Moby Dick

Synopsis: When Ishmael sets sail on the whaling ship Pequod one cold Christmas Day, he has no idea of the horrors awaiting him out on the vast and merciless ocean. The ship's strange captain, Ahab, is in the grip of an obsession to hunt down the famous white whale, Moby Dick, and will stop at nothing on his quest to annihilate his nemesis.

Review: I'm not an avid seafarer, I've been known to go a bit green around the gills on the Isle of Wight ferry, but I do love reading books about the sea and I think you have to be a bit of an enthusiast to get the most out of this story, perhaps not quite as fanatical as Captain Ahab but definitely interested in all things nautical and whaling in particular because the book goes into such minute descriptions that anyone not interested will just find it boring, wordy and hard work. It's true that the actual story could be told in half the amount of pages maybe less but I enjoyed all the detail and relished the lulls as well as the peaks. Sometimes it felt more like a reference book but just as you're getting bogged down with all the facts and figures you are pulled back into the pitch and toss of the story once more. The chapters, on the whole, are extremely short (sometimes less than a page long) and this helps you to feel you're progressing.

It's a large book but absolutely compelling, there are long chapters on cetology and descriptions of the crew and ship (so detailed that you feel he has included every plank and nail,) but I didn't find myself wandering at any point, I was genuinely interested in all the minutiae. It's not an easy read though and is probably not for those who like their adventure stories to rattle along, you probably could skip all the chapters about whaling lore and read a sort of potted version. Occasionally the writing leaps into madness and you just hang on for dear life, Ahab himself spouts all sorts of maniacal rhetoric and the thoughts and remarks of the crew are given in one long continuous stream.

As most people know (from it's famous first line) this is a story told from the perspective of Ishmael, but strangely Ishmael is the character that we get to know the least .. probably because he is observing others and relating all to us. There are fascinating descriptions of the others though, in particular Queequeg (the cannibal harpooneer and 'infernal head peddler') with his yellow purplish skin tattoed with blackish squares, his small scalp-knot twisted upon his forehead, his legs which were marked as if 'a parcel of dark green frogs were running up the trunks of young palms' and his tomahawk clenched between his teeth and Ahab with his whalebone leg, broad form seemingly made of solid bronze and facial scar that disappears into his clothing which 'resembled that perpendicular seam sometimes made in the straight lofty trunk of a great tree, when the upper lightning tearingly darts it down, and without wrenching a single twig, peels and grooves out the bark from top to bottom, ere running off into the soil, living the tree still greenly alive, but branded.'

Ishmael, seeking adventure and needing some money thinks he will 'sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hat's off - then, I account it high time to get to sea.' This time he has a notion to go whaling and so betakes himself to Nantucket to sign up as a member of the crew for the whaling ship the Pequod. What he doesn't realise at this point is that the captain of the Pequod is a man who has been driven to madness and beyond by his desire for revenge on the white whale Moby Dick.

I was especially excited to read the climax and abolish once and for all awful images of Gregory Peck clonking about on deck, waging war on a huge piece of fibreglass (I just couldn't suspend disbelief enough.) An added benefit of this beautiful Vintage edition is the inclusion of an extract from Owen Chase's 'Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-ship Essex', a true account which, if anything, I found even more fascinating than that of Moby Dick.

I loved it, I felt like I was drenched with salt and greasy with spermaceti by the time I'd finished and knew enough to be able to pass muster as a harpooneer if ever I could be prevailed upon to do anything as barbaric as hunt whales (which I never could .. first there's the seasickness and then there's the squeamishness .. I can't even despatch a flower munching garden slug.) Actually the whales were the one's that had my deepest sympathies, in that respect Moby Dick is a bit of a hero ... he is not going to have any truck with these murderous seamen and he's definitely the one calling the shots and wearing the trousers.

I found it really enthralling but it's a book that should come with a warning, if you're easily bored or like stories with a lot of pace and action, this probably isn't for you. It wasn't successful in it's day and that's probably because it's considered by some to be long winded (but as you can tell by this review ... long winded isn't a problem for me ) It's not a relaxing read but I found the effort well worth it, I read some of the best passages I've ever read .. I think I would have given him 10 out of 10 just for writing a line such as ... 'whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul' .. bliss! (and now someone will tell me that Shakespeare first wrote that )

The Bookshop

Synopsis: Penelope Fitzgerald's wonderful Booker-nominated novel. This, Penelope Fitzgerald's second novel, was her first to be shortlisted for the Booker Prize. It is set in a small East Anglian coastal town, where Florence Green decides, against polite but ruthless local opposition, to open a bookshop. 'She had a kind heart, but that is not much use when it comes to the matter of self-preservation.' Hardborough becomes a battleground, as small towns so easily do. Florence has tried to change the way things have always been done, and as a result, she has to take on not only the people who have made themselves important, but natural and even supernatural forces too. This is a story for anyone who knows that life has treated them with less than justice.

Review: Strangely I didn't find this an easy read and I'm not entirely sure why except to say that Penelope Fitzgerald has her own style of writing which is not necessarily immediately accessible. You do get the feeling that her words have been chosen carefully and as such there are meanings behind meanings and your brain can spend a bit of a time splashing about in the sentences .. perhaps I just wasn't concentrating hard enough .. I kept having to do the re-reading sentences thing as the prose is quite spare. She's a writer of great skill and precision though, not one word is wasted. The concept is a great one .. who could fail to be interested by Florence and the bookshop she has opened amid local opposition .. I just saw the word 'bookshop' and I was there with bells on. I've read similar stories before, small minded people in small towns who are able, through their lofty connections, to put rather large spanners in the works of decent, hard working, honest folk but here it's dealt with in a different more subtle way and as such the ideas seem fresh and original.

