Shedunnit and other podcasts

 My long time preferred bedtime listening has been Melvyn Bragg’s In Our Time. It’s intelligent, discursive and not aggressive or shrieky. 

The recent news that he has left the programme has made me search a little wider.

I’ve discovered other podcasts.

Not Just the Tudors, presented by Suzannah Lipscomb, covers aspects of that period of history, usually as a discussi0n with one guest.

Betwixt the Sheets, presented by sex historian Kate Lister, looks at sexual behaviour and stories ‘that’d make you history teacher blush’.

But at the moment I’m enjoying Shedunnit, presented by Caroline Crampton, which discusses detective fiction and writers, mainly from the Golden Age of the whodunnit, between the first and second World Wars.

As a result I’ve read a couple of titles from ECR Lorac, both set in WW2 - and thoroughly enjoyed them - Bats in the Belfry and Murder by Matchlight. 

 For a change I’ll probably read some of Dorothy L Sayers. I read some long ago, but really can’t say I remember either the titles or the stories now.

More books read in 2017, early 2018 (part 2)

After reading the two books of Sandi Toksvig's A Slice of the Moon, I decided to read Valentine Grey,  a book for adults set at the time of the Boer War. The main character is Valentine, a girl who was born in India, and spent her early years there with her father. Her mother died when she was a baby. When she was seven she was sent to English relatives who try to instil the correct attitudes for a wealthy lady. The only respite is her cousin Reggie, who entertains her and becomes a companion when he is home from boarding school.
A few years later Valentine takes Reggie's place as a volunteer in the army, and the parallel stories of her life in South Africa, and Reggie's life with his gay lover in London allow Toksvig to incorporate a great deal of factual social history, and history of the disastrous war.
Definitely a feminist book, and an entertaining read, even if horrifying in places.

Another book which touches on war and volunteering, is The Secret Rooms by Catherine Bailey. This tells the story of John Manners, 9th Dukes of Rutland and owner of Belvoir Castle in Leicestershire, by exploring documents which were locked away for 60 years after his death in April 1940. Intriguingly all documents from three periods in his life had been destroyed: a period when his older brother Haddon, died aged 9; and two periods in the first world war.  The author's search for information about these periods forms the framework of the book. 
The mystery is perhaps overplayed and a bit of a let-down when it is partly revealed, but the social history and characters are fascinating.

Some of the books I read in 2017 (part 1.)

I have Ron Chernow's Alexander Hamilton (Great Lives) on Kindle, but it's a long book and I keep stalling. I am about 1/3 of the way through its 818 pages.

As an antidote, or for easier reading, I turned to L M Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables series, which I had read as a child, and found them thoroughly enjoyable and absorbing. The ones about her early years are unsurprisingly the best. 

Going on from there, i intend at some point to re-read Lousia May Alcott's Little Women,  after watching the TV adaptation over the Christmas period. A good story, if occasionally a little pious.

I read Laura Inglis's Little House on the Praire. Its a little dated, particularly in its complacent attitude to the Native American Indians, but another strong girl is the main character.

Another view of immigration into America is offered by Sandi Toksvig's children's books, A Slice of the Moon  and The End of the Sky. The main character is Slim, the daughter of an Irish family escaping from the potato famine and hoping to join an uncle's family in Oregon.  She's a real tomboy, unlike her older sister. The families tribulations during the long sea crossing and afterwards are vividly told and absorbing. The End of the Sky continues the story with lots of relatively unknown historical information (referenced, or Google check), such as the Choctaw Indians sending aid to the Irish during the potato famine. I loved both of these books.

Twopence to Cross the Mersey - Helen Forrester

Tough times, and a lively tale well-told, of the days before the Welfare State, and the lengths people were forced to when unemployed.  As the blurb says, there's no wallowing in self-pity, though there is anger, as Helen was forced to look after her siblings and neglect the schooling which she loved.

Helen Forrester died last November, and it was through reading her obituary that I decided to get hold of the book.  Worth a read, for itself, as well as to remind us of how we take our current safety nets for granted.

Flowers for Algernon

Book published in 1966, tells the story of Charlie - a young man with an IQ of 68 who has the chance to undergo surgery which turns him into a genius.

Oryx and Crake - Atwood

I have just read this for the second time.

Evil Seed - Joanne Harris

Her first novel, written when she was 23 and recently published.

I guess it shows a bit, but you can see the elements of darkness and sensuality which she develops later.

Eva Luna - Isabel Allende

A strange story - hope to come back with more later - again. Procrastination is what?

Vikram Seth, An Equal Music

Loved it. More details later

Maeve Binchy - Circle of Friends

Another feelgood - but she certainly makes her characters live in my head, and her plots are well constructed. A picture of the changing society in Ireland, conflicts of old and new, a worldy-wise nun, two very different gold-diggers who come to grief or at least to reality, a decaying aristocratic family with a disowned wayward daughter, and the central friendship between two girls who grow up together in a small town and then Dublin.

Bill Bryson - Made in America

Another re-read. As always with Bryson, very entertaining, even when packed full o' facts. The book takes us through the development of American English from the early colonists to the present day. Well, 1994, when he wrote the book.
Along the way he debunks some of the popular myths of American history. Even Independence Day is celