Books do furnish a room

Luckenbooth by Jenni Fagan “Whilst I complain about Edinburgh, I like it here really. They say that makes me dour, it’s Scottish for miserable 'person of dubious parentage'. They gave a single word in a Gaelic that means ‘my eternal doom is upon me’, I can’t remember it right now. They are an old nation. They have a great wit at times. They need it to survive the damn weather.” This is something of an odd one, it is set in Edinburgh over about ninety years from the early 1900s to the 1990s. It is actually set in one particular tenement the nine storey number 10 Luckenbooth Close. The novel structure is quite complex. It is split into three parts. The first third runs around the years 1910 to the late 1930s. The second part runs from 1944 to 1963. The third part is from 1977 to 1999. Each part relates to three different residents/visitors of number 10. Each part is also split into nine parts, three for each person, the run A B C, A B C, A B C. This makes the whole feel rather disjointed and this has been one of the criticisms of the novel. There is some justification for this as it is difficult to follow at times. It does feel like group of short stories at times. There is though a colourful set of characters, some of them cropping up in more than one time period. There are elements of the supernatural, ghosts if you will, as well as the devil’s daughter. There are also prostitutes, gangsters, a property speculator, triads, a medium, a parrot, William Burroughs (yes, that William Burroughs), assorted gender and sexuality variants (including transgender), abused women, a black male from Louisiana who works with bones at the Royal School of Veterinary Studies, drug addicts, drug dealers, an ex-miner allergic to light. The cast list is pretty extensive. Fagan does manage to tie the whole together pretty well. It’s pretty bleak at times but Fagan does introduce a vein of humour as well: “My ma said: only love a man who reads books and understands them properly. If they don't read books don't go their bed. Ever!” The novel looks at the marginalised and oppressed, those at the edges of society because of mental health, sexuality, gender or class. It’s about power and its use. “There is the Edinburgh that is presented to tourists. Then the other one, which is considered to be the real Edinburgh, to the people who live here. There are the fancy hotels and shops and motorcars and trams and places of work, then are the slums, starvation, disease, addiction, prostitution, crime, little or no infrastructure, no plumbing, no clean water, no rights . . . if the council want to go and take their homes down, they do. This is all on streets just ten minutes’ walk from the fancy city centre. When will these things change? Everywhere? When? All fur coat and nae knickers. That’s a phrase the postman told me. It embodies this city.” There is humanity within it all and warmth, but, of course, the city is a major character as well. This definitely has a gothic edge to it. There is great variety in all of this; inevitably some parts work better than others and the inclusion of William Burroughs I didn’t find convincing. However, on the whole, I did enjoy this and liked the slant that Fagan put on things. 7 and a half out of 10 Starting Heresy by S J Parris

The Crow Eaters by Bapsi Sidhwa I haven’t read enough novels based in Pakistan and I haven’t read Sidhwa before either. It is set in Lahore and covers just almost fifty years from just before the start of the twentieth century until just before partition. Sidhwa is a Parsi and the novel focuses on the Parsi community in Lahore. Sidhwa was born in Karachi and brought up in Lahore, so she is writing about an area she knows and a community she knows. The reception of the novel was mixed, especially in the Parsi community, but over time it has become accepted. At the centre of the novel is Faredoon (Freddy) Junglewalla and his family which consists of his wife Putli, his mother-in-law Jerbanoo and his three children. This is a family chronicle with Freddy at centre stage, especially his relationship with his mother-in-law which is fiery and unpredictable. Although the idiosyncrasies of his children also begin to be more prominent as the novel progresses. Freddy is a successful businessman and has relationships with the Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and British communities. This is essentially a comic novel, but with elements of tragedy as well. A good deal of the comic interplay is between Freddy and Jerbanoo. For me the comic element was a little trying and sometimes became a little too central and overpowering. For me there was too little societal context. It’s a bit vaudeville at times. I didn’t dislike this and it was entertaining. I suppose I am just a bit underwhelmed. 6 out of 10 Starting Heresy by S J Parris

The Curate's Wife by E H Young “She cried without tears while she undressed. She found the loneliness of trouble in marriage greater than its joy when all went well, for happiness need not be concealed. The success of marriage calls for proclamation, its failure must not be acknowledged and now she could not creep into Jenny’s bed, as she wished to do, and warm herself and find comfort in a love that needed no explanation.” This is a sequel to E H Young’s earlier novel Jenny Wren, about two sisters Jenny and Dahlia. This one focuses on Dahlia Rendall who has just married the curate Cecil Sproat. There follows an analysis of a marriage and of two people who don’t know each other that well attempting to live together. There is also a comparison with another marriage: Rev Doubleday and his wife. It’s really a study of character. The only really happy couple Louisa and her new husband Mr Grimshaw (Jenny and Dahlia’s mother), who is, of course, from the wrong side of the tracks. As is often the case there is very little plot and not a great deal happens. Young is pretty good at characterisation and all of the characters have depth. As usual with Young the novel is set in Bristol (renamed Radstowe) and this one is in Upper Radstowe (Clifton). The Church in the novel can be identified as Christchurch Clifton. One of the points Young is clearly making is that the main female characters are clearly all intelligent and all completely frustrated with no real role in life. It’s all about the repression of talent and lack of purpose. There’s one example of rather lazy racism and the whole does feel like a bit of middle class navel gazing, but it is of interest. 6 out of 10 Starting Sing me who you are by Elizabeth Berridge