'She had a kind heart, though that is not of much use when it comes to the matter of self-preservation. For more than eight years of half a lifetime she had lived at Hardborough on the very small amount of money her late husband had left her and had recently come to wonder whether she hadn't a duty to make it clear to herself, and possibly to others, that she existed in her own right. Survival was often considered all that could be asked in the cold and clear East Anglian air. Kill or cure, the inhabitants thought - either a long old age, or immediate consignment to the salty turf of the churchyard.'

It's not at all the book I was expecting, I was hoping for something a bit more Maeve Binchy probably with chatty gossipy customers and lots of book talk (a sit-com version of my weekly visits to Waterstones most likely ) but all the characters were rather mysterious and impenetrable. At first, as I say, I found it difficult and it didn't grab me but before I was halfway through I was hooked and enjoying it. The pressure put on Florence to relinquish her plans is not so much heavy as relentless. You couldn't call her feisty but she's not a woman to be easily swayed or diverted from her path so a rather strong battle of wills ensues. There's a mystical element weaving through it too, as the bookshop has a live in poltergeist or a 'rapper' as it's known locally (or 'unusual period atmosphere' as the house agent would have it) and it's also a humorous book, not lol but plenty of out loud smiling. One of the characters I really enjoyed reading about was ten and a half year old Christine who helped out at the bookshop after school, a real gift of a character, sparky but vulnerable. It's only short and I found I was really getting into it when it finished, I wanted to know more about some of the characters which is always a good sign. It's a book to be re-read often, I'm sure I'll gain more from it each time.

Mrs Woolf & the Servants

Synopsis: Virginia Woolf was a feminist and a bohemian but without her servants – cooking, cleaning and keeping house - she might never have managed to write. Mrs Woolf and The Servants explores the hidden history of service. Through Virginia Woolf’s extensive diaries and letters and brilliant detective work, Alison Light chronicles the lives of those forgotten women who worked behind the scenes in Bloomsbury, and their fraught relations with one of the twentieth century’s greatest writers.

Review: Brilliantly researched and packed full of information, this was just an eye opener from start to finish. The book is mainly about Virginia Woolf and her rather tempestuous relationships with the servants, in particular her cook Nellie Boxall, but it's also a fairly thorough history of domestic service in Britain during the 19th and 20th centuries. Virginia's attempts to 'manage' her servants are laughable even farcical .. she has absolutely no idea. Ideally she and Leonard would have liked to be servantless (and they actually claimed to be later in life though they conveniently forgot that they employed a gardener and a maid.) Virginia hated the thought of a live-in domestic and found their presence intrusive. Also, not to be too indelicate, she had a horror of the body and it's functions and hand in hand with this came a horror of the poor creatures that were often called upon to deal with the results of these functions .. even when Leonard and Virginia began to earn more money and could have afforded to improve their living conditions (such as install electricity and flushing toilets) they were slow to do it, perhaps they would have been quicker if it had been their job to slop out the chamber pots.

Virginia's diary entries and letters often showed how exasperated and astounded she was by the servants, she could be extremely biting and cruel ...'This is written to while away one of those stupendous moments - one of those painful, ridiculous, agitating moments which make one half sick & yet I don't know - I'm excited too; & feel free & then sordid; & unsettled; & so on - I've told Nelly (she had never learnt to spell her name correctly) to go; after a series of scenes which I won't bore myself to describe. And in the midst of the usual anger, I looked into her little shifting greedy eyes & saw nothing but malice & spite there, & felt that that had come to be the reality now: she doesn't care for me, or for anything: has been eaten up by her poor timid servants fears & cares & respectabilities.'

There were rows and recriminations galore between them with Nellie often getting the better of it, she would sulk and cry, list her grievances and threaten to leave. Virginia was perpetually vexed by her and never quite got over being ordered out of Nellie's room once during an argument. Nellie gave her notice in repeatedly only to retract it later much to Virginia's annoyance and a secret plan had to be hatched to get rid of her (although over the years Virginia was often the one to relent after an argument and to feel that it was better the devil you know.) Eventually and reluctantly Nellie left and found a more convivial situation as cook to Elsa Lanchester and Charles Laughton. But that's not to say that Nellie & Virginia, despite all the turmoil, didn't have a soft spot for each other because in their own dislocated way they did. Virginia just could not comprehend the lower classes, she felt she could never successfully include them in her fiction as she simply couldn't fathom them and feared they would just seem like cardboard cut-outs, they did often inspire stories and characters though. Although both Virginia and Leonard were active members of the Labour party and believed in socialist causes, Virginia often found her public sympathy for the lives of the poor was at odds with her private recoil. She veered between admiring and sympathising with them and being repulsed and bewildered by them, seeing them as little more than dumb animals for the most part (in fact I'm not so sure that she didn't value animals more highly than the working classes.)

It's as always humbling to read about these women and how hard their lot was, terrible living conditions (usually either freezing down in the bowels of the house or stifling up in the attic), the hardest of hard work and the longest of hours without receiving much in the way of either gratitude or wages. There was a stigma too about being a domestic servant, it often meant you couldn't marry well (or at all) so when situations and education improved by the late 19th century young girls were keen to look into factory, shop and office work as a means of escaping a life of drudgery. As a result less and less young women went into service and the domestic staff got older and older.

Fascinating .. both funny and jaw droppingly awful in equal measures. There are some great photo's too, some taken by Virginia's sister Vanessa Bell, which give you a flavour of the life and times.

The Girl from the Fiction Department

Synopsis: 'Should be compulsory reading' - "The Times". George Orwell's second wife was portrayed by many of her husband's biographers as a manipulative gold-digger who would stop at nothing to keep control of his legacy. But the truth about Sonia Orwell - the model for Julia in nineteen eighty-four - was altogether different. Beautiful, intelligent and fiercely idealistic, she lived at the heart of London's literary and artistic scene before her marriage to Orwell changed her life for ever. Burdened with the almost impossible task of protecting Orwell's estate, Sonia's loyalty to her late husband brought her nothing but poverty and despair.

Review: A good book but not the one I was expecting. It didn't give me the slightest insight into George or life with George because his time with Sonia was relatively short. George was already gravely ill in hospital with tuberculosis when they married and he died shortly afterwards. There was no big romance, Sonia had known George for a couple of years previous to their marriage because of her work as assistant editor for the literary magazine 'Horizon'. In failing health, and with a young adopted son to bring up (his first wife had died.) George had apparently asked several women to marry him. Sonia often babysat for his son and also slept with him (George) on occasion (it's almost certain that she is the model for Julia in Orwell's novel 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' - bold, bossy and uncompromising.) Apparently George claimed he would get better if Sonia married him so of course, what could she do. His proposal went something like 'well, you'd better learn to make dumplings.'

When George died, his young son was left in the care of an aunt, but Sonia became his heir and was left in sole charge of his copyrights (with proviso's that would cause her much anguish and soul searching over the years) and it's this legacy that launched the tide of venom directed at her by many of George's subsequent biographers. In this book though she's portrayed as a very beautiful, clever, independent woman, hardworking and intuitive. She's certainly someone who didn't suffer fools and there's no doubt that she could be difficult and changeable. She loved art and literature and was very influential as a literary reviewer and assistant editor (it's said that some of the literary discoveries claimed by Horizon's editor Cyril Connolly were actually Sonia's.) She was a fiercely loyal and supportive friend and counted the artists Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud among them as well as philosopher Jean Paul Sartre. She loved life in Paris and spent as much time as she could there being far more happy, and at home, on that side of the channel.

Hilary Spurling, who writes this book, was a close friend of Sonia's during the last ten years of her life and sets out here to set the record straight. The vitriol that was directed towards Sonia just after her death both shocked and enraged her friends. So here we have a more balanced view, it doesn't shrink from showing her at her most imperious but it does show that she was anything but a gold digger in respect to George. Sadly, life doesn't end happily for Sonia, she isn't, despite her best efforts, able to protect George's literature from being exploited, and this hits her extremely hard .. much more so than her increasingly penniless state. Although very shrewd in many ways she placed far too much trust in accountant Jack Harrison (who had been engaged by George shortly before he died to sort out tax problems and was among the three team members put together by Sonia to help run the Orwell estate.) She is careless about signing papers and lax about money details (not enquiring about the finances at all and asking for money only reluctantly)... she eventually finds out that over the years, according to Jack Harrison, she has signed away a huge percentage of voting rights and a quarter of the shares. She becomes reclusive and unapproachable, writing to tell a friend that books are her sole companions now ... 'But when I put them down, or when I wake up, it's all there again, this terrible endless tunnel into which I've drifted which, naturally, I feel is somehow all my fault but from which I'll never emerge again, but worse [I feel] that I've damaged George.' She dies shortly afterwards of cancer, practically penniless and homeless (with Francis Bacon paying her outstanding bills) but thankfully, having just won a lawsuit brought against Jack Harrison and George Orwell Productions, she was able to regain control of George's estate and pass it on entirely to his adopted son.

A sad little book really, shortly before George died he said that he had two novels inside him waiting to be written .. his increasingly debilitating illness meant that it was impossible for him to get them down on paper, I wonder what they would have been like?

Robinson Crusoe

Synopsis: Robinson Crusoe runs away from home to join the navy. After a series of adventures at sea, he is shipwrecked in a devastating storm, and finds himself alone on a remote desert island. He remains there many years, building a life for himself in solitude, until the day he discovers another man's footprint in the sand.

Review: Such is it's reputation that I don't think you can approach this story without having some pre-conceived ideas about the plot. I can remember reading some sort of abridged version as a child as well as hearing snippets on the radio. Images of Robert Hoffman, Tom Hanks and, bizarrely, Oliver Reed were also in my head whenever I thought about shipwrecked castaway's so it was nice to actually take the time to read the original tale (and to find out that apart from knowing that a man is shipwrecked on a desert island I didn't really know much about it at all.)

Robinson goes against his family's wishes and heads off for a life at sea. His first journey alone should have been enough to put him off, he was only sailing around the British coast from Hull to Yarmouth when the ship he was on foundered in a storm (I was thinking at this point, surely this isn't where he's castaway .. if so then calling it a tropical island is pushing things a bit.) Having got safely to shore he embarks on another ship bound for the coast of Africa, though he's terribly seasick, the journey is successful and Robinson profits by it. When he tries the trip again however the ship is raided by pirates and Robinson is taken as a slave for two years. You would think that it would dawn on him that life on the ocean waves is perhaps not for him, maybe a job in a lawyers office might be preferable after all, but obstinancy seems to be one of his chief failings and more to the point he doesn't want to admit defeat and prove his father right. So he continues with his sea voyages, becoming quite rich in the process (as the joint owner of a plantation) until he is again shipwrecked near an island somewhere in the Carribean.

