The Day of the Triffids

Synopsis: When a freak cosmic event renders most of the Earth's population blind, Bill Masen is one of the lucky few to retain his sight. The London he walks is crammed with groups of men and women needing help, some ready to prey on those who can still see. But another menace stalks blind and sighted alike. With nobody to stop their spread the Triffids, mobile plants with lethal stingers and carnivorous appetites, seem set to take control. "The Day of the Triffids" is perhaps the most famous catastrophe novel of the twentieth century and its startling imagery of desolate streets and lurching, lethal plant life retains its power to haunt today.

Review: I'm not one for science fiction, anything written in code gives me the horrors, but I am liking the classic sci-fi books very much and this one was no exception. The plotline was familiar, I think it's probably given birth to hundreds of disaster movies/TV dramas since, but this is the original and one of the best.
The concept of reducing the (almost) entire human race to little more than helpless, sightless, babies, staggering around and falling prey to a legion of carrion eating plants is a terrifying one, the real stuff of nightmares. Also terrifying was how quickly the people left acquired a 'dog eat dog' mentality, you can imagine that happening.

My mind did have little niggling doubts (it's amazing how the mind can find the notion of walking plants perfectly rational but have trouble with the details.) I thought, for a start, the likelihood was that there would have been a lot more sighted people - more children for instance, unconscious people, rock stars who always manage to lose a week every month and the inhabitants of Swindon sleeping off a three day bender - also I didn't think that people would have become suicidal so quickly .. is it likely that a doctor would throw himself out of a window just because he had gone blind? Human nature fights for survival usually and it's not as if he didn't know that there were still sighted people left .. and why would they ever allow the triffids to establish?, ok at first they were a curiosity and in typical greedy style we found a way to profit by them but to let them start walking around ... that's unwise .. get the DDT out (I'm not advocating this in general .. I've very much with Joni on this point but desperate times calls for desperate measures.) plus wouldn't they have been tripping over dead bodies eventually, there was only ever a handful of people outside but then, science fiction always calls for a huge amount of suspended disbelief, and I can do that when the story is as good as this one.

I liked the love story, it seemed convincing and natural in the circumstances. Though feisty, Josella wasn't the sort of of kick ass, kung fu type of heroine that sets my teeth on edge (the sort of woman.. not to be too indelicate .. that does cartwheels and climbs ladders in white trousers when Auntie Flo is visiting .. and doesn't sit in a corner hunched in a ball of misery with a knife clenched between her teeth like normal people.) She was a nice mix of capable and vulnerable.

The ending was a surprise because it was ambiguous. I was expecting a clear cut ending and actually had something in mind which I thought was going to sort the little wretches out, possibly I got this from a film version or something. It didn't spoil it for me though, if anything I preferred it, I liked the uncertainty of it all.

Of course it does make you eye everything in your garden with suspicion, and I'm definitely more wary of going out into it (bother .. why do I have to have hedges .. perfect camouflage for the blighters) ... the crash helmet is probably unnecessary but I can't afford to take chances.

Highly enjoyable in a shivery, hide behind your pillow, sort of way (I must just add here that I am quite capable of being scared by my own shadow .. allowances have to be made for me being a bit of a custard .. I have never ever watched any of the 'Nightmare on Elm Street'/'Scream' sort of films .... If I did sleep would be a thing of the past.)
The Midwich Cuckoos and The Chrysalids are also on my TBR's and if there anything like as good as this I'm in for a treat.

The Bell

Waterstones Synopsis: Dora Greenfield, erring wife, returns to live with her husband in a lay community encamped outside Imber Abbey, home to a mysterious enclosed order of nuns. Watched over by its devout director and the discreet authority of the wise old Abbess, Imber Court is a haven for lost souls seeking tranquility. But then the lost Abbey bell, legendary symbol of religion and magic, is rediscovered, and hidden truths and desires are forced into the light.

Review: I am such a fan of Iris, she writes so intelligently and her characters always seem so real, she doesn't make them particularly likeable or striking, they're always fairly ordinary but with just a few words she manages to paint them into life and you feel as if you could pick them out anywhere, similarly she gives you such a great sense of location that you would know the place immediately should you come across it but she's never flowery or overly descriptive. She clearly loves delving into the psychology of her characters and finding out what makes them tick, that's always a major part of any Iris novel (or those I've read so far anyway,) she often makes her characters disagreeable, they do things or have done things that are distasteful but the author never seems to be judging them or condemning them .. she's merely observing them and, for the most part, the reader is inclined to do the same.