The Call of the Wild by Jack London “Deep in the forest a call was sounding, and as often as he heard this call, mysteriously thrilling and luring, he felt compelled to turn his back upon the fire and the beaten earth around it, and to plunge into the forest, and on and on, he knew not where or why; nor did he wonder where or why, the call sounding imperiously, deep in the forest.” This is another of those novels (well, novella actually) that I should have read as a teenager but didn’t. It’s on most of the must read lists including the Guardian’s 100 greatest books of all time (number 35). It was published in 1903 and is set during the Klondike gold rush of the 1890s. It is about a sled dog called Buck from his early life in California and then his life pulling a sled. It’s basically a life history. London went to the Klondike during the gold rush and so was writing from a level of experience. This isn’t a sweet cute animal story, it’s pretty brutal and very definitely an adventure story. It covers a number of genres including naturalism and there is very much an element of the survival of the fittest. There is also a sense of the awakening of the primitive and that civilisation and domesticity is a very thin veneer. Buck’s dreams even begin to go back to primitive times and ancestral memories. “He was a killer, a thing that preyed, living on the things that lived, unaided, alone, by virtue of his own strength and prowess, surviving triumphantly in a hostile environment where only the strong survive.” There have been plenty of film adaptations. One with Clark Gable and another with Charlton Heston. There’s plenty of nature vs nurture. There’s also plenty of racism in the portrayal of the Native Americans. As for the only female character …. One reviewer referred to it as “Shakespeare with puppies” which I found amusing. London was a socialist and some have called this a socialist fable. I do struggle with that idea and actually Orwell’s analysis of London resonates more with me: “But temperamentally he was very different from the majority of Marxists. With his love of violence and physical strength, his belief in 'natural aristocracy', his animal-worship and exaltation of the primitive, he had in him what one might fairly call a Fascist strain.” On the whole this didn’t resonate with me. It is vivid and well written, but it is brutal with its focus on the survival of the fittest and its attitude towards the weak and vulnerable. 5 out of 10 Starting Every Man for Himself by Beryl Bainbridge

The diary of a young lady of fashion 1764-5 by Magdalen King-Hall I picked this up in a job lot of books at an auction over ten years ago. It’s a rather slim folio book from 1982. Initially I thought it was an eighteenth century diary, but it isn’t. It was published in 1924 under the pseudonym Cleone Knox. The actual author was Magdalen King-Hall. She was nineteen at the time. The diary describes the adventures of an Irish girl being taken on a Grand Tour, mainly to escape the amorous attentions of a local beau. The diaries caused a sensation and managed to fool a number of experts for a while. A High Court Judge, Lord Darling, called his review “A Girl Pepys”. There were other journalists who did work out that it was fiction. Magdalen King-Hall was the daughter of an admiral, who wrote this because she was bored. She only had her own reading and her local library to help (a good advert for local libraries). It was widely read at the time. Some spotted that the language was too modern and rather frank for the time. The truth did come out, but it has sometimes been forgotten. The BBC managed in the 1980s and 1994 to broadcast readings from the diary and a dramatized version on the assumption they were from the eighteenth century. The diary itself is fairly frivolous with lots of fashion and flirtation and a bit of religion. It’s an interesting 1920s period piece and reminded me a little of the Bruno Hat hoax. 6 out of 10 Starting The Call of the Wild by Jack London

Fyneshade by Kate Griffin “Many would find much to fear in Fyneshade’s dark and crumbling corridors, its unseen master and silent servants. But not I. For they have far more to fear from me” Another slice of Victorian gothic, set in the 1840s. This has a large crumbling mansion with secret passages, locked rooms and possibly a ghost. There is, of course, a governess at the centre of it, some surly servants, a missing master, a wayward and dangerous son, some herbal shenanigans, dodgy narrators, a mysterious child (in this incarnation with a learning disability), seduction, twists and turns, betrayal, loveable dog and plenty of architecture. There are definite shades of Jane Eyre, The Secret Garden and The Turn of the Screw. In actuality it much more Vanity Fair than Jane Eyre and the narrator/governess is no shrinking violet. Griffin does a good job of trying to make a rather evil antagonist into a likeable protagonist. Most of the gothic tropes are here, but there’s also a touch of Hammer Horror as well There is a significant twist at the end: it is an easy one to spot, but the second twist is a little more hidden. It is all very atmospheric and it does make a change to have the main female character not being the put upon heroine. The child is used by everyone. There is an afterword which is best not read at the beginning. As gothic goes this is ok and there’s plenty of tropes to spot. 7 out of 10 Starting Luckenbooth by Jenni Fagan

Travels with a Donkey R L Stevenson “I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move.” In which Robert Louis Stevenson travels around the Cevennes district of France in late September 1877 for twelve days, describing what he saw and those he met. He also travelled with a donkey called Modestine, who carried all his stuff. This was an area of France where the Huguenots dwelt and even when Stevenson was there, religious tensions still existed. This is known for Stevenson’s descriptions of nature and the countryside and his observations of the local population including a Trappist monastery, some inns, a few peasant dwellings, assorted travellers, some Protestants (but mostly Catholics) and various others. This is well regarded generally and there are certainly interesting parts and passages. For me they were overwhelmed by other things. Stevenson was unhappy at the time as a woman he cared for went to the US without him. It shows. There are other issues. Animal cruelty, more specifically, the donkey her purchased. I became so irritated with the cruelty I wrote them down: “I must instantly maltreat this uncomplaining animal. The sound of my own blows sickened me.” Finding a stick hard work: “My arm ached like toothache from perpetual beating.” Stevenson has a peasant make him a goad; a stick with a sharp metallic point on the end: “Thither, with infinite trouble, I goaded and kicked the reluctant Modestine, and there I hastened to unload her.” The goad could draw blood. “I am ashamed to say, struck the poor sinner twice across the face. It was pitiful to see her lift her head with shut eyes, as if waiting for another blow.” There’s plenty more in the same vein. If I was being kind I would say that his attitudes to women were “of the time” “And Clarisse? What shall I say of Clarisse? She waited the table with a heavy placable nonchalance, like a performing cow.” There is more in the same vein. He isn’t over keen on children and dogs either and some of his descriptions of female children would be better applied to women of an older age. I don’t seem to have much luck with travel literature (apart from Patrick Leigh Fermor), and this was no exception. 3 out of 10 Starting The Diary of a Young Lady of Fashion 1764-1765 by Magdalen King-Hall

