Books do furnish a room

The Wych Elm by Tana French “The thing is, I suppose,” he said, “that one gets into the habit of being oneself. It takes some great upheaval to crack that shell and force us to discover what else might be underneath.” The title of this is The Wych Elm, written clearly on my copy. Not sure how it got changed to Witch along the way, because that title gives an entirely misleading impression of what the book is about. There is a variety tree called the Wych Elm. This variety is prone to having a hollow trunk as it ages and that is very relevant to the plot. The narrator is Toby Hennessey who is in his late 20s. He is not likeable, clearly unreliable and his attitude to women stinks. He is also privileged and entitled. This may be why many people did not finish the novel. This is essentially a thriller. Toby’s uncle Hugo lives in a large rambling house (the elm tree is in the garden). Hugo is terminally ill and his family are rallying round. Toby has two cousins, Leon and Susanna. One of Susanna’s children finds a skull in the hollow of the tree and so a police investigation begins. The skeleton belongs to a teenage friend of the three cousins who had disappeared some 12 years earlier. Incidental to this Toby has been the victim of a violent burglary which has left him with a significant head injury with some memory loss. French sets up the plot well and there are plenty of twists and turns. The novel examines the nature of memory and its unreliability, what is luck, and what is culpability. Spending the whole novel in Toby’s head is a trial and if I had been his longsuffering girlfriend Melissa, Toby would have ended up in the Elm as well. Of course there could be a link to Greek Myth here and the Wych Elm could be the entrance to the underworld. French looks at the darker side of human existence. 7 out of 10 Starting The Voices of Time by J G Ballard

The Great Game by Peter Hopkirk “There is no doubt that this secret battle of wits - political chess game played out across the vast geopolitical chessboard of Asia - changed the course of History.” This is a history of the nineteenth century struggle between two imperialist powers, Russia and Britain for ascendancy in Central and East Asia. It was about a number of issues. A number of imperialist powers had coveted India and Russia was one of those. Russia also had expansionist ambitions in relation to the many small states in Central Asia and towards Afghanistan and China. Hopkirk lays out here the various disastrous incursions into Afghanistan by Britain and Russia very clearly. It does make you realise that the twentieth century incursions into Afghanistan by the Soviet Union and the US supported by other NATO powers had not been thought through and no lessons had been learned from the nineteenth century. The phrase The Great Game was inevitably coined by that arch-imperialist Rudyard Kipling: “Now I shall go far and far into the North, playing the Great Game.” There are fascinating accounts of explorers and travellers from both sides going into places where Europeans had previously not ventured. There are descriptions of the harsh terrain, the various unpredictable rulers who soon learnt to play the British and Russians off against each other. There was one war in the nineteenth century between the two powers (Crimean War) but there were a number of other occasions where war was close: “It was a shadow war, not fought face to face, but by proxy and by stealth, in the back streets of Kabul, the passes of the Hindu Kush, and the deserts of Central Asia.” Britain’s primary ambition was to hang onto India with the occasional annexation of extra bits of territory (depending on whether the Whigs or Tories were in power). Russian ambitions were clear as well, this from Witte, one of Nicholas II’s ministers: “From the shores of the Pacific, and to the heights of the Himalayas, Russia will not only dominate the affairs of Asia, but those of Europe also.” Of course today many of those Central Asian states now have independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union. The story of The Great Game may also have lessons for the current situation vis-à-vis Russia and Ukraine. I am sure current Russian tacticians are still looking at the way things worked out in the nineteenth century. In the nineteenth century Russia had a vision and long-term goals, they still do. Hopkirk’s account is interesting and provides insights into nineteenth century imperialism and how it worked (or didn’t work) on the ground. 6 and a half out of 10 Starting The Oregon Trail by Francis Parkman

Hunger by Choi Jin Young “If only it were a billion years in the future, I’d leave Earth with your body on my back and we’d be a pair of happy boats. Doesn’t that sound nicer than cannibalism?” A Korean novel, novella to be precise about two lovers, Dam and Gu. They meet at elementary school and their novel charts their lives and relationship. It is told from both points of view. It is a romance, albeit a rather macabre one. At the beginning of the novel Gu dies. He is killed on the street as a result of the debt he inherited from his parents. Gu cannot bear to be parted from him. She takes him home, washes him down and over a period of time eats him. It really doesn’t pay to think of the practicalities of this, that clearly isn’t the point. The novel flashes back to the couple’s history. They live at the lower levels of society and life is difficult. The novel covers a lot of ground, but because of its brevity nothing is covered in any real depth. It emphasises the lack of choices for the working class in Korea. These aren’t Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers, there’s more struggle and desperation. It can’t really be called horror despite the cannibalism. “But what do I know, really? Turns out we're as clueless in death as in life. The only difference is the dead don't agonise over the unknown. They know to leave some things alone.” I think the trick is to focus on metaphor, but it didn’t really grab me, although it was interesting. 6 out of 10 Starting Brotherless Night by V V Ganeshananthan

Women in Chains by Venetria Patton “Feminism often conjures up idyllic visions of a united sisterhood: however, black feminists such as Hazel Carby and bell hooks, among others, have questioned the existence of a sisterhood of black and white women. Carby states, “Considering the history of the failure of any significant political alliances between black and white women in the nineteenth century, I challenge the impulse in the contemporary women’s movement to discover a lost sisterhood and to reestablish feminist solidarity.”” Venetria Patton writes about black women writers and their responses to slavery, race, gender and motherhood. Patton looks at writers such as Gayl Jones, Toni Morrison Shirley Anne Williams, Pauline Hopkins, Harriet Wilson and Frances Harper. She pulls out recurring themes. Motherhood in particular is an important theme. There are issues related to bringing a child into the world who is destined to be a slave and some writers (Morrison for example) write about women who kill their children to spare them a life of slavery. There is also consideration of sexual relationships between slave owners/overseers and female slaves and the way “mothering” was discouraged, female slaves being regarded as breeders rather than mothers. Patton contrasts attitudes in the nineteenth century with those in the twentieth century. Another aspect of the work is looking at the nineteenth century so called “sentimental novel”. A prime example of this is Uncle Tom’s Cabin. There is a chapter devoted to an analysis of the novel. The work has been criticized for not taking into account Africa and African diaspora values. The analysis is interesting. I had read three of the novels being examined, which helped. It is an important analysis of how slavery, gender and motherhood has been examined by black female writers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. 7 and a half out of 10 Starting Roman Lincoln by Michael Jones

Yes Madeleine, she is The reason why by Cecil Woodham-Smith “Forward, the Light Brigade!” Was there a man dismayed? Not though the soldier knew Someone had blundered. Theirs not to make reply, Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die. Into the valley of Death Rode the six hundred.” Cecil Woodham-Smith was a historian and biographer writing mid twentieth century. She wrote a noted work on the Irish famine of the 1840s and a biography of Florence Nightingale amongst other works. The clue to this one is in the snippet from the Tennyson poem quoted above. Woodham-Smith looks at The Charge of The Light Brigade. She does this by essentially writing the biographies of the two main military commanders involved. They are George Charles Bingham, 3rd Earl of Lucan (yes, ancestor of that Lord Lucan) and James Brudenell 7th Earl od Cardigan. Woodham-Smith follows their lives and characters. They were brothers-in-law and hated each other: this was to have a significant effect on the course of the battle as Lucan was in theory the senior officer. Two more unpleasant men it would be difficult to find. Cardigan was absolutely convinced that he was always right and was a bully, especially to those he commanded. Lucan was of a similar personality, he had property and land in Ireland and was notorious for his ill-treatment of his tenants. The descriptions of the build up to the battle and the Crimean campaign tell the tale of the losses to cholera and the huge loss of horses (again mainly due to the incompetence of senior officers). What is baffling is that one wonders how the British managed to get and maintain the empire they did with such incompetents in charge. The truth here is that the Russians made an equal number of mistakes so the two sides sort of cancelled each other out. As usual it was the common soldiery on each side who suffered and died. The military descriptions do get somewhat tedious but this certainly illustrates how war was fought in the nineteenth century and how armies were led. 7 out of 10 Starting An Innkeeper's Diary by John Fothergill

Fear in the Blood edited by Mike Ashley "As I stooped to reach it I felt someone pull my dress from behind. I fancied I had caught the train in something, and I turned to disengage it. But the folds were perfectly free, and I returned to my original design of ringing the bell... My first impulse was to examine my dress. Yes! There on the new velvet was the distinct impress of a little hand where the material had been grasped and pulled, just about on a level with my knees" (Florence Marryat). A British Library tales of the weird collection. This collection of weird tales is grouped into six family collections with a total of eighteen stories. The first set is the Marryat family, Frederick and his daughter Florence. The other family groups are Le Fanu, Hawthorne, Dickens, Pangborn and Aitken. There are some stand out stories. These include Fran Nan’s Story by Sarah LeFanu, set in the foot and mouth outbreak in 2000 and by a feminist writer I have recently discovered. Old Fillikin by Joan Aitken is about a boy who is having problems with his Maths teacher, the solution is rather interesting. Wogglebeast by Edgar Pangborn is rather melancholic and sad. The Secret Ones by Mary Danby (great great granddaughter of Charles Dickens) says a good deal about our current issues in relation to asylum seekers and migration: “The husband, the wife and the wife’s sister arrived by boat one fear-grey dawn. Nobody saw them as they sidled down the gangplank and hurried nervously to the shelter of a deserted warehouse. They had been many days without food, hidden and afraid in the lurching hold, huddling for warmth in the relentless dark. And as the sun rose behind the cranes and girders of the quayside, they blinked uncertainly and trembled in the unaccustomed chill of an east wind that sought out their hiding place with no mercy.” “They … were disheartened to find the land of their dreams to be one of hate not plenty.” A powerful story with a shocking ending. As always with these collections the quality varies, but on the whole, this is a good collection. 8 out of 10 Starting Night Wire and other tales of Weird Media

Ghosts of Manhattan by George Mann Another venture into Steampunk. This one is a mixture, there are also elements of noir, hardboiled detective, comic book, batman with some nods to Lovecraft and Cthulhu. It is set in 1926 Manhattan. The main character is Gabriel Cross a wealthy playboy type. On the side he has a disguise as a caped vigilante/crimefighter. That’s where the batman element comes in. There is a suitably nasty crime boss called The Roman with numerous deadly henchmen and a few extra tricks up his sleeve. There is, of course a well meaning cop who refuses to be corrupted by The Roman and a sultry night club singer (of course). The international backdrop is that there is a cold war between the US and the British Empire. There are steam and coal-powered cars and rocket powered biplanes. The Ghost uses similarly powered back packs to fly short distances. There are the inevitable tommy guns, but some more creative weaponry as well. There is a plot and there novel moves along at a fast pace. Serious injury doesn’t seem to stop the characters running around a lot. There isn’t much nuance or subtlety and I wonder whether this would have been better off as a comic book. Those in the know say that Mann has got the geography of Manhattan wrong as well. This is essentially pulp fiction with little depth. Entertaining at one level, undemanding and rather flawed. But it has a certain pace and is easy to read. 6 out of 10 Starting Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding

I found it a bit slow too France and now I've read it, it's going to the charity shop The Wasted Vigil by Nadeem Aslam “Even the air of this country has a story to tell about warfare. It is possible here to lift a piece of bread from a plate and following it back to its origins, collect a dozen stories concerning war-how it affected the hand that pulled it out of the oven, the hand that kneaded the dough, how war impinged upon the field where wheat was grown.” This is set in post 9/11 Afghanistan but also looks back to the Soviet occupation in the 1980s. I did struggle with aspects of this, particularly in relation two the characters. There are four main characters. Marcus is British, older and has lived in Afghanistan for many years: Lara is from Russia, looking for information about someone she lost: David is from the Us (and is CIA): Zameen id half British, half Afghani. There are other significant characters who are Afghani; Qatrina, Dunia and Casa, but theses are less well drawn. Most of the nuance comes from the western characters. The perspectives of the characters linked with Al-Qaeda and the Taliban feel rather two-dimensional (that may be the nature of fundamentalism of course) and less interesting. Each of the main characters has a quest and they generally do not manage to complete it due to a variety of circumstances. The language and prose is rich and beautiful, but as you would expect very sad because of the history of the place: “This country was one of the great tragedies of the age. Torn to pieces by the many hands of war, by the various hatreds and failings of the world. Two million deaths over the past quarter-century. Several of the lovers on the walls were on their own because of the obliterating impact of the bullets – nothing but a gash or a terrible ripping away where the corresponding man or woman used to be. A shredded limb, a lost eye.” I feel this should have gripped me more than it did, maybe it’s me. But the main characters didn’t ring true and seemed so unlikely. 6 out of 10 Starting Hunger by Choi Jin-young