I loved the writing, it's written in an old English archaic style with interesting words such as murther (for murder) and shew'd (for showed,) it's fascinating but not complicated. I also loved how descriptive it is, it's hard to make a story interesting when it's basically just a tale about a man wandering around a desert island with no company, and no savage animals, for the best part of twenty eight years but Defoe manages it easily. Animal lovers will need to look away on more than one occasion ... Robinson needs to find food to survive and animals are despatched with alacrity (some of them proving to be inedible) but of course, the caveman instincts will out when you need to survive. He starts viewing all wildlife as sustenance. The local cats (a sort of mixture between feral cats and survivors from the ship) are also, how shall I put it, kept to a minimum. Surprisingly he doesn't seem to eat a lot of fish (I think he missed a trick there.) It has to be said that he got lucky, he was the sole survivor of the wreck (if you don't count a couple of cats and a dog) and although he was shipwrecked with little more than the clothes he stood up in, the ship didn't sink and he was able to return and basically carry off everything that was useful. The island proved to have a large herd of goats living on it, so with one fell swoop, meat, milk, butter and cheese became available. He also managed, accidententally (by shaking out some empty bags before he filled them with gunpowder) to sow good rice and corn crops which greatly improved his diet. Everything took a long time to achieve but of course he had all the time in the world .. so he fashions pots out of clay, makes canoe's out of tree trunks and bread out of his corn (all failures to begin with but mastered over time.) His rum seems to last him for ages which I thought was admirable because I would have drunk it on that first night whilst up a tree listening anxiously for howls.

He explores the island and sets up little homesteads in other places which allow him to rest and recuperate on long explorative or hunting trips and he gets so used to life there that, apart from the lack of company, he's fairly contented with his lot. Until that is one day, when he see's some footprints in the sand. Instantly he feels fear, he now spends his days looking over his shoulder and making sure his 'houses' are more secure (and this is where technology would have been useful for him because some really decent CCTV would have put his mind at rest and saved him from back breaking work.) As he investigates the possible meaning behind these alien footprints he makes a horrifying discovery. Tribes from other islands are coming to his island in their canoe's and bringing with them prisoners which they then eat (in full cannibalistic dancing around the cooking pot style.) Surely it can't be long before they discover him and sample what he tastes like when simmered for a few hours.

Said to be the first proper English novel and of course viewed really as a childrens book (children must have had a greater attention span back then than they do now because it couldn't be called an easy read.) I was expecting to be a little bit bored by it but I wasn't and enjoyed it more than I thought I would. It does ramble on a bit at times especially when Robinson gets into long debates with God about his misfortunes, fluctuating between despair and thankfulness. Also the minute detail Defoe goes into concerning Robinson's fight for survival does make it feel more biographical than fictional. Robinson isn't particularly likeable but that doesn't matter, you still want him to succeed. I felt a bit cross with him for constantly referring to Friday as 'savage' ... and for choosing the word 'master' to be Friday's first learnt English word but the affection between them did seem genuine and I guess you have to take into account when it was written (rather like Huckleberry Finn) .. that's how things were and as unpalatable as it is, we can't rewrite the script or we're done for.

This is, and will probably remain for some time, the oldest novel I've read.

The Pattern in the Carpet - Audiobook

Synopsis: This is a beautifully written and deeply personal book on the jigsaw puzzle and the part it plays in the puzzle of its distinguished author's life. It is a mix of memoir, jigsaw history and the strange delights of puzzling. James Boswell described the 'innocent soothing relief from melancholy' of playing draughts, and Margaret Drabble - among countless others - has found a similar solace from assembling jigsaws. In "The Pattern in the Carpet", she describes the history of this uniquely British form of meditation, from its earliest incarnation as a dissected map, used as a teaching tool in the late eighteenth century, to the other cut-outs and mosaics that have amused children and adults from Roman times until today.Woven carefully through her account are the author's intimate memories of her Auntie Phyl - her childhood visits to the house in Long Bennington on the Great North Road, their first visit to London together, the books they read and, above all, the jigsaws that they completed. The resulting book is an original and moving personal history about ageing and the authenticity of memory; about the importance of childhood play; and, how we rearrange objects into new patterns to make sense of our past and ornament our present. It will delight and transport its readers.

Review: It didn't delight or transport me I'm afraid, it was a slog to get through it. Perhaps it was the subject matter, I do like jigsaws and have had my fair share of rainy days (particularly on holiday) when they have come to my rescue but I think you need to be an absolute jigsaw fanatic to truly appreciate the amount of detail and research that's gone into this book. My mind wandered off frequently, I made mental shopping lists and calculated the cost of putting in a new bathroom, all when I should have been listening to the story. The book is not just about jigsaws, it's about all manner of ancient crafts and pastimes .. tapestry included, which should have been of interest to me but sadly wasn't. Running alongside it is the tale of Margaret's Auntie Phyl, herself a jigsaw enthusiast and here again I was ever so slightly bored. I did find the sections about her more interesting but not much. I can see that she was of immense interest to the family but to everyone else she was fairly ordinary .. it's a bit like me telling you about my Auntie Rose and her latest DIY plans ... you wouldn't give a fig would you? I love writers memoirs and I don't particularly care if there aren't a lot of bells and fireworks but something has to grab your attention and connect and that just didn't happen here.

I hated the narration, and maybe this is what made the book seem so insufferably dull, Margaret sounded a little bit snobby and stuffy at times .. which I'm sure she's not. Ridiculous things annoyed me like the pronunciation of Kaffe Fassett's name (the textile artist) ... Margaret is a bit of a fan and has done some of his designs in tapestry and she would have known that he pronounces his first name as Kayf .. but the narrator was making him sound like a high street teashop and his name was mentioned so often that I began .. rather childishly .. yelling at the CD player.