Thanks Luna Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne “I wish either my father or my mother, or indeed both of them, as they were in duty both equally bound to it, had minded what they were about when they begot me; had they duly considered how much depended upon what they were then doing; that not only the production of a rational Being was concerned in it, but that possibly the happy formation and temperature of his body, perhaps his genius and the very cast of his mind;and, for aught they knew to the contrary, even the fortunes of his whole house might take their turn from the humours and dispositions which were then uppermost: Had they duly weighed and considered all this, and proceeded accordingly, I am verily persuaded I should have made a quite different figure in the world, from that, in which the reader is likely to see me.” Published in nine volumes between 1759 and 1765. A comic novel in the tradition of Rabalais and Cervantes, a modernist novel way before modernism and a stream of consciousness novel, or at least a precursor. Stene also uses lots of literary devices and plays with the narrative structure, moving things around, digressing and interrupting. The plot is non-traditional and there are periodically marbled and blank pages. Sterne also borrows from Robert Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy. There are a limited number of main characters. Tristram is the narrator, although he isn’t born until well into the novel. His father Walter and his uncle Toby (an ex-soldier) are central as is Trim his corporal and servant. There is also Mrs Shandy, Walter’s wife, Yorick, the local parson (cue a fair number of Hamlet jokes) and Dr Slop. Sterne himself was born in 1713 in Ireland, but became a parson near York. Dr Johnson didn’t think the work would last, but it has and has many and varied fans. Nietzsche said of the novel: “he produces in the right reader a feeling of uncertainty as to whether one is walking, standing or lying: a feeling that is closely related to floating” Others influenced by this include Woolf, Joyce and Pynchon (!!). Sterne was also an abolitionist and there are occasional references in the book. The novel is certainly an acquired taste and many find it tedious and Sterne certainly does not spare the words: “I define a nose as follows – entreating only beforehand, and beseeching my readers, both male and female, of what age, complexion, and condition soever, for the love of God and their own souls, to guard against the temptations and suggestions of the devil, and suffer him by no art of wile to put any other ideas into their minds, than what I put into my definition – for by the word Nose, throughout all this long chapter of noses, and in every other part of my work, where the word Nose occurs – I declare, by that word I mean a nose, and nothing more, nothing less.” I enjoyed this, but I can’t say I was passionate about it and it’s certainly an acquired taste. 7 out of 10 Starting Travels with a Donkey by R L Stevenson

I have loved both of his books that I have read France A State of Freedom by Neel Mukherjee “After all, we make ourselves according to the ideas we have of our possibilities.” “Something about the urgency of the swarming and the indescribable sound that emanated from that swiftly engorging clot of people, a tense noise between buzzing and truculent murmuring, instantly transmitted the message that a disaster had occurred. Otherwise how else would the child have known to ask, ‘Baba, people running, look. What’s happening there?’ And how else could the driver have answered, mercifully in Hindi, ‘A man’s just fallen from the top of that building under construction. A labourer. Instant death, poor man.” This is the first novel I have read by Mukherjee. It is a set of what seem like short stories, but they are all linked. Some of the minor players early on have their backstories explored later. This does lead towards some disjointedness. It is also a bit of a “state of the nation” novel as well. There are also echoes of a certain V S Naipaul here as well (remember In a Free State). Displacement and migration have a role to play. This linking of disparate lives also reminded me of Dickens. Class, stratification and inequality are also significant. This is a pretty grim portrait of India. There is an interesting passage relating to a son of a middle class family who is visiting from Britain looking for someone in a slum: “People were now looking at me. My discomfort escalated and it was not only because of the stares. Edicts from a middle-class upbringing on looking into other people’s lives through their open doors and windows combined with a liberal sensitivity, acquired later in life, about treating the poor as anthropological fieldwork or a tourist attraction, to produce a mixture of dread, guilt and self-loathing.” The later tales are, if anything even bleaker and the grim and grinding nature of poverty take centre stage. Watch out for the Naipaul link in the fourth story (the incident with the cupboard). All this is possibly even more hopeless than Naipaul, who, for me, overshadows this too much and Naipaul’s infamous quote “Hate oppression, fear the oppressed” is writ large. Here the only way out is to leave: the UK in one instance, Germany in another. Even the Maoists who might provide a way out, end up being another trap. Lives are heavily circumscribed. Personally I found the middle tale, the story of the training of a performing bear difficult to read. Sadly, I have to report, the bear didn’t eat its rather cruel owner. Movement and migration take centre stage as well: not just to Europe or the US, but within India, to big cities, even into the jungle to join the guerrillas. Mukherjee has obviously been a part of that movement himself and there is a sense of being uprooted and looking back to a different way of life. The whole is awkward in parts and its analysis is bleak. Freedom is generally achieved away from home and with dislocation comes trauma. There is no humour or conviviality and cruelty is ever present. There are plenty of critiques here, many of which I am sure hit home, but it does feel like that the only person in a state of freedom here is the writer, over in the UK. 6 out of 10 Starting The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

One Fine Day by Ian Marchant This is the second book I have read by Ian Marchant and both are among my favourites of all time. Marchant was researching his family tree and discovered one of his ancestors in the eighteenth century kept a diary. Thom Marchant 1676-1728 was Ian’s 7x great grandfather and kept a detailed diary from 1714 to 1728. That was unusual in those times. Thom was a gentleman farmer, so there is a great deal about day to day farming life: the simple daily tasks, the costs of day to day tasks and articles. There is stuff about family, children and farm staff. There is also plenty about recreation (a great deal of drinking), including one of the earliest descriptions of a game of cricket. Marchant traces his family back into the fifteenth century when he discovers they were immigrants from Belgium. They settled in Sussex from Belgium and brought a new iron smelting technique to the country. Marchant tells the story of his ancestors, but he also weaves it in with his own story. The book was researched just before lockdown in 2020. Just as lockdown started Marchant was diagnosed with prostate cancer of the terminal variety: “not the good kind that you die with, but the bad kind that you probably die of” He is still alive and still receiving treatment, but this forms a backdrop to the book. Marchant is insatiably curious and follows all sorts of leads and concepts, it pretty much turns into a social history and commentary, then and now. There are detours about the measurement of time, the uses of dung (very good for feeding fish apparently), underwear (disposable, made of vegetable material; really, don’t ask), the development of the smallpox vaccine, iron production, turnips, Brexit and immigration, wigs (the best were made of human hair, all had nits), wig snatching (yes, it was a thing), the nature of eighteenth century alcohol, fishponds, travel and its problems and much more. This is really about England and Marchant’s perception of it then and now: “… a boutique festival sort of place, an artisanal gin Michelin-starred pub, Airbnb Country Living place, a defanged, disenchanted landscape”. Marchant also comments on political things. Ancestor Thom was a Jacobite, so that provides another aside. This means Thom was Tory and Marchant makes a trenchant comment about the current Conservative party: “…there is precious little resemblance between the Conservative Party of Baldwin, MacMillan and Heath that my grandpop supported and the current gang of Ayn Rand fanboy libertarian accelerationists who have seized power both in this country and over the zombie corpse of their party.” This is full of interesting stuff and Marchant is an interesting chap: writer, musician, ex-punk, diarist and a bit of a sage. 10 out of 10 Starting Fyneshade by Kate Griffin