Death Under a Little Sky by Stig Abell This is the beginning (I suspect) of a new crime series. Jake Jackson retires from the police force at the grand old age of 38. His uncle has died and left him a property in the country, a house called Little Sky (with attached lake). The house is odd, there is no internet connection or signal for a phone. Some aspects are rather primitive (no washing machine), but there is a massive library with a collection of thrillers and crime books. The novel is about how Jake becomes embroiled in a local mystery and possible murder. Jake works with a local policeman. There is a love interest (inevitably), some rather odd and often surly locals. There is plenty of eccentricity and no shortage of suspects. It is well written and rather predictable at times and probably falls into the category of “cozy crime”. It's easy reading, not at all demanding. Perfect bedtime reading. 7 out of 10 Starting Lost in the Garden by Adam Leslie

The Street Philosopher by Matthew Plampin A historical novel set at the time of the Crimean War. The title was the way society journalists were referred to at the time. The action alternates between The Crimea during the war and Manchester three years later in 1857. War reporting holds the novel together and the three main characters work for the London Courier. The senior reporter is Richard Cracknell. His colleague Thomas Kitson is the main protagonist. Robert Styles is their illustrator. Pamplin does detail pretty well and manages to capture the fog of war. There is a level of brutal realism which is quite effective. Mary Seacole pops up and Plampin does show how ineffective medicine was (there’s no Florence Nightingale though). Another theme is the total incompetence of much of the senior military. There is a side story which moves to and fro from the Crimea to Manchester which involves corruption, looting and intrigue. On the whole it works and moves along at a fair pace. It works as a thriller and does illustrate the horrors of the Crimean War. There are some over used tropes and the romantic thread felt out of place. 6 and a half out of 10 Starting The Wych Elm by Tana French