Margaret has an interesting family, her first husband was Clive Swift the actor (Hyacinth Bucket's husband in 'Keeping Up Appearances') her second husband is the writer Michael Holroyd .. whose book 'A Strange & Eventful History' I have on the shelf, her sister is the novelist A.S. Byatt and her son is Joe Swift the TV gardener and of course Margaret herself has written over fifteen novels (one of which is on the 1001 list) and eight works of non-fiction. I would much rather have heard about all of that ... and there were snippets which made me long to know more. But perhaps she wants to keep her private life (that which doesn't involve Auntie Phyl that is) private and of course that's totally understandable, it's just I needed something more to spark my interest. Apparently this was going to be a small stocking filler type book on jigsaws which then grew as Margaret researched it ... now that book I could have probably read with interest. Jigsaws can be quietly entertaining but I found reading about them was not.

As a little tribute to Margaret and all her research and to show that I bear her no animosity, even though she kept me from listening to much better books, I thought I'd include a picture of a jigsaw (alas .. not done by me.) I visited my father-in-law last week and he had just finished a puzzle that we bought him for Christmas and before he crunched it all up into the box, I took a pic.

Speaking for Themselves - Audiobook Part Two

Synopsis: This is a fascinating collection of the personal correspondence between Winston Churchill and his wife Clementine between 1931-1964.

Review: As soon as my monthly credit became available at Audible I downloaded the second volume of the letters, a further twelve and a half hours to add to the sixteen I'd already listened to. I didn't enjoy this set of letters as much as I did the first, they were a lot more melancholy and sad mostly of course because of the outbreak of war but also because of Winston's (and Clemmie's) failing health. It also irked me somewhat that Clemmie appeared to be permanently on holiday (it probably just appeared that way because of course that's when they would write letters) but when I read about her skiing trip which seemed to last for months it set my teeth on edge a bit, especially as Mary, her youngest daughter, went with her but then had to come back when school term started leaving Clemmie to stay on for weeks. She seemed to go for 'cures' a lot .. which involved going on cruises and to health spa's and I was thinking 'alright for some' and being annoyed with her when she got peevish but that was probably just the green eyed monster coming out in me because I haven't even sniffed the sea for a couple of years. That's not to say that Clemmie didn't suffer from ill health because she did but I just felt the cures were somewhat indulgent. In this house it would be 'have an aspirin and an early night love' but then of course, I'm not .. or ever likely to be (unless some very weird sh*t happens) the prime ministers wife. Clemmie didn't appear to have a very close relationship with her children either (except the youngest Mary) .. at one point she tells Winston to relay something to Randolph (their son) because it would be 'better coming from you as he simply hates me'. I felt that some of this may have been because, in the main, they had been brought up by nannies .. which is quite usual in their circumstances of course but I would think it's hard to form close bonds when that's the case. But then it's amost impossible for me to think of my mother gadding about in Paris for months leaving me at home with Nanny Bloggs or whoever because, as the Who would say, 'I was born with a plastic spoon in my mouth' and so couldn't possibly understand it . Anyway this chilliness seemed to lessen as time passed and I think they were all on fairly good terms in later life.

For all that it was a fearful and melancholy time, I enjoyed the letters sent during the second world war because they were just fascinating and insightful. Winston was often abroad in secret locations and was usually accompanied by one or other of his daughters acting as aide-de-camp which must have been so exciting for them. He worked tirelessly, often to the detriment of his own health, but the bulldog spirit which he is famous for came over loud and clear in his letters.

The children (as adults) had a rather torrid time of it, both Randolph and Sarah had drink related problems and Diana, their eldest daughter, suffering I imagine from the same black dog depression as her father tragically took her own life aged 54. Winston had a lot of health problems, and both he and Clemmie were often worried about their childrens rather messy private lives. Winston did not want to retire from politics though, he had had several strokes, and found both writing and speech difficult at times (he had long had an assistant to write his letters for him but would sometimes write his own and sign them as 'by my own paw') but still Clemmie had a devil of a job making him see that the time for retiring was long overdue.

I grew really quite fond of the irascible old bear from reading his letters. He sometimes spoke about foreigners in a rather shocking way but I guess this was all part of the rhetoric of war, but mostly I found his letters loving and interesting. He had an absolute passion for painting and also animals and collected quite a little menagerie at Chartwell. He had a beloved little budgerigar .. Toby .. who would perch on this hand whilst writing and take nips out of his cigar but was heartbroken one day when someone left a window open and it flew out never to be seen again. He loved his animals and chatted away to them like people. The letters stopped with Winston's death in 1964, he was such a powerful presence that I can't imagine what it must have been like for Clemmie to be without him. Their letters to each other were always so full of affection and love which didn't diminish one jot with time.

I must just say a word about the readers .. Eleanor Bron and Michael Jayston .. they were both excellent and entirely convinced me that I was listening to the Churchill's themselves.

Audiobook Reviews 2011

Churchill, Winston & Clementine - Speaking for Themselves Part One 1908-1929
Churchill, Winston & Clementine - Speaking for Themselves Part Two 1931-1964
Drabble, Margaret - The Pattern in the Carpet
Trollope, Anthony - Can You Forgive Her?
Trollope, Anthony - Phineas Finn

Can You Forgive Her - Audiobook

Synopsis: Alice Vavasor cannot decide whether to marry her ambitious but violent cousin George or the upright and gentlemanly John Grey - and finds herself accepting and rejecting each of them in turn. Increasingly confused about her own feelings and unable to forgive herself for such vacillation, her situation is contrasted with that of her friend Lady Glencora - forced to marry the rising politician Plantagenet Palliser in order to prevent the worthless Burgo Fitzgerald from wasting her vast fortune. In asking his readers to pardon Alice for her transgression of the Victorian moral code, Trollope created a telling and wide-ranging account of the social world of his day.