This story has multiple narrators, firstly we are introduced to Dora who, after a short separation (and I loved the first line .. 'Dora Greenfield left her husband because she was afraid of him. She decided six months later to return to him for the same reason.' ) is joining her husband at the mysterious Imber Abbey where he is working on the research of some ancient manuscripts. The Abbey is home to a lay community, with the addition of an adjoining enclosed order of nuns (why that should be creepy I don't know but there's something a little sinister about silent nuns.) What should be a place of calm is really a seething mass of repressed feelings and inner struggles .. nobody is saying anything out loud but they're all paddling like mad beneath the surface .. struggling to keep up a sense of normality with the nuns silently observing.

The other characters in the community are a mixed bunch .. most of them have secrets to hide and there is a lot of moral deliberation and soul searching. Apart from Dora, one of the main characters is Michael, the leader of the community who has all sorts of demons perched on his shoulder, the main one being a disgraced past involving a homosexual encounter with a teenage pupil at a public school where Michael taught. He felt he had put most of this behind him but that young teenager is now a dissolute young man and he has found his way to Imber seeking refuge. There is also young Toby, a newcomer to Imber, who has rekindled some of those old memories. Michael finds he is back in the struggle between the spiritual side of his nature and his sexual inclinations, it's a struggle that has never really gone away.

The community are awaiting the arrival of a new bell, the old bell having mysteriously vanished centuries before. After Dora arrives at Imber, Paul tells her about a legend surrounding the bell '...sometime in the fourteenth century, that was before the dissolution, the story runs that one of the nuns had a lover. Not that that was so very unusual I daresay at that time, but this order had evidently had a high standard. It was not known who the nun was. The young man was seen climbing the wall once or twice and ended up by falling and breaking his neck. The wall, which still exists incidentally, is very high. The Abbess called on the guilty nun to confess, but no-one came forward. Then the Bishop was called in. The Bishop, who was an especially holy and spiritual man, also demanded that the guilty one should confess. When there was still no response he put a curse on the Abbey, and as the chronicler puts it, the great bell "flew like a bird out of the tower and fell into the lake" .. the guilty nun was so overwhelmed by this demonstration that she forthwith ran out of the Abbey gates and drowned herself in the lake.' and this legend seems all the more thrilling when Toby tells Dora of an object, that he has discovered, buried deep in the lake which may well be the ancient bell.

I love the suspense Iris builds in this novel, it was palpable .. I was always waiting for the shock or jolt to come and it frequently gave me the shivers. I got a bit carried away at times (having seen too many episodes of 'Midsomer Murders' most likely) and expected the giant bell to come crashing down on an unsuspecting victim but Iris is subtler than that. Like all the novels that I've read of hers so far, the story is multi layered and it's almost impossible to give an accurate account of it .. it's the sort of book that has so much going on that a repeat reading is a must. I'm sure I missed lots of subtleties. I'm always marvelling at how clever she is, she doesn't make it complex but there's always lots to contemplate.

Like a really good episode of 'Cadfael'

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 )

Agnes Grey

Synopsis: 'How delightful it would be to be a governess!' When the young Agnes Grey takes up her first post as governess she is full of hope; she believes she only has to remember 'myself at their age' to win her pupils' love and trust. Instead she finds the young children she has to deal with completely unmanageable. They are, as she observes to her mother, 'unimpressible, incomprehensible creatures'. In writing her first novel, Anne Bronte drew on her own experiences, and one can trace in the work many of the trials of the Victorian governess, often stranded far from home, and treated with little respect by her employers, yet expected to control and educate her young charges. Agnes Grey looks at childhood from nursery to adolescence, and it also charts the frustrations of romantic love, as Agnes starts to nurse warmer feelings towards the local curate, Mr Weston. The novel combines astute dissection of middle-class social behaviour and class attitudes with a wonderful study of Victorian responses to young children which has parallels with debates about education that continue to this day.

Review: My first Anne Brontë book. The tale is a fairly simple one, much less complex than either 'Wuthering Heights' or 'Jane Eyre', in some ways it's more reminiscent of Jane Austen's work than either of her sisters. Agnes is a likeable girl, her family are a bit strapped for cash and her father is in poor health. Determined to earn her own way in life and not overly enthusiastic about her parents choice of work (to draw and sell her own artwork) Agnes decides that she would like to be a governess.