Domination by Alice Roberts Reviewing this could be interesting as it raises all sorts of issues as the book goes against many of the trends of the time, particularly in the UK. Alice Roberts is well known in the UK for her TV appearances on archaeological programmes. She trained as a medic and worked as a junior doctor. She went on to do a PhD in paleopathology and researched osteoarchaeology. She’s had a variety of roles, including being Chair of the British Humanist Association. This, of course, means she does have an opinion on the issue of how Christianity grew and spread. There has also been an awful lot of vitriol heaped on Roberts on social media, especially on X from a variety of sources. There is a strand of particularly British nationalism spreading at present, often focussed on Reform UK and Nigel Farage. This involves the flag, a weird concept of what the Knights Templar were, deporting everyone who is not white and a version of some sort of pure Christianity. It’s all a load of nonsense (there are other more satisfactory words I could have used here), but it means Roberts has been subject to a good deal of criticism. There is a clear critique as Sebastian Milbank says: “ her view is that Christianity’s success was due to its usefulness to elites, and that its members were primarily motivated by the desire for wealth and power.” Roberts’s arguments are broader than this but views become fixed. It is important to remember this isn’t an academic historical tome. It is broader in scope and more polemical. The book looks at the way Christianity grew from a small Jewish cult into the dominant religion in the Roman Empire. I’m not going to give a blow by blow account of this, but to just raise a few issues that struck me. The first part of the book looks at archaeology and in particular at Wales, Cornwall and Brittany and at the way society developed as Roman influence declined. Often cemeteries were outside town walls. As time went on they often had chapels built and eventually roles were reversed and the church became more important than the cemetery. Another interesting development was that many roman villas, because of their size, became places of worship as the buildings were repurposed. Roberts makes some interesting points about asceticism and suggests maybe it wasn’t always as it seemed. Eucherius of Lyon, when he went on a Lenten retreat to a monastery, took with him 1740 litres of wine and 66 kilos of cheese. She also suggests that Simon Stylites, who spent many years sat on top of a twenty-foot pillar, may have been fooling himself if he thought it was a way of avoiding people. When I first heard the story as a child, my first thought was “Where does he go to the toilet?” A question no one has ever satisfactorily answered. Robert also points out that as the administration of the Church and the imperial administration grew ever closer, one principle was assured, “The rich stayed rich and the poor stayed poor.” Roberts spends a good deal of time looking at the life and conversion of Constantine and makes some interesting points about syncretism, the mixing of old and new ideas and the fluidity of moving between two sets of ideas. Christian conversion is often portrayed in very dichotomous terms, but in reality the situation was that of a gradual acceptance and movement, to and fro. Roberts also points out that the language of the Church is often straight from terms used by Roman administration. For example clergy, laity, baptistry, basilica, curia, ecclesia are all terms straight from roman antecedents. Towards the end of the book Roberts argues that the structure and nature of the Church made it similar to a multi-divisional firm. She takes some of the economic arguments from Ekelund and Tollison and quotes them: “In the corporate structure of Christendom the medieval monastery operated as a (downstream) franchised firm, receiving quality assurance and name-brand recognition from the Church of Rome in return for certain payments (upstream).” The concept of the Church as an economic firm hasn’t gone down well. It has been discussed in academic circles for a while and even Adam Smith mentioned it, putting it blatantly in the mainstream has created a reaction. This is by no means a flawless book and I think Roberts spends too long on some of the theological debates and heresies, but it does explode a few myths along the way. It explains why Christianity was attractive to the elites and the middle classes. The poor, of course, are almost invisible and I suspect their primary objective as always was survival. If you want a not too academic look at the rise of Christianity, then this may be for you. 9 out of 10 Starting Women in Chains: The Legacy of Slavery in Black Women's Fiction by Venetria Patton

The Story of my Life George Sand George Sand was the name adopted by Aurore Dupin and this is her own account of her life (and some of her loves). She gives an account of her family history before her birth as well as her own history. This is her account of her birth: “My good aunt Lucie was on the eve of marriage with an officer who was a friend of my father, and they were all celebrating in the intimacy of the family. My mother was wearing a pretty dress the colour of roses. They were dancing a quadrille composed by my father, as he played on his faithful Cremona violin. . . . My mother, feeling a slight malaise, left the dance and went to her bedroom. Since she showed no signs of indisposition and had left so quietly, the dancing continued. My aunt Lucie, as it was ending, went to my mother's bedroom, and almost immediately she was heard to cry, "Come, come quickly, Maurice, you have a daughter!" "She shall be called Aurore," said my father, "after my poor, dear mother, who is not here to bless her, but who will someday!" And he took me in his arms. . . . "She was born to the sound of music and in the colour of roses," said my aunt. "She will know happiness.” In the edition I have there are also some of Sand’s letters, mostly to Alfred de Mussett (one of her lovers). There are also some extracts from a personal journal which consists of letters she didn’t send. Finally there is an extract from an account of a visit to Majorca with Chopin. This last extract is the part I enjoyed least as Sand is very scathing about the culture and peasantry of Majorca. Most of the book concerns Sand’s childhood and her relationship with two very strong women, her mother and her grandmother. These two did not get on most of the time and Sand was often caught between the two: she spent a good deal of her time with her grandmother. Sand remains discreet about her lovers, of whom there were quite a number and she moved in literary circles, spending time with most of the significant writers of the time. She is interesting in her own right. Often dressing as a male and adopting a male pseudonym in her writing and balancing that with motherhood. She is an interesting subject and this was worth reading. 7 and a half out of 10 Starting The Reason Why by Cecil Woodham-Smith