Review: Can I forgive her? ... no, not really. Alice has a perfectly lovely fiancé in John Grey, he's handsome, considerate, wealthy, kind etc etc etc .. a real gentleman. On the other hand, her cousin George .. who she was once engaged to until he behaved badly ... is profligate, ambitious, ruthless and self centred. Yet, still, Alice is wavering, and she decides she can't marry John Grey. And her reasoning seems to be that .... wait for it ... he's too good for her!! All of her friends and relations, except for George's sister Kate, are exasperated with her and she's bombarded on all sides by disapproving looks and letters. Eventually she is persuaded (mostly by Kate) to become engaged to George again, she soon sees that she doesn't really love him but she can't be a jilt again! She begins to view the engagement as a sort of pennance for being so wicked and turning down a man as worthy as John Grey. George has political ambitions and needs money to advance his interests and Alice has plenty of it which he is desirous of obtaining. Alice is like a martyr, dishing out money like a cashcard machine to a man who doesn't give three straws for her and who, if left to his own devices, will soon spend every penny she possesses. In the meantime, John Grey ... a sort of personality cross between Mr Darcy and Colonel Brandon ... remains steadfast and loyal and hopes for a reconciliation (the idiot!)

I would accuse Alice of being the most infuriatingly stubborn and slappable literary heroine ever if it wasn't for Trollope's other creation Lily Dale who must always take the title of 'heroine you most want to shake until their teeth fall out'. There is no competition, I can't even think of Lily without foaming at the mouth. I've read all of Trollope's 'Barchester' novels and loved them but this is my first 'Palliser' novel. I love his style of writing, a cross between the descriptive and comic style of Dickens (although he never quite strays into Dickensian absurdity) and the narrative style of Thackeray. I love also how the characters from his novels are always popping up in the background of subsequent stories .. in this book there were appearances from characters that I know from his Barchester novels, such as the gloriously named Duke of Omnium.

The second main narrative concerns Lady Glencora, a cousin of Alice's, who is married to the kindly but serious Plantagenet Palliser. They are not very well matched, Glencora is fun loving and witty whereas Plantagenet is a rather stuffy politician. Like Alice, Glencorra had once been engaged to someone else, the more exciting and dashing Burgo but the same relatives that were outraged at Alice's conduct concerning John Grey persuaded Glencora to abandon Burgo and marry Plantagenet. She finds life with him boring and suffocating and soon regrets her decision, she begins to think about Burgo and fosters secret hopes of an elopement. Alice stays with Lady Glencora often and each tries to help, or persuade, the other as to the correct (as they see it) course of action.

The third narrative, and the most comic, involves another relative, Kate and Alice's Aunt Greenow. She was married to a rich elderly man, but now that he's dead she has been left a wealthy widow. She has a couple of ardent suitors in Mr Cheeseacre and Captain Bellfield. On the one hand Mr Cheesacre is a farmer and wealthy (which he can't help but point out nearly everytime he opens his mouth .. just as he can't help pointing out that Captain Bellfield hasn't a shilling) on the other hand Captain Bellfield, though penniless, is more charismatic and charming. It's great fun seeing these two former friends fight it out for the love of the widow (who, despite constantly dabbing her eyes with her handkerchief at the mere thought of her dear departed husband, manages to fast track her mourning period by the simple expedient of continually adding several months to those that have actually passed.)

Sometimes Trollope can get a bit bogged down with detail and there are parts of the book that drag. This was helped considerably though by the excellent reading of Timothy West who is the perfect narrator for Trollope's novels .. and Thackeray's too.

The only thing that makes me think that I may forgive Alice is that disc number two of my unabridged audiobook wouldn't work in any of my CD players, it happened that disc two followed the account of Alice's trip to Switzerland with her cousin Kate chaperoned by George. This trip must have been the catalyst for her subsequent decisions but all I know of it is that by disc three she was home again and her experiences abroad were only vaguely mentioned. Something happened though on a balcony somewhere which changed her mind and perhaps that something was that George slipped some mind altering drug or other into her glass of wine. If that's the case I might forgive her but without this evidence ... then no.

The Screwtape Letters

Synopsis: On its first appearance, The Screwtape Letters was immediately recognized as a milestone in the history of popular theology and has since sold more than a quarter of a million editions. Now stunningly repackaged and rebranded as part of the Signature Classics range. A masterpiece of satire, this classic has entertained and enlightened readers the world overwith its sly and ironic portrayal of human life and foibles from the vantage point of Screwtape, a highly placed assistant to 'Our Father Below'. At once wildly comic, deadly serious and strikingly original, C.S. Lewis gives us the correspondence of the worldly wise old devil to his nephew Wormwood, a novice demon in charge of securing the damnation of an ordinary young man. Dedicated to Lewis's friend and colleague J.R.R. Tolkien, The Screwtape Letters is the most engaging account of temptation -- and triumph over it -- ever written.

Review: This was the BCF's Reading Circle choice for March. On the whole I liked it, I certainly enjoyed Screwtapes demonic sense of humour and the more he railed at Wormwood the more I enjoyed it (I must be more wicked than I thought!.) I think, as the synopsis says, it is truly original, I've not read anything like it and it gave me plenty to chew over. At times I wandered a bit (no doubt my own personal Wormwood was doing his job and filling my head with nonsense,) and I had to make a concerted effort not to let my mind stray, but, for the most part, I found it intelligent, insightful and entertaining.