The Plains of Cement by Patrick Hamilton “A silent, beastly moment if ever there was one, and not much improved by the opening of the door–this by a fellow wage-slave, dressed in the neat insignia of wage-slavery, a cap and apron, but not very friendly or understanding in her manners. Hidden rivalry and circumspection, rather than fellow-feeling, most often exists between wage-slave and wage-slave in circumstances such as these, possibly because of their sensitiveness to the dangerous surplus of willing wage-slaves on the market, and possibly because certain fortunate wage-slaves come to acquire some of the aloof and clannish airs of their lords above.” This is the third part of the Twenty Thousand Streets under the Sky trilogy by Patrick Hamilton. It follows the story of the barmaid Ella. She is 28 and single and has the usual banter with the regulars. She has had feelings for her co-worker Bob, which she has kept secret. The focus of this story is a burgeoning relationship. One of the regulars, Mr Eccles. He invites Ella out and they start a relationship. The novel is from Ella’s point of view and we see things from her perspective: "He had lost much of his self-consciousness, and talked less about her and more about himself - his likes and dislikes, his approvals and disapprovals - rather with an air of giving her a Short Course in himself for her present convenience and future reference." Mr Eccles is over twenty years older than Ella and has some means. There’s a moment of realisation for her when she wonders if she would tolerate him without the money. Hamilton is good at the details of human life. He also has a telling turn of phrase: "There is a great deal of the tomb in a bedroom; all passions, delights, scheming’s, ambitions, triumphs, must be taken back at night to these caves of cold arbitration." Hamilton makes his main characters flawed but sympathetic. He captures a place and time: the underside of 1920s London. He chronicles the downbeat, the denizens of the rundown public houses, single rooms containing the lonely and the desperate. This one focuses on unrequited love and unsuitable suitors. No romantic love triangles here and love is bleak. The character of Ernest Eccles, the unsuitable suitor, is a grotesque, but again not totally unsympathetic. If bleak is your thing then you may like this. 7 and a half out of 10 Starting The Crow Eaters by Bapsi Sidhwa

Jenny Wren by E H Young “In the sloping, one sided street called Beulah Mount, no two houses are alike. Some of them are flat fronted, a few are bow-windowed and some have flimsy, roofed balconies outside the first floor windows, and these, even when in need of painting, give an effect of diminished but persistent gaiety to a terrace built in an age of leisure and of privilege.” Another Virago read; this is the first of two novels. I have the next one and will read it following this one. I have previously read Chatterton Square and like that one this is also set in Bristol: renamed Radstowe. Young was a supporter of suffrage and a keen climber and mountaineer. She had a lifelong relationship with Ralph Henderson, a friend of her husband’s. After her husband’s death in the War she moved in with Henderson and his wife. This is the story of two sisters, Jenny and Dahlia. This first novel focuses more on Jenny and the second more on Dahlia. It starts following the death of their father. They move from the country with their mother to a house in Upper Radstowe where they will take in lodgers. This being rather Engliash, there is a focus on class. Mr Rendall, Jenny and Dahlia’s father married someone (Louisa) from a lower social class. This has ramifications which ripple through the whole novel and affects the sisters in different ways. The sisters have feelings that they are of a different class to their mother, who does have a tendency to embarrass them. There are some unpleasant neighbours and of course, men! Young builds her characters gradually and with subtlety and doesn’t always take the expected route. She can be rather wordy and the plot, such as it is, meanders a bit. The minor characters are well rounded and Young is quite good at portraying insignificant lives that are full of disappointment. Young is quite clever at building her characters, like this description of the vicar, Mr Doubleday: “Before Sunday came around again the vicar had called at No. 15 Beulah Mount. He had come and gone like a child’s india-rubber ball, lightly bouncing up the steps, into the hall and Mr Cummings’ sitting room. There he rested precariously, as a ball does, threatening to move at a breath, hovering between stability and motion, and in his repetitive, staccato speech he confirmed his likeness to a ball.” The sisters are caught between their father’s class and their mother’s and don’t really fit into either. They also discover that desire is a double-edged sword. The most vivid character in the book is their mother Louisa, who has far less scruples than her daughters and knows how to enjoy herself (to their embarrassment). Jenny is a bit of a dreamer and the whole has a dreamlike character. As others have pointed out there are some parallels with Sense and Sensibility, but Young doesn’t have the lightness of touch of Austen. As is often the case in this type of novel, marriage is often seen as the only way out, although the sisters take entirely different approaches. It was a bit slow, but I quite like Young’s rather pedestrian approach to these things. 7 out of 10 Starting The Curate's Wife by E H Young

Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck “I saw in their eyes something I was to see over and over in every part of the nation- a burning desire to go, to move, to get under way, anyplace, away from any Here. They spoke quietly of how they wanted to go someday, to move about, free and unanchored, not toward something but away from something. I saw this look and heard this yearning everywhere in every states I visited. Nearly every American hungers to move.” I have no idea whether the above is true or not: in 1960 or now. This is effectively a travelogue. Steinbeck was living in Long Island after having lived abroad for some years. He felt he was disconnected from his home country and decided he needed to rediscover it. The way he did this was by planning a road trip. He bought a campervan which he adjusted to his needs. He named it Rocinante (after Don Quixote’s old horse). He went without any human company but took his dog Charley, a large French Poodle type dog. He sort of travelled in a circle around the outside, though the northern states, then California and east through the southern states: avoiding the heartlands altogether. The book was published in 1962 and the road trip took place in 1960. Recent debates have often focused on how accurate and authentic the whole thing is. A good number of the conversations do sound forced; Steinbeck is a fiction writer. A journalist, some years ago tried to recreate the trip and did some research into some of the detail. He discovered that it wasn’t just him and Charley most of the time, but often his wife Elaine was with him and they stayed in motels and hotels. Fans have generally argued that while much of it is factually inaccurate, there is an authentic feel to it. Steinbeck writes well and is obviously a novelist first. It’s also redolent of male writers of a certain breed: “I have always lived violently, drunk hugely, eaten too much or not at all, slept around the clock or missed two nights of sleeping, worked too hard and too long in glory, or slobbed for a time in utter laziness. I've lifted, pulled, chopped, climbed, made love with joy and taken my hangovers as a consequence, not as a punishment.” There is also a certain sadness or lostness to the book. Steinbeck obviously felt things weren’t as they should be in the US. This is particularly so in the South and in New Orleans. Steinbeck tackles the issue of race head on. It was the height of the Civil Rights movement and Steinbeck was generally known as a liberal type. He writes of some of the protests outside desegregated schools. The language that comes with it is also s you would expect. Steinbeck feels nauseated by what he hears. What bothered me about this aspect of the book was his sense that there was little that could be done. No thought about helping or joining the resistance. Another reflection is that I am wondering why many travelogues are just not that at all but are part fiction. Chatwin’s In Patagonia is another example. Maybe a travelogue is an excuse for a series of ramblings and reflections that don’t fit anywhere else. This has a certain warmth and I liked the dog, but the whole did not really work for me. 5 out of 10 Starting London Crooks and Characters by Henry Mayhew

Minutes of Glory by Ngugi wa Thiong'o “Tea was brought. They drank, still chatting about the death, the government’s policy, and the political demagogues who were undesirable elements in this otherwise beautiful country. But Mrs. Hill maintained that these semi-illiterate demagogues who went to Britain and thought they had education did not know the true aspirations of their people. You could still win your ‘boys’ by being kind to them.” A collection of fifteen short stories by Ngugi wa Thiongo' which span several decades in time and in the writing. My first time reading him, although I have one of his novels on the shelves. He’s in his eighties now and still hasn’t won the Nobel. These stories are all set in Kenya, some during the colonial era. Others are more modern and reflect on the changes the end of Empire have brought. They aren’t just about colonialism though; they look at the intersections between colonialism, gender, religion, race, class, identity, insecurity, political corruption and tradition. Some of the stories do give clues to Ngugi’s admiration for Frantz Fanon and his rejection of Christianity and English. The scars of colonialism are present throughout, and the tensions of post-colonial Kenya are explored. There is a touch of magic realism, which actually works well and isn’t overdone. Ngugi does mourn the loss of a connection to tradition and the land: “In any case the place was now a distant landscape in the memory. Her life was here in the bar among this crowd of lost strangers. Fallen from grace, fallen from grace. She was part of a generation which would never again be one with the soil, the crops, the wind and the moon. Not for them that whispering in dark hedges, not for her that dance and love-making under the glare of the moon, with the hills of TumuTumu rising to touch the sky.” The stories are collected into four groups: Mothers and Children, Fighters and Martyrs, Secret Lives and Shadows and Priests. There are difficult themes and topics, but a couple of the stories do have an element of whimsy about them. This is an excellent collection and well worth seeking out. 9 out of 10 Starting One Fine day by Ian Marchant

Washington Black by Esi Edugyan “There were the fanged metal jaws of a mantrap meant to catch runaways, and the blood-blackened boulder upon which several men had been whipped dead, and there was the solitary redwood wide as a carriage, from which a weathered noose hung. And there were knife marks in the tree’s bark, where men had been pinned through the throat and left to perish, and there were the raw patches where the grass had not grown back since the bodies of the old and infirm had been set there to rot. And above it all, pristine and untroubled, sat Wilde Hall, with its clear view to the sea – a sea turquoise and glistening with phosphorus, the miles of sand pure and white as salt.” “You were more concerned that slavery should be a moral stain upon white men than by the actual damage it wreaks on black men.” George Washington Black is a young slave on a Barbados plantation. The novel starts in 1830 when he is about eleven. Some may say “not another novel about slavery!” But as Colson Whitehead said when asked: “Q: Why write about slavery? Haven’t we had enough stories about slavery? Why do we need another one? A: I could have written about upper middle class white people who feel sad sometimes, but there’s a lot of competition.” The novel does start with the brutality of slavery but does not stay there. Wash, as he is known, becomes the personal servant of the brother of the plantation owner. Christopher Wilde (Titch) is humane and obsessed with building a sort of flying machine/balloon. Wash learns to copy and draw, discovering he has a great talent in this direction and is taught the basics of reading and writing. This is all about identity and self-discovery. Wash ends up visiting the American South, parts of Canada (Nova Scotia and the arctic), Morocco, Holland and England. There’s plenty of symbolism: shades of Frankenstein in the Arctic. There is all sorts here: some beautiful writing, action and adventure, lessons in marine biology, the description of the building of an early aquarium. The scientific thread certainly adds interest. There is some nuance in the tale. Wash, although he is set free, carries slavery with him in a variety of ways. There is a bit more tell than show though, a sense of Wash looking back, which takes some of the edge off things. There are a few niggles, particularly Titch’s mysterious disappearance in the middle of the book and his even more mysterious survival and reappearance. On the whole though Edugyan makes her points easily and although she throws a lot in the novel educates and entertains. 7 and a half out of 10 Starting A State of Freedom by Neel Mukherjee

