane Gardam - The People on Privilege Hill
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| A collection of 14 short stories - not everyone's cup of tea I know, but these are Gardam at her best exploring life, love and loneliness with her gently mocking humour. The first story features Edward Feathers from her novel 'Old Filth' who now nearly 90 is living out retirement in Dorset. The rest are varied, some very short, often surreal, and I particularly enjoyed the last three. Ideal bedtime or holiday reading! (Mary Standing)
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| Georgette Heyer - Lady of Quality
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| Annis Wychwood is a very well-brought up lady, no longer so very young, with independent ways and independent means, and when she meets the rudest man in London, of her own social station but blunt in speech and careless to a fault, sparks begin to fly. Very clever and fabulously witty, as always exceptionally well-researched, this is Georgette Heyer at her very best, and Bath comes to life as it deserves.
(Kathie Somerwil Ayrton)
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| Elizabeth Jane Howard - The Cazalet Chronicle - The Light Years, Marking Time, Confusion, Casting Off and All Change
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| Three generations of the Cazalet family grow up, immersing the reader totally in their lives and doings. The saga starts during the war when the whole family, parents, four adult children and their young offspring, two elderly aunts, and a resident governess move to the family home in Sussex. By the end of the saga the grandchildren have children of their own. These books were originally published in the 1990s but read as if they were written today. By the end, you can't believe you have had to say goodbye to people who feel like your own family. Totally involving, wonderful stuff! (Annabel Bedini)
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| Claire Keegan - Foster
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| A young girl from a large and growing family is sent one summer to live in the countryside with two unfamiliar relatives, the Kinsellas. Their kindness, love and care gift her emotional growth but she is equally a gift to them. There are detailed descriptions of the rural landscape and rich characterisations, despite its brevity. Its emotional impact is deep and lingers long after reading. Keegan’s gift to the reader perhaps. (Christine Miller)
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| Charlotte McConaghy - The Last Migration (or in some places just Migrations)
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| A compelling read, set in an imagined near-future, when most animals and nearly all birds have become extinct. A damaged young woman makes it her mission to follow the last migration of the Arctic Tern, from Greenland to Antarctica. The story makes a powerful statement about human behaviour over preceding decades, presenting the resulting damaged world through the eyes of an intelligent, if disturbed character, as her background reveals ample provocation and explanation of her erratic behaviour. The drama of her journey, including her terror being at sea in dangerous waters is convincingly conveyed and development of story and characters evolve seamlessly. (Margaret Teh)
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| Coco Mellors - Cleopatra and Frankenstein
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| I got the impression the author had thought about this book for a long time and thrown everything in it, including love, passion, betrayal, addiction, loneliness, depression, religion, illness and death (by suicide or other). All set in a hedonistic New York where the above issues generally get the better of the 2 main characters (beautiful young artist and successful older ad-man) and their friends as they crash through their lives heading to destruction – or redemption ? A page turner and quite well written but it could almost be satirical as so many stereotypes featured . (Rebecca Howell)
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| Ann Patchett - Tom Lake
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| It's cherry picking time in the middle of the pandemic and Lara's three grown daughters have returned to the family orchard. They beg her to tell them the story they've always longed to hear of how she once acted and fell in love with a not yet famous film star. As she remembers so Lara reflects on the difference between her adolescent dreams and the life she now leads. Would she change anything? Read and find out! Another Patchett gem.
(Jenny Baker)
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| Andrew Taylor - The Anatomy of Ghosts
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| I have always enjoyed Andrew Taylor’s books about James Marwood and Cat Lovett. This is set a little later and we find ourselves in the dingy, murky world of a Cambridge college in the eighteenth century. There is a suspicious death, the suggestion of a ghost, a disturbed undergraduate (or is he) the slippery politics of academia and a main protagonist to catch your attention – John Holdsworth. Gripping and immersive. (Ferelith Hordon)
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| Paul Theroux - Burma Sahib
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| Theroux is a keen observer of human behaviour but I find his fictional biography of George Orwell somewhat thinly drawn, repetitious and rather dull. We read about the Orwell’s height and school (Eton) endlessly though neither have a direct bearing on his growing disaffection with the apparatus of colonial power. This ‘novel’ only really comes to life when Theroux injects Orwell’s alter ego, John Flory, the central character of Burmese Days into the narrative. (Jeremy Miller)
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| Silvia Vecchini - Before Nightfall
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| How would you cope if as a young teen you are hearing-impaired and only have the use of one eye; and things are deteriorating? You face a difficult operation. Would you feel alone? Not if you have a sister like Emma. We meet them through the poems Emma writes as well as the voices of adults around them. Recommended for your teen readers – or try it yourself. (Ferelith Hordon)
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| Niall Williams - Only Say the Word
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| This is the story of a boy growing up in County Clare who travels to America and returns to Ireland with a wife. But the heart of the book is about negotiating life, love, grief, loss and hope. The characters are vivid, the sense of time and place real and Williams’ writing is always beautiful, his Irish voice shining through, but for me I found this book too downbeat, sombre and dark. A personal view maybe. (Sue Pratt)
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Non-Fiction
| Rory Carroll - Killing Thatcher: The IRA, the Manhunt and the Long War on the Crown
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| This detailed, exciting account places the Brighton bombing in its context of evolving political strategies and operational capabilities. From the Mountbatten assassination to the to the hunger strikes which made Margaret Thatcher a hate figure, the war pitched the IRA against skilled and persistent pursuers. A tense, gripping story with much hinging on sheer chance. Magee, the bomber, and Thatcher, the Prime Minister. It was her finest moment – she showed her mettle and ‘it gleamed’ – but was also the central act of an unfolding drama which culminated in peace. The covert, claustrophobic world of the terrorist and the tragedy of innocent victims are vividly evoked and stay in the mind. (Tony Pratt)
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| Tobias Jones - The Po: An Elegy for Italy's Longest River
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| Anyone who has enjoyed Jones's previous affectionate and knowledgable books about Italy will fall on this with glee. He traces the course of Italy's longest river – mostly on foot – from its delta to its source, exploring its influence on the surrounding countryside and its changing role throughout history. He ends up calling this an 'elegy' as he sees how diminished it is, both as a major waterway and as an influence on traditional ways of life. A lovely book! (Annabel Bedini)
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| David Mitchell - Unruly: A History of England's Kings and Queens
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| A history of British monarchy up to Elizabeth, filled with humor and not so much majesty. History without pain or boredom. These people were often quite pious but not very nice. They varied widely in their ability to rule but excelled in killing as needed, or even not needed. A wonderful essay on the greatness of Shakespeare caps off the reign of Elizabeth I. An enjoyable excursion. (Herb Roselle)
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| Eleanor Parker - Conquered: The Last Children of Anglo-Saxon England
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| An unusual insight into the Norman Conquest exploring the lives of those children uprooted by the events of 1066. She writes about the ancient families of Harold Godwineson, the last remaining heirs of the Anglo-Saxon royal line - Edgar Aetheling, Margaret and Christina (who fled to Scotland where Margaret became queen and saint},the hero Hereward the Wake, rebel against the Norman conquerors in the Fens, and many more. . . this young generation shaped the England we know today, and the medieval sources come alive to us, not so long ago after all.