Halloweird edited by Johnny Mains This is another collection from the British Library which covers the season of Samhain/Halloween. It includes short stories and some poetry (one from Rabbie Burns no less). Samhain is one of the two pagan fire festivals in Britain’s pagan year. The other is Beltane in May. The publication range is from 1780 to the 1970s: although most of the tales are pre 1930s. There is poetry from Mayne, Burns, Revi and Geraldine. Short stories by R Fryer, Elizabeth Train, Letitia Douglas, Edgar Wakeman, Lyllian Huntley (x2), Herminie Kavanagh, Alphonse Courlander, Eleanor Fitzgerald, Rachel Macnamara, Tod Robbins, Flavia Richardson, Edith Wharton, Elizabeth Walter, Virginia Lafefsky and Mary Williams (this one is excellent). There is the usual diet of spurned lovers, bone carriages, graveyards, castles, ghosts, ghouls, one set in the old US west (cowboys and all), unexpected apparitions and the usual sense of the reader saying “Don’t open that door!!” In more modern parlance FAFO. Then there’s the oddest line in the book from the poem “Twas the night of All Hallows” by Geraldine: “She lies there, but lo! most amazing to note, Encircling her neck was a FROLICSOME GOAT” Don’t ask. This is a good collection. There are a couple of duds, but some pretty good ones too. The cover art is effective too. 8 out of 10 Starting Fear in the Blood, Another collection in the Tales of the Weird series

Heartstone by C J Sansom “Politics is like dice: the better the player, the worse the man.” This is the fifth in the series of Shardlake novels set in the reign of Henry VIII. This time we are in 1545 and England is on the brink of war with France. The action moves between London, Portsmouth and rural Hampshire. There are some recurring characters. Barak is still Shardlake’s sidekick. Sir Richard Rich is suitably villainous as ever and Guy the physician also continues to be a part of the story. The plot this time has a couple of focuses. The Court of Wards is one of them dealing with the wardship of orphaned children. The other is a continuation from a previous book and deals withy a resident of Bedlam. As ever there are plenty of twists and turns. There are always some predictabilities. Shardlake inevitably gets threatened and taken captive. He is always in the middle of whatever historical event is going on. During the build up I thought to myself, surely he’s not going to stick the poor chap on the Mary Rose when it sinks? Well, wait and see!! There is another interesting story line in the form of a transgender character and Sansom handles this pretty well without resorting to formulaic solutions. Ideal comfort reading (for me anyway). 7 and a half out of 10 Starting Death under a little Sky by Stig Abell

It is good Luna Greenteeth by Molly O'Neill “That’s preachers for you. They care less about facts than about fear. That cursed parson probably didn’t even think I was really a witch, just a woman who was cleverer than he thought she should be.” Another folklore based ramble based on the Jenny Greenteeth myths. Jenny Greenteeth (or many similar variations of the name), lives in rivers, lakes and pools snaring and capturing the unwary (especially the elderly and children). She is generally used to scare children away from water and its dangers. Many countries have similar myths: River Mumma (Jamaica), Bunyip (Australia), Kappa (Japan), Storm Hag (Lake Erie), Rusalka (Slavic Countries) and so on. This is a quest novel involving Jenny Greenteeth, a goblin called Brackus and a human witch called Temperance Crump. The setting is I think, the seventeenth century. Jenny’s lake is near the village of Chipping Appleby. One day a local witch is thrown into her pond at the bidding of a new local parson. Various things ensue and Jenny and Temperance discover the parson is really the Erl King (another mythological figure) who is thoroughly evil. His power is beyond Jenny or Temperance and they set off on a quest to get help along with Brackus a goblin who is a travelling tradesman. Various adventures ensue and assorted fae creatures are encountered. We have unicorns (apparently, they live on the Isle of Skye and the wild hunt. It’s all pretty much escapist fantasy, but I sensed a bit of a state of the nation feel to it. There is a spreading and pervasive evil in the land and what is required to defeat it is cooperation and the working together of a group based on diversity and difference. Seems somehow relevant to the UK at the moment. It reads easily and the first person narration works well. I enjoyed this and appreciated the underlying message. 8 and a half out of 10 Starting Ghosts of Manhattan by George Mann