The Siege of Pleasure by Patrick Hamilton ““You’re a bad little girl, ain’t you?” he said waggishly. “How did you get that way?” “Oo,” she said, in the same burlesquing spirit. “I Took the Wrong Turning, my dear. I Took to Drink.” “You did–eh?” “That’s right, my dear,” she went on in the same way, “All through a Glass of Port.” She was speaking without the slightest seriousness at the moment, but a little later, thinking of odd things as she humoured him and his kisses and the taxi curved and sped through the mauve-lit London streets, she wondered whether she had accidentally hit on truth.” This is the second in Patrick Hamilton’s Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky trilogy. This one is the story of the second of the three characters who dominate the books: Jenny, the young prostitute. This is a how did it all start account and is set just before the first in the series. At the beginning of the novel (actually a novella) Jenny has just started a job in service working for three elderly members of the same family. It’s a steady job and Jenny does it well. This is the story of her “downfall” and is very much an advertisement for the evils of strong drink as the quote above illustrates. The turning point for Jenny is a night out and the morning after which takes up the majority of the novel. She ditches her steady but rather boring boyfriend for more exciting company. It is a reflection on the human condition and I am realising that Hamilton is not really a happy soul (not surprising given his history). He certainly isn’t sentimental and catches something of the appeal of alcohol: “A permeating coma, a warm haze of noises and conversation wrapped her comfortable around–together with something more. What that something more was she did not quite know. She sat there and let it flow through her. It was a glow, a kind of premonition. It was certainly a spiritual, but much more emphatically a physical, premonition of good about to befall. It was like the effect on the body of good news, without the good news–a delicious short cut to that inconstant elation which was so arduously won by virtue from the everyday world. It engendered the desire to celebrate nothing for no reason.” This is the start of a downward spiral, which is continued in book one in her interactions with Bob. Hamilton is also talking about class. Jenny because of her origins and her violent upbringing has her aspirations limited. All she can expect is a life in a factory, in service or as a wife with children. It is bleak, but again it is a vivid picture of 1920s London that doesn’t involve flappers and the privileged. 8 out of 10 Starting The Plains of Cement by Patrick Hamilton.

The Lure of Atlantis edited by Michael Wheatley Another in the Tales of the Weird series from the British Library. The theme is Atlantis and this is by far the weakest collection in the series. Plato has a lot to answer for! Unfortunately here the dividing line between weird and silly is rather frequently crossed. There are ten short stories in this one: well nine and an extract from Verne’s twenty thousand Leagues Under the Sea. It’s split into four sections: Atlantis Rediscovered, Atlantis Revisited, Atlantis Resurrected and Atlantis Reimagined. Apart from the Verne there are stories from H P Lovecraft, Donald Wandrei, Henry Kuttner, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert Howard, Edmond Hamilton, Frances Bragg Middleton, Joel Martin Nichols Jr and finally Will Smith and R J Robbins. Again the standard is variable. The Lovecraft contains some very unpleasant anti-German tropes. There are a couple which recall past lives. Nothing really stood out. A couple reminded me of Dungeons and Dragons. Not as engaging as previous books in the series. 5 out of 10 Starting Salvation by Peter Hamilton

Manhattan in Reverse by Peter Hamilton “His reaction was a sign of civilization. Nobody reaches for a gun anymore, just for his lawyer.” My first foray in Hamilton is a collection of short stories. Admittedly and easy way in as Hamilton is best known for his space opera type novels. These tend to be very, very long, eight to twelve hundred pages. I have a couple on my shelves and they have been there for years. This is just a try out before I read one of the lengthier ones. This consists of seven stories, one of which is pretty much a novella. There are some stories set in Hamilton’s Commonwealth universe, which would probably reverberate more with those who have read the series. The novella, Watching Trees Grow is set in an alternative world where the Roman Empire didn’t fall. It starts in Oxford in the 1820s where there are already telephones and electric cars and are on the verge of atomic power. It is a detective story and spans over two hundred years. The problem of longevity has been cracked and so we see the same characters over the years. Footvote looks at modern Britain, with a twist. Someone has opened a wormhole to another planet and is allowing it to stay open for two years. Who goes and who stays and what are the criteria. It’s an exploration of family life and modern Britain. If at First … is a time travelling story with a twist The Forever Kitten is very short and explores a form of immortality with a very nasty twist. Blessed by an Angel is a spin off from his Void series. The last two stories: The Demon Trap and Manhattan in Reverse are linked to the Commonwealth series and feature Paula Myo, a detective of sorts and a vat grown human. Hamilton throws lots of ideas around, but the basic theme is about what makes us human. The ideas are interesting and I will read some of his longer stuff if I have a rainy month or two! 7 and a half out of 10 Starting Minutes of Glory and other stories by Ngugi wa Thiong'o

The Midnight Bell by Patrick Hamilton "The Saloon Bar was narrow and about thirty feet in length. On your right was the bar itself, in all its bottly glitter, and on your left was a row of tables set against a comfortable and continuous leather seat which went the whole length of the bar. At the far end the Saloon Bar opened out into the Saloon Lounge. This was a large, square room, filled with a dozen or so small, round, copper-covered tables. Around each table were three or four white wicker armchairs, and on each table there lay a large stone ash-tray supplied by a Whisky firm." This is the first part of Patrick Hamilton’s Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky trilogy, published in 1929. The novel revolves around a public house called the Midnight Bell, in the Euston area. The first book concerns Bob a twenty-five year old sailor who is working at the bar in the pub. The other two main characters are Ella, who also works at the bar and Jenny, a prostitute and regular visitor to the pub. The second book in the trilogy focuses on Jenny and the third on Ella. Bob is infatuated with Jenny, Ella is very fond of Bob. Jenny is less fond of Bob than he is of her. Bob has aspirations to become a writer. He has also been working hard and saving and has put aside eighty pounds in his bank account as part of his plans to write one day. Bob, however, is now obsessed with Jenny, who tolerates him and periodically encourages him a little and this is an exploration of obsession and doomed love. It’s also about the desire to possess, reform and “rescue” someone. The pub itself is the vibrant heart of the novel and this is a great evocation of 1920s London and pub life. This is certainly not the Bright Young Things and the Flappers. It is partially autobiographical and there is subtlety in the portrayal of both characters. The reader is taken through Bob’s gradual whittling down of his savings as he attempts to buy his way into Jenny’s heart. Jenny is not a caricature, not evil or heartless. Hamilton is most definitely not a writer who does “happy”, but the writing is immersive. The ending is not a surprise, but this is more about the journey: the reader knows all along that Bob is fooling himself. There is a three part adaptation by the BBC from about twenty years ago, which I haven’t seen. This is a good start to the trilogy. 8 out of 10 Starting The Siege of Pleasure by Patrick Hamilton