(Kathie Somerwil Ayrton)
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| Richard B. Sewell - The Life of Emily Dickinson
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| In this award-winning biography the author introduces us to the late Puritan-era
lives of the accomplished Dickinson family of Amherst, Massachusetts. The men
are shown to be well-educated individuals of high social standing and purpose,
always in the public eye. Emily, in contrast, carves out a private and rarified life in
which she devotes her life to writing poetry. She never marries. In truth, I
found the biography heavy on facts, but light on insights. After reading these TWO
volumes of information, Emily is still an enigma to me. (Sharron Calkins)
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| Sei Shönagon - The Pillow Book
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| Sei Shōnagon was court lady to Empress Consort Teishi in Heian-period Japan. Her journal is the earliest example of women’s writing in that country. In a witty literary style she offers vignettes of social repartee at court, gossip, essays, poems, musings, and her famous ‘lists’. Lists are of her favorite novels, or of layered kimono color combinations that are ‘delightful’ or ‘lovely’. Lists concerning the seasons, and Lists of awkward situations. With her journal, she crosses the centuries to share a knowing smile with us. I found it impossible to not smile back at her.
(Sharron Calkins)
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| Gertrude Stein - The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas
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| This new incarnation is pure fun. The colorful, ‘painterly’ illustrations ‘in the style of Matisse‘, but not actually painted by Matisse, add a second layer of playfulness to an autobiography not actually written by Alice B. Toklas, either. Visit the mesmerizing world of Gertrude Stein in Paris, Spain, the French countryside, during two World Wars as she befriends the likes of Picasso, Matisse, Braque, Apollinaire, Gris, Van Dongen, and Hemingway. Read this illustrated autobiography, too, to avoid theannoying typos and tiny print of earlier publications. Quite simply, this book was adelight.
(Sharron Calkins)
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| Nina Stibbe - Went to London, Took the Dog: The Diary of a 60-Year-Old Runaway
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| Having enjoyed 'Love Nina', her first book, I was looking forward to this diary account of a year in the life of Stibbe, but I was disappointed. Returning to London after 20 years from her home in Cornwall, she rents a room in the home of fellow writer Deborah Moggach. Now divorced and her children both students in London, Nina needs a change of scene to write. The resulting diary (though often funny) felt contrived and just didn't work for me. (Mary Standing)
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| Andrea Wulf - Magnificent Rebels: The First Romantics and the Invention of the Self
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| The birth of the Romantic movement in literature and the first appearance of the philosophy of self. The French Revolution had thrown up Napoleon, who was devouring the whole of Europe and these political and military shocks produced a kind of intellectual power house which began in Jena in provincial Germany, where like-minded intellectual and artistic young people met as firm friends and, with the encouragement of Goethe and Schiller, inspired each other to great literary and philosophical heights on which we feed today. A clever, enlightening and entertaining book.
(Kathie Somerwil Ayrton)
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Poetry
| Elizabeth Jennings - A Spell of Words |
| I have always loved anthologies of poetry but less often collections featuring one poet. But this changes my mind. How did I miss it? A selection of the poems by Elizabeth Jennings for children published in 1997. You have to get it from the National Poetry Library. These are not poems written for children so there is no “talking down”. What a lovely, thoughtful poet she was. This is a perfect entrée if you have never read anything by her and brings welcome familiarity if her work is already known to you. Due for a reprint! (Ferelith Hordon) |
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| Glancing at the now considerable bwl back catalogue I was struck by the almost complete absence of Flashman novels by George Macdonald Fraser. The stories are action packed and an education in the history of imperial and other conflict in which Victorian England engaged. The author has done considerable research into an extraordinary and extravagant period of our history but it’s all so entertainingly depicted that the education imparted is painless. And it’s all weaved around (and by) the fictional Flashman, one of the most engagingly cynical and unscrupulous villains in literature. The narratives bowl along without the confusing time shifts and cries of emotional victimhood too often evident in much recent fiction. (Tony Pratt) |
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