Full thoughts can be found here .. (** SPOILERS BEWARE**)

Reading Circle - The Screwtape Letters

Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha

Synopsis: Paddy Clarke is ten years old. Paddy Clarke lights fires. Paddy Clarke's name is written in wet cement all over Barrytown, north Dublin. Paddy Clarke's heroes are Father Damien (and the lepers), Geronimo and George Best. Paddy Clarke has a brother called Francis, but Paddy calls him Sinbad and hates him because that's the rule. Paddy Clarke knows the exact moment to knock a dead scab from his knee. Paddy Clarke loves his Ma and Da, but it seems like they don't love each other, and Paddy's world is falling apart.

Review: A detailed look at life through the eyes of ten year old Paddy. It's written in Doyle's trademark style, short pithy sentences with no padding and the grimmest of grim humour. I was a bit shocked at some of Paddy's exploits (I mean 'Just William' was naughty but he's no match for Paddy and his friends) but then I asked Alan and basically he said that's what most ten year old boys are like so here we have it ... boys behaving badly, punching, kicking, spitting, bullying and thieving their way through life. One minute they are sharing jokes and being conspiratorial and the next they are slugging it out in the playground and ignoring one another. Friends become victims become friends. Paddy is trying to work out the world really and find his place in it, but he's thrown off course when he detects problems between his Mum and Dad which start off as a mere hum of discontent (mild disagreements, short sentences, silences, slammed doors etc) but, bewilderingly for Paddy, soon escalate into violence (and it's affecting to read about Paddy at bedtime straining to hear the sounds or silences of discord.) The narrative can be confusing to follow because it jumps and wriggles around a bit (just like a fidgety ten year old) and the sentences are short and stacatto, but Doyle's writing is always engaging and fascinating.

I spent most of the book feeling sorry for his little brother Francis (nicknamed Sinbad) who has to undergo some pretty horrible treatment, in the manner of nearly all younger siblings, at the hands of Paddy and his friends. Poor Francis doesn't rage and lash out in the way Paddy does when threatened or confused he just gets quieter and more withdrawn. This is a coming of age book, Paddy needs (rather than wants) to grow up, face up to what's happening at home and learn to deal with it maturely.

Reading it was a bit like watching a kitchen sink drama on TV, you feel as if you've been put through the mill a bit emotionally and there are few laughs but once you're in the grip of it you're compelled to see it through. I can't help thinking though that readers made of frogs and snails and puppy dog tails would prefer it over those made of sugar and spice and all things nice :-)

The Master

Synopsis: In January 1895 Henry James anticipates the opening of his first play, "Guy Domville", in London. The production fails, and he returns, chastened and humiliated, to his writing desk. The result is a string of masterpieces, but they are produced at a high personal cost. In "The Master", Colm Toibin captures the exquisite anguish of a man who circulated in the grand parlours and palazzos of Europe, who was astonishingly vibrant and alive in his art, and yet whose attempts at intimacy inevitably failed him and those he tried to love. It is a powerful account of the hazards of putting the life of the mind before affairs of the heart.

Review: This is a beautifully written and hypnotic book. I've never read anything about Henry James or by him so I can't say if this novelisation of his life is authentic or not but it felt authentic, it felt for all the world like Henry James was pouring out his thoughts, feelings and reminiscences onto the pages. The story starts off with a failure, it's 1895, Henry is 52 and his play 'Guy Domville' has opened in London to a less than warm welcome from the audience (to say the least, the play and the playwright are jeered.) In contrast Oscar Wilde's 'An Ideal Husband' is enjoying great success ... Henry is crushed and so are his aspirations to be a successful playwright. As Henry reflects on this failure, and his career so far, he travels back in his mind and we learn about his childhood, his adolescence, his move from America to England and his literary career. The man we come to know is a solitary, lonely figure. He has friends and some close relationships with women which could have gone on to blossom into something more but Henry always seems to withdraw before becoming too close, with devastating consequences in the case of fellow writer Constance Fenimore Woolson (although this may be supposition on Toibins part.) It's a story really of a closet homosexual (and these are dangerous times for homosexuals .. as the trial and subsequent imprisonment of Oscar Wilde soon makes clear) but Henry's homosexual tendencies seem to be confined to his thoughts and feelings only. For one reason or another they are not acted upon and it's this perhaps that makes the writer, for all his literary success, seem to be a melancholy and lonely figure.

He's not particularly at home in the great drawing rooms and dining halls of the rich and priviledged, although as a famous writer these are the situations that he increasingly finds himself in. He see's all their petty conceits and snobbery all too clearly but he uses all situations as grist for his stories. He's a great observer of people and someone who's not afraid to draw on the characters of family and friends to supply his writing, thus his sister Alice becomes the model for a character in 'The Turn of the Screw' and his cousin Minny the template for 'Daisy Miller' and so on. Even his brother Wilky's fresh war wounds provide the sort of detail that Henry relishes.

It's quite slow going but I didn't find it plodding or tedious just reflective. It's the sort of book that draws you so completely into the world of it's subject that it's like losing touch with a friend when you've finished. His voice is so clear. I must read some of his novels now which are so thoroughly explored and talked over here.

I probably did fall into the trap of believing every word written and perhaps shouldn't have because some artistic license is always used in biographical/historical fiction but this was because Colm Toibin's writing was just so believable and detailed. Everything rang true, but I am interested to find out more about Henry James and will try and read a more accurate account of his life at some point in the future.

Beloved

Synopsis: Terrible, unspeakable things happened to Sethe at Sweet Home, the farm where she lived as a slave for so many years until she escaped to Ohio. Her new life is full of hope but eighteen years later she is still not free. Sethe's new home is not only haunted by the memories of her past but also by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved.