Cornish Horrors edited by Joan Passey A collection from the British Library Tales of the Weird series, all set in Cornwall: part of England which is pretty much a land in itself with its own language. Plenty of gothic horror here, no pasties. In this collection there is a variety of writers, including Bram Stoker, Poe, Mary Braddon, Conan Doyle, F. Tennyson Jesse, Quiller Couch, Clara Venn, E M Bray, Mary Penn and various others including anonymous and someone entitled M.H. They are collected from the nineteenth and early twentieth century. There is an intelligently written introduction by Dr Joan Passey which reminds us that there is a rich heritage of folklore and history to draw from in Cornwall. As she reminds us Cornwall is: "real, and close, alternately viewed as the end of the land and its beginning” As you would imagine the sea and the coast often play a significant role, as do sailors and those who work on the seas. The tales are variable. The Conan Doyle is a Sherlock Holmes short story. There are a couple of variations on the love triangle, the Bram Stoker one being the best. Folklore is best represented by The Phantom Hare and The Screaming Skull is suitably creepy (and completely ridiculous of course) and there is even a potential werewolf tale (My Father’s Secret). There are a few duds, but this is a decent enough collection and takes advantage of the rugged landscape and stormy weather. 7 out of 10 Starting The Lure of Atlantis edited by Michael Wheatley

October by China Mieville “The revolution of 1917 is a revolution of trains. History proceeding in screams of cold metal. The tsar’s wheeled palace, shunted into sidings forever; Lenin’s sealed stateless carriage; Guchkov and Shulgin’s meandering abdication express; the trains criss-crossing Russia heavy with desperate deserters; the engine stoked by ‘Konstantin Ivanov’, Lenin in his wig, eagerly shovelling coal. And more and more will come: Trotsky’s armoured train, the Red Army’s propaganda trains, the troop carriers of the Civil War. Looming trains, trains hurtling through trees, out of the dark. Revolutions, Marx said, are the locomotives of history. ‘Put the locomotive into top gear’, Lenin exhorted himself in a private note, scant weeks after October, ‘and keep it on the rails.’ But how could you keep it there if there really was only one true way, one line, and it is blocked? ‘I have gone where you did not want me to go.’ In” This is China Mieville’s account of the Russian Revolution. Each chapter covers a month from February to October with an introduction that sets the scene. This is a narrative account and not a scholastic or academic treatise. Mieville has read pretty widely. His reading includes academic historians of all political persuasions and the polemical texts written at the time. Mieville does have a point of view but the account is balanced. The story telling is good and I suppose being a novelist helps in that respect. He manages to be fair to all the participants. It’s very readable and in itself the story is dramatic. There are limits to this work. Mieville has looked at works in English and translated into English and has not looked at the extensive documentation in the Russian language. Mieville’s approach is not dualist and there is nuance. He does focus on St Petersburg (Petrograd as it was then) primarily. There is an enormous literature on the Russian Revolution, but the strength of this contribution is that it was written by a story teller. He is happy to address the messiness and dynamism of the process. There is a significant sense of movement in the work and quite a lot on the role of trains in the revolution! Mieville himself was aware of the challenges: “What I was constantly aware of was trying to mediate between specifics and generalities. One of the things I try to stress all the way through the book and in discussions is that this is very specifically a story of a particular place—Russia—in a particular time—1917. There is a line to walk: the story isn’t simply a curio of that moment, but equally one wants to try to avoid a kind of kitsch, “as then, so now” reductionism. So a key point is constantly being aware of the concrete particularities of that moment that you’re writing about.” Mieville is also very aware of what might have been and reflects on some of the changes that occurred as a result, but sadly did not last: “October, for an instant, brings a new kind of power. Fleetingly, there is a shift towards workers’ control of production and the rights of peasants to the land. Equal rights for men and women in work and in marriage, the right to divorce, maternity support. The decriminalization of homosexuality, 100 years ago. Moves towards national self-determination. Free and universal education, the expansion of literacy. And with literacy comes cultural explosion, a thirst to learn, the mushrooming of universities and lecture series and adult schools. A change in the soul, as Lunacharsky might put it, as much as in the factory. And though those moments are snuffed out, reversed, become bleak jokes and memories all too soon, it might have been otherwise.” Mieville is particularly strong on explaining Lenin’s role and the nature of the movement all of those involved were riding; it was essentially a revolution from below. This is a good account of the October Revolution related by a good storyteller. 8 out of 10 Starting Citizen Clem by John Bew

The Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T E Lawrence “My proper share was a minor one, but because of a fluent pen, a free speech, and a certain adroitness of brain, I took upon myself, as I describe it, a mock primacy. In reality I never had any office among the Arabs, was never in charge of the British mission with them…. So I had to join the conspiracy, and, for what my word was worth, assured the men of their reward. In our two years’ partnership under fire they grew accustomed to believing me and to think my Government, like myself, sincere. In this hope they performed some fine things but, of course, instead of being proud of what we did together, I was continually and bitterly ashamed.” This is not an easy book to review. The film is much better known. The film is a magnificent piece of cinematography (as well as being endless), but it focuses much more on Lawrence than the book does. The book is a chronological account of Lawrence’s time in Arabia in the last two years of the war. It isn’t just a then I did this, then I did that account. Lawrence describes the minutiae of daily lie, food, customs, tribal relations, the idiosyncrasies of camels and the pitfalls of desert travel. We now know many things that Lawrence did not. He suspected that the British and the French would betray the Arabs after the war, but hoped they wouldn’t. We know now that was the intention all along. The Balfour Declaration of November 1917 meant the British government had promised the Jews a homeland in Palestine. As Koestler said “One nation solemnly promised to a second nation, the country of a third”. Palestine was ninety percent Arab. Churchill expressed it more succinctly: “I do not agree that a dog in a manger has the final right to the manger even though he may have lain there for a very long time… I do not admit that a wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher grade race, a more worldly-wise race… has come in and taken their place.” Enough of the imperialists for now. The title is from the Book of Proverbs: “Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars” The book was written and rewritten. Lawrence lost most of the first draft at Reading railway station in 1919 and had to start again. Lawrence had kept notes whilst all this happened and wrote again. It is a very personal version of events and stands alongside similar accounts from the Western Front. Lawrence was illegitimate, the son of a baronet and a governess and had trained as an archaeologist. He was involved in the peace conferences after the war and became disillusioned (more disillusioned). He hated the publicity and his notoriety. Lawrence re-enlisted under a different name. He died young (46) in a motorcycle accident. One of the many questions has always been was Lawrence queer. To my reading it would seem so, he was clearly much more at ease in the company of men. The book’s dedication is a poem to SA, possibly Selim Ahmed, written by Lawrence: I loved you, so I drew these tides of Men into my hands And wrote my will across the Sky in stars To earn you freedom, the seven Pillared worthy house, That your eyes might be Shining for me When I came Death seemed my servant on the Road, 'til we were near And saw you waiting: When you smiled and in sorrowful Envy he outran me And took you apart: Into his quietness Love, the way-weary, groped to your body, Our brief wage Ours for the moment Before Earth's soft hand explored your shape And the blind Worms grew fat upon Your substance Men prayed me that I set our work, The inviolate house, As a memory of you But for fit monument I shattered it, Unfinished: And now The little things creep out to patch Themselves hovels In the marred shadow Of your gift. Lawrence also recounts his capture by the Turks, his rape and torture, which did have a profound effect on him. Lawrence is complex personality. He is serving his country with ambivalence. He is not an innocent, but is naïve. He respected the Arabs and their culture, but still did what he did knowing that is was possible, even likely that the Allied powers would betray the Arab uprising. It’s a fascinating account and it is difficult to assess how much is absolutely true. Nevertheless it is worth reading. The imperialism is present, but Lawrence’s role has nuance (unlike Churchill’s). 7 out of 10 Starting Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck

Chouette by Claire Oschetsky “I begin to understand what a gift I've been given, to have been chosen for this task. The truth overwhelms me, and humbles me. The birds are telling me that my life's work, as your mother, will be to teach you how to be yourself- and to honor however much of the wild world you have in you, owl-baby- rather than mold you to be what I want you to be, or what your father wants you to be.” A really fabulous book about motherhood, difference, disability, non-conformity, neuro divergence and it really is a fable (and parable). Tiny is married to an intellectual property lawyer when she becomes pregnant by her owl-lover. There is magic realism and feminism here: “How could such a thing come to pass between woman and owl?” Tiny has an owl baby which she chooses to rear, despite her husband’s fears, he thinks surgery is required. Chouette (the feminine for owl in French) is taught to hunt and follow her instincts. There are ups and downs for Tiny as her husband and his family try to impose conformity and normalcy. Music is central as well as Tiny is a cellist and there is a list of music at the end of the novel. Tiny sees wonder and beauty in her daughter whilst society sees problems, difference and something to be treated or cured. The husband wheels in experts, therapies and approaches but science and theory just aren’t right for Chouette. The second person narration works well and there is a vein of humour: “Housekeeping is nothing more than a losing encounter with entropy” There are powerful contrasts and descriptions and it is very much Tiny and Chouette against the world. Even from just after birth when Chouette is in an incubator: “My poor girl’s wings are bruised and battered from beating against her box. She is alone and afraid. I lift off the top of the box and I pick her up. Alarms begin to sound. My daughter’s eyes are still closed and she is rooting about blindly and her skin is covered in black natal down. I hold her to my breast and she begins to feed.” This is published by Virago in the UK and is well worth looking up. 9 out of 10 Starting Washington Black by Esi Edugyan

Glad it's not just me France Whispers Under Ground by Ben Aaronovitch “It was a good plan, and like all plans since the dawn of time, this would fail to survive contact with real life.” Third in the Rivers of London series. It’s more Harry Dresden than Harry Potter and there is a certain laconic humour which helps the series along. “This is why magic is worse even than quantum physics. Because, while both spit in the eye of common sense, I've never yet had a Higgs Bosun turn up and try to have a conversation with me.” As always London is the backdrop and in particular the Underground (and the sewers). This one is a murder mystery and the main plot of the series, the search for a particular villain, though present is a side show here. The minor characters are further developed and are all quite strong. There is the usual magic and mayhem along with a fair bit of police procedural. There are also communities of people living in the many tunnels under London (which, as ever, is a significant character in itself). As this takes place around Christmas, the weather also plays a role: “The media response to unusual weather is as ritualized and predictable as the stages of grief. First comes denial: "I can't believe there's so much snow." Then anger: "Why can't I drive my car, why are the trains not running?" Then blame: "Why haven't the local authorities sanded the roads, “Where are the snowplows?”, and how come the Canadians can deal with this and we can't?" This last stage goes on the longest and tends to trail off into a mumbled grumbling moan, enlivened by occasional ILLEGALS ATE MY SNOWPLOW headlines from the *Daily Mail....*” It is formulaic, but that doesn’t really matter as it works as entertainment and is good last thing at night to doze off to. 7 out of 10 Starting Manhattan in Reverse by Peter F Hamilton

The Bronte's went to Woolworths “A woman at one of mother's parties once said to me, "Do you like reading?" which smote us all to silence, for how could one tell her that books are like having a bath or sleeping, or eating bread - absolute necessities which one never thinks of in terms of appreciation. And we all sat waiting for her to say that she had so little time for reading, before ruling her right out for ever and ever.” There are rare occasions when I finish a book and think WTF. This was one of those. It’s another offering from Virago. Rachel Ferguson was a novelist, journalist, critic and campaigner for women’s rights. This is about the Carne sisters and their mother. Mr Carne has recently died. The sisters have a vivid fantasy life which gets a bit mixed up with the real world at times. This is firmly set in the upper middle class in the 1930s and there is a level of snobbishness which reflects that. They are rather cruel to the youngest sister’s governess who eventually leaves, being unable to cope with the “weirdness”. There is no discernible plot and consequently no real start or finish. Eccentric is possibly one word for this. A couple of the character are childhood toys and the dog plays a significant role. In their imaginations they are friends with some real life people: “We get their papers, and follow their careers, and pick up gossip, and memorise anecdotes, and study paragraphs, and follow their moves about the country, and, as usually happens if you really mean business, often get into personal touch with their friends or business associates, all with some fresh item or atom of knowledge to add to the heap.” It would probably be called stalking these days. The whole thing is a bit muddled. I can see why it can be seen as a working out of grief, but it does very fixed in the English middle class. The Bronte’s do pop up in the fantasy world, indeed, shopping in Woolworths. 6 out of 10 Starting Jenny Wren by E H Young