Reading etc.

It is November. This means one thing only: Nablopomo. I will be posting daily for the next thirty days. Hold on to your hats.

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

This was a bookclub book and I wouldn’t have read it otherwise as I’m not a huge fan of detective fiction. But I really enjoyed it and so did Mr. Waffle. It’s a murder mystery set in an old people’s home and it is very cleverly done. Excellent.

The Silver Branch by Rosemary Sutcliff

The Lantern Bearers by Rosemary Sutcliff

Frontier Wolf by Rosemary Sutcliff

I got these three books out of the library. They’re books for children about Roman Britain. I found they got better as they went along. They’ve really sparked an interest in Roman Britain for me. Not exactly recommended though as they can be hard enough going.

OK Let’s Do Your Stupid Idea by Patrick Freyne

The author is an Irish Times journalist and quite funny in the paper. These pieces are funny in places but also quite serious from time to time. Overall though a quick and easy read.

Dusty Answer by Rosamond Lehmann

I found this pretty tedious. Self-obsessed teenager goes to Oxford in the 1920s. All a bit atmospheric for me. Apparently a big hit when it came out and somewhat autobiographical.

Making Conversation by Christine Longford

This is written for laughs. Funnily enough it is also about a self-obsessed teenager who goes to Oxford in the 1920s. The same kinds of things happen as happen to the heroine of Dusty Answer but this heroine views them completely differently. Laugh out loud funny in parts it is overall a bit episodic and not really a novel. But enjoyable enough in a mild way.

The Smile of the Stranger by Joan Aiken

This children’s book turned up on my bedside table and I have absolutely no idea how it got there*. I enjoyed it very much actually. I think there’s a whole series so I might look for some more. Lots of adventuring and conspiracy in late 18th century England.

*Updated to add, I’m just off the phone from my sister-in-law in England and she says she gave it to me for my 50th birthday. Sorry about that but isn’t it good that I liked it?

The Mirror Dance by Catriona McPherson

The latest Dandy Gilver book. I really enjoy these and have read all of them at this stage. An English woman married to a Scot works as a detective all over Scotland. Great descriptions of places in Scotland which really make me want to visit them. And I love Dandy who is an interesting heroine and comments on the changes she has seen over her lifetime – the books start in the early 20s or even late teens and now we’re in 1937.

The Glass Hotel by Emily Saint John Mandel

This is inspired in part by the Bernie Madoff ponzi scheme. I can see why people might find it interesting or enjoy it and it moves along at a reasonable clip but it just didn’t do it for me.

Sovereign Ladies by Maureen Waller

Daniel bought me this history of the Queens regnant of England in the belief that my enjoyment of the Pope-Hennessey biography of Queen Mary betokened a more general interest in the history of English Queens. It didn’t really and it took me a while to get going on this. It was interesting enough though. I didn’t know a huge amount about the Tudors and the Stuarts and I found both Queen Marys pretty interesting characters.

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

I was really looking forward to reading this and it is well written and science fiction, normally a completely winning combination for me. I mean I did enjoy it mildly but it was a bit over long I thought and the mystery at the heart of the novel took too long to be revealed.

The Complete Short Stories Volume 1 by Somerset Maugham

Dear God in heaven. Somerset Maugham is a racist, misogynistic, bigoted misanthrope. I have never in my life read anything so uniformly gloomy and negative about all of humanity and offensive about almost all of it. He can be funny in places but he is always mean. A brilliant writer though. I don’t know that I’d try another volume, I’m not sure I could stand another prolonged period inside his head.

Jours sans Faim by Delphine de Vigan

This is about anorexia and, I would bet, pretty autobiographical. It’s largely set in the hospital where the narrator is being treated. It’s interesting about how she thinks and what started her on this path and how she is recovering.

Mr. Wilder and Me by Jonathan Coe

I think Jonathan Coe is a terrific writer but this story of a woman who worked with Billy Wilder in the 70s didn’t do it for me. Very readable but just not a great story. I had no idea that Billy Wilder was an Austrian Jew whose mother died in the holocaust though and I found some of the information in the story interesting but it just didn’t work as a novel. He might have been better off writing a Billy Wilder biography.

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

I really enjoyed Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell and I was very much looking forward to this as was Michael who had just finished Jonathan Strange. It’s a very different book, for one thing, it’s a lot shorter. I found it hard to get going but once I got into it, I enjoyed it as did Michael. It’s about a man who is trapped in a parallel world which is an enormous building. Very clever.

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

Again, Matt Haig is an author whose books I have generally enjoyed. Notwithstanding its period at the top of the bestseller lists and the cleverness of the conceit – at the end of our lives, we get to see how things would have been different if we made other choices – I thought it was not his best work. I liked the idea that all of our choices bring good things and bad things; it is a comforting thought and obviously true. I am not convinced that it was sufficient to sustain a whole book. It was grand.

Magnificent Journey: The Rise of the Trade Unions by Francis Williams

I bought this ages ago, on a whim, in a second hand book shop and I read it slowly and painfully over the months of this last lock down. It’s written in the 1950s and the author is convinced that trade unionism’s progress will continue its upward trajectory forever. I’m glad he died before Mrs. Thatcher got in. It’s a bit turgid and having completed it I know far more about the internal workings of English trade unionism in the 1920s than I really want to. But it was interesting in ways like a historical period piece. It put the Dublin 1913 strike and lock out into the wider context of what was happening in the UK for me. What I found funny about the book was how insular it was – it rarely looked to events elsewhere in the world and then often only to assert that trade unions were not communist oh no indeed or if they were in part they were nor in the whole (remember it was written in the 50s). Women and their involvement in the movement barely get a look in. Events in Ireland are also given short shrift (some of the Black and Tans were brought back from Ireland to sort out the miners but that and the lockout reference were about it). I finally understand why the miners were so important in the 1970s and 80s and the role they played in the development of the unions. Look, interesting in its way buy extremely hard going and an obviously partisan account.

The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman

I didn’t enjoy La Belle Sauvage (part 1 of the trilogy) hugely but I loved this book. I have only two quibbles: firstly it relies on readers remembering all the details of book 1 of this trilogy and indeed those that proceeded (the Northern Lights books) and secondly it ends very abruptly right in the middle of the story with no attempt to bring the threads of this book to a conclusion – we’re obviously going to have to wait for book 3 for that. That said, I still loved it. I enjoyed the new details in the world Pullman created and the characters and their backstory. Each chapter ends on a cliff hanger; what’s not to love? Recommended.

The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley

This is the story of a group of college friends who go away together every year. They’re ten years out of college, there are lots of tensions, they got stuck in snow in Scotland at new year and one of them is murdered. I really enjoyed this. A snag is that three of the narrators are women from the friend group and their voices are insufficiently different to tell them apart so that can be a bit confusing. Overall, I found it undemanding and entertaining though.

A Pocket Full of Rye by Agatha Christie

Daniel brought 12 Agatha Christie books home from the charity shop where he was doing some Transition Year work experience. They only cost €5. Money broadly well spent. I have only the vaguest recollection of what this one was about. But definitely a Miss Marple. Enjoyable in an Agatha Christie kind of way.

4.50 from Paddington by Agatha Christie

In fairness, you know what you’re going to get with Agatha Christie and, generally you get it. This is no exception. I’d forgotten how competently she writes. I mean, you are not distressed by grammatical errors or very unhappy turns of phrase.

The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side by Agatha Christie

Another enjoyable story from Ms. Christie.

The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie

A classic which I have definitely read a couple of times before but so convoluted that I couldn’t remember who the murderer was. Our first sighting of Poirot so of interest for that reason alone.

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

Sadly, I did remember the murderer here as it is so unusual. This makes it distinctly less good but very clever, if you don’t know.

One Two Buckle my Shoe by Agatha Christie

At this point, I was thinking that perhaps a break in my Christie consumption might be no harm.

Murder in Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie

I found the narrator here particularly irritating. The story is entertaining overall but, ferociously racist. I am indebted to my loving spouse for the information that Mesopotamia means between two rivers from the Greek and that’s where we get hippopotamus as well (this was in answer to my question, “Where exactly is Mesopotamia?” so not as useful as you might imagine). And I thought his classical education was wasted.

I decided that an Agatha break might be opportune at this point.

The Girls by Emma Cline

This is about a girl who ends up briefly joining a commune in the 60s and then someone is murdered. It’s very well written, in fairness, and has had rave reviews but I found it miserable and unsettling. I wouldn’t recommend.

The Stairlift Ascends: Tweets from a Covid Cocoon by Helen O’Rahilly

This isn’t even really a book – just a collection of tweets – but anyone who deals regularly with elderly, physically frail but mentally robust relatives would enjoy it.

The Searcher by Tana French

I love Tana French but I didn’t love this book. It’s not bad, but it didn’t engage me the way some of her earlier books did. It’s about a retired US police officer who ends up trying to solve a case in the west of Ireland. Very unsentimental about rural Ireland which I quite liked.

Born to be Mild by Rob Temple

This is by the guy who does the “Very British Problems” stuff which I find mildly funny and that’s what I was looking for here but it wasn’t quite what I got. It’s autobiographical and it is a bit funny in places but it is also pretty sad – the author has had quite serious mental health problems and the book is about his recovery. Pretty gloomy in spots.

The Hanging Tree by Ben Aaronovitch

More adventures of Peter Grant, the magic policeman, his girlfriend the river and so on. This one wasn’t bad.

Lies Sleeping by Ben Aaronovitch

More Peter Grant. This one features bells. Not bad.

The Furthest Station by Ben Aaronovitch

This is a Peter Grant novella featuring ghosts. I quite enjoyed it.

The October Man by Ben Aaronovitch

This is about the German magic police and set in Trier. I enjoyed it. Peter Grant does not feature but his German counterpart does know about his existence. Ben Aaronovitch’s car/parking obsession is yet again prominent and beginning to get on my nerves. His German detective in Trier has to walk the last 100m to a rendez-vous as the Platz is pedestrianised. I cannot imagine a German giving out about this. Annoying.

False Value by Ben Aaronovitch

Peter Grant is undercover and the book is, in my view, unsuccessful. It’s about computers and it doesn’t hang together particularly well. Disappointing.

The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff

There was an article about this series of books about Roman Britain in the ever-lovely Slightly Foxed. I thought I would give them a try. This is the first in the series and I can see how if you read it at the right age, it would be great and bear repeated re-reading. I’m just not the right age and it didn’t work for me but I would be keen to press it on an 11 year old.

Her Royal Spyness Solves her First Case by Rhys Brown

A friend of mine picked this up in a book exchange at work. A detective story set in the 20s, the detective is an impoverished aristocrat who is something like 40th in line for the throne. Not for me but not awful.

You Think It, I’ll Say It by Curtis Sittenfeld

Curtis Sittenfeld is always good. These short stories are all good though not exactly heartwarming.

No One Now Will Know by E M Delafield

This is such an odd book. Firstly, I found it on my bedside table. How did it get there? Did I buy it? Was it a present? Did it come from my parents’ house? No idea. It’s by the author of the brilliant, hilarious “Provinical Lady” series. I have read another of her more serious books, “Consequences”, and found it quite sad. This was the same. But although, it was first published in 1941 there’s something very Victorian about the melodramatic plot. It’s written backwards, starting in 1939 and going back to the 1870s. In the first part of the book we follow 12 year old Callie who, after her grandmother dies, leaves Barbados to a new life in England with her cousins. Happily, and quite unusually in this kind of fiction in my experience, they’re lovely and all is well but there are dark hints of a mystery associated with her parents. In the second half of the book we find out what happened to her parents. The interest in the book lies more in its mood than its plot and I find myself unsure whether I would recommend it or not. Interesting though.

Just before my mother died, I went to a wonderful exhibition of Mary Swanzy’s paintings in the Crawford gallery.  She was apparently a second cousin to Oswald Swanzy who would have been…unpopular locally. 

As well as the beautiful paintings there was a recording of an interview she gave on television shortly before she died in the 1970s.  I was very struck by it at the time but then my poor mother died and this post stayed in my drafts but now is its time to shine.

In her television interview she was sharp as a tack and very interesting on the Dublin she had known growing up in the late 1800s (she was born in 1882) and the Dublin of the 70s.  She commented bitterly that “You line your streets with motor cars” and that “The visual eye is hurt.”  That is even truer today than it was in the 70s.

She waxes nostalgic for a time when everybody lived over the shop and you didn’t have to take a car way out into the country to get out of Dublin.

When pressed on the poverty there must have been in the 1890s compared to the 1970s she agreed that “You never see a bare-footed child; you never see a raggedy child.”

She harked fondly back to an earlier time and a friendlier Dublin though she did call it  “Friendliness without familiarity” reflecting her own age and class.

Speaking of herself and her age, she commented to the interviewer: “We all turn into dowdy old ladies, you know.” She was quite fascinating which is hard to convey with a couple of quotes. I have had a look online to see if the interview is available but it seems not, unfortunately. Definitely worth a look, if you ever come across it. She talks a lot about art as well, obviously, but it was her descriptions of a long gone Dublin that I found most evocative.

It’s still only mid-November, but yet inspiration is running a bit thin.  Here is a list of my favourite re-reads (books or authors) for when I am not feeling strong.  Do tell me yours.

We had a big hardback collected Fr Brown Short Stories by GK Chestertonbook at home when I was growing up but I only turned to them when I had read “The Queer Feet” in a school anthology.  I am still very fond of them.

My sister-in-law introduced me to “The Diary of a Provincial Lady” by EM Delaware and I love it.  I still have her copy – for which I am truly sorry – and the sequel (which I bought for myself and is very good also but not, alas, as good).  It’s a series of diary entries by the slightly hapless provincial lady of the title.  Laugh out loud funny sometimes.

I very much enjoy the “Mapp and Lucia” books by EF Benson.  The later books, set in lovely Rye, feature two middle aged middle class English ladies who are bitter rivals.  The earlier books before  Lucia moves to Rye and encounters Miss Mapp are hilarious also.  Delightful.

Any regency romance by Georgette Heyer as explored extensively recently.

The Terry Pratchett “Discworld” books. I particularly like Tiffany Aching, junior witch.  Some of the “Discworld” books are better than others but I usually enjoy one that features Death and/or witches.

“Pride and Prejudice” is everyone’s favourite Jane Austen book for a reason.

All of PG Wodehouse.  Like everyone, I love Bertie Wooster but I also have a soft spot for the golfing stories.

Agatha Christie’s Poirot and Miss Marple detective stories are great for a comforting re-read.  There was an excellent article in the Irish Times recently about how well she stands the test of time.

Like many another person, I do like “Cold Comfort Farm“.  Comforting and funny at the same time with a neat happy ever after ending for everyone.

I’m a big fan of children’s books.  I’ve been re-reading the CS Lewis “Narnia” books for years.   I have also re-read all of the JK Rowling “Harry Potter” books a number of times which considering that the first one came out when I was 28 suggests an ongoing openness to children’s literature.  I really enjoyed the Noel Streatfeild books when I was a child and I still like them.  “Apple Bough” is my favourite.

I’m a big fan of the Saki short stories which I first discovered in school through “The Lumber Room” and the slightly sinister “Sredni Vashtar”.  Now though, I like the chronicles of the utterly, vile and unscrupulous Clovis the best.

I enjoy the Myles na gCopaleen collected newspaper articles which my father introduced me too when I was young (by introduced I mean he was always re-reading them and I was curious).  Consistently clever and funny.