Review: This isn't an easy read, firstly the style is somewhat random and poetic and it takes some getting used to, and secondly the content is at times extremely harrowing but it's worth persevering with because the quality of the writing is outstanding and the story completely gripping .. it's one of those stories where part of you doesn't want to read on for fear of what you might learn but the other part of you is compelled to continue, and indeed it's a book best read continuously because there is a danger of losing your way if you just dip in and out.

Who knows what we'd be capable of if we felt that our backs were against the wall? Sethe will do anything to protect her family from suffering the same fate as she had. She makes up her mind to kill herself, and her family, rather than let them endure the inhumanity of slavery, she see's it as an act of love, but she's thwarted in her attempt and they are all .. except for a nameless baby .. saved. The baby's gravestone has only one word written on it ... Beloved ... but she is definitely not resting in peace. When we first join the book Beloved's spirit is wreaking havoc in the household but when she is banished from home by the intervention of Paul D, an old friend of Sethe's, she finds another way back .. this time as a fully grown girl (who is unrecognised by Sethe and her daughter Denver .. who are now the only two still living at home.) She calls herself Beloved (and still they fail to recognise her .. consciously at least) and she sets about, in an increasingly disturbing way, trying to regain all that was lost to her, greedily insisting that they lavish her with their time and attention .. almost like an aphid feeding off a rose .. until Sethe in particular, begins to resemble a mere shadow of her former self. The timescales are all over the place, dipping in and out of the present and the past, and showing us terrible snapshots of what befell Sethe, her family and her friends and what led her to act in the way she did.

The content is just completely horrifying, most of us have read stories and accounts of the suffering endured by black people during slavery but this is probably the most vivid account I've ever read, it's painful at times to read it. The writing really is superb and the book thoroughly deserves it's high reputation, all of the characters live on the page and the supernatural element that weaves through the story makes it all the more compelling. It was difficult, but I can't fault it.

Leonard Woolf : A Life - Victoria Glendinning

Synopsis: Many people today know Leonard Woolf mainly through the surname of his wife, Virginia, or his role in supporting her through her mental illness, depicted in films like The Hours. Some critics see him as his wife's oppressor. In Victoria Glendinning's biography, for the first time we see the whole man. As well as being a prominent member of the Bloomsbury group, Leonard was a formidable figure in his own right, first as an innovative civil administrator in Ceylon, then as a writer, leading light of the Fabian society and publisher of TS Eliot, EM Forster, Robert Graves, Katherine Mansfield and of course Virginia Woolf. He was interested in everything and knew everybody. The achievement of Glendinning's book is to make its readers wish that they knew him too.

Review: Having read his letters to Trekkie Parsons I felt I had got to know Leonard pretty well but the letters were written during the last twenty years of his life and only occasionally touched on his childhood and marriage, so it was interesting to be able to go right back to his beginnings. Most interesting of all is his friendship with the other Bloomsbury Group members (Lytton Strachey in particular) and, of course, his marriage to Virginia. It's clear that Leonard was fiercely intelligent and a bit of a leading light amongst his fellow Bloomsburyites.

There are two schools of thought about his impact on Virginia, some feel that without him we would never have had Virginia's great novels and some feel that he had a negative effect on her. It's clear she was often unstable (and had been since childhood) and living with her was like living on a knife edge. There's not many men who could accept the fact that their marriage was never going to be consumated .. let alone men who make that decision themselves based on their wifes mental state (apparently the one and only abandoned attempt happened on their honeymoon.) Leonard was quite a physical man, he'd had plenty of sexual encounters before Virginia but he seemed to relinquish it, if not willingly, then very promptly. Perhaps arrangements were made elsewhere .. if so nothing is known about it but it can't have been easy especially when Virginia became the lover of Vita Sackville West (though how much Leonard knew about the physical side of their relationship is unclear.) He must have been devoted to her because he always seemed to put her needs and wants before his and everything was made as smooth as possible in order for her to be able to write. He was put under terrible strain by Virginia's suicidal tendencies and hysterical behaviour but it was as nothing compared to the strain she herself was under. When she was well she was as gay as a schoolgirl but when she was ill, which was more often than not, she was in a pitiful state. Much depended on her books, she dreaded getting to the end of them and dreaded further the reviews. Leonard's opinion was always the first she sought and he had to tread very, very carefully (though he was a truthful man, so there would often be advice as well as praise .. luckily Leonard nearly always found her writing inspired.) When everything went well she was euphoric and all was right with the world again, when it didn't she crashed and it would take months of recuperation and tender support to get her on her feet again.

Whatever her sexual preferences, it's obvious that Virginia was devoted to Leonard, she wrote a note to him before she died, telling him that he had made her completely happy and that no-one could have done more for her. She feared she was wasting his life as well as her own and felt that she would never get over this last illness (in her diary she had written that she was hearing voices.) It was the opinion of Virginia's family that she would never have lasted as long as she did if Leonard had not been so devoted to her.

The account of her death was very sad, a few weeks before it happened Leonard had found her in the garden dripping wet after what must have been an unsuccessful attempt to drown herself .. she said she had fallen over. Leonard blamed himself after her death for not taking more care of her when the warning signs showed her to be once more sinking into ill health. He was convinced that she would have rallied again.

I have read since that this book contains many inaccuracies which is a shame, the footnotes are prolific as a lot of the writers knowledge seems to have come from other books but it would seem that not everything she has gleaned is correct. Still, despite the errors (and they are mostly to do with names and dates etc) I feel it gave me a more complete picture of Leonard and a better insight into Virginia.