Her first posting is to Mr and Mrs Bloomfield. Mrs Bloomfield informs Agnes that .... Master Tom (seven) is 'the flower of the flock' - a generous noble-spirited boy who always speaks the truth. Mary Ann (almost six) is 'a very good girl on the whole and Fanny (almost four) is a 'remarkably gentle child.' This all sounds promising but alas Agnes finds that Mrs Bloomfield's opinions of her children cannot wholly be relied upon. In truth the two eldest children are a nightmare to teach, rude, egotistical, boisterous and aggressive. Tom in particular is an absolute horror, intent on setting traps for birds and depatching them in different ways .. 'sometimes I give them to the cat, sometimes I cut them in pieces with my penknife, but the next I mean to roast alive.' He's determined not to be taught anything and Mary Ann is just as bad, Agnes occasionally has to forcibly drag them to the table and hold them there until the lesson is completed. Fanny is found to be a mischievous, intractable creature given up to deception and falsehood and employing her favourite tactics of spitting and bellowing whenever thwarted (this is said to be somewhat auto-biographical, with Anne drawing on her early experiences as a governess.) Although she tries hard, Agnes is unable to teach the children anything and she is constantly being undermined by the parents (who naturally regard their children's lack of improvement as solely the fault of the governess.)

'I observed, on the grass about his garden, certain apparatus of sticks and cord, and asked what they were for.
"Traps for birds."
"Why do you catch them?"
"Papa says they do harm."
"And what do you do with them, when you catch them?"
"Different things. Sometimes I give them to the cat; sometimes I cut them in pieces with my penknife; but the next, I mean to roast alive."
"And why do you mean to do such a horrible thing?"
"For two reasons; first to see how long it will live - and then, to see what it will taste like."
"But don't you know it is extremely wicked to do such things? Remember the birds can feel as well as you, and think, how would you like it yourself?"
"Oh, that's nothing! I'm not a bird, and I can't feel what I do to them."

"But you will have to feel it sometime Tom - you have heard where wicked people go to when they die; and if you don't leave off torturing innocent birds, remember, you will have to go there, and suffer just what you have made them suffer."

"Oh pooh! I shan't, Papa knows how I treat them and he never blames me for it; he says it's just what he used to do when he was a boy. Last summer he gave me a nest full of young sparrows, and he saw me pulling off their legs and wings and heads, and never said anything, except that they were nasty things, and I must not let them soil my trousers; and uncle Robson was there too, and he laughed, and said I was a fine boy."
"But what would your mama say?"

"Oh! she doesn't care - she says it's a pity to kill the pretty singing birds, but the naughty sparrows, and mice and rats, I may do what I like with. So now, Miss Grey, you see it is not wicked."
"I still think it is, Tom; and perhaps your papa and mama would think so too, if they thought much about it. However," I internally added, "they may say what they please, but I am determined you shall do nothing of the kind, as long as I have power to prevent it."

Eventually, in less than a year, Agnes is dismissed and sent home, much to her consternation and embarrassment. She's a little downcast but after spending a few weeks at home she decides to try again and this time secures employment with the Murray family. Although the daughters are vain, self centred and thoughtless they are more tractable that the Bloomfields and Agnes becomes more settled. It's here that she meets the curate Edward Weston, a very earnest and worthy young clergyman. Agnes is very taken with him, he's her ideal, but Rosalie, the eldest of the Murray girls (seventeen) is now in want of an admirer and with time on her hands, before she is advantageously betrothed, she fixes on Edward on which to bestow some of her well rehearsed coquetry. Poor Agnes is mortified, and when she is suddenly called back home she fears that she will never set eyes on Edward again.

Agnes is likeable enough but apart from the fact that she's obviously very conscientious and kind you don't really learn anything much about her. Despite her pledge at the beginning of the book to be candid, she's too guarded. The story is a pleasant one but it does lack a little bit of oomph .. obviously you can't always have a lunatic in the attic or a deranged lover digging up his dead soul mate but the story perhaps could have done with a tad more excitement. You have the feeling a long way before the end that it's only a matter of time before she's saying .. click here to continue review - possible spoilers

reader, I married him

.. or something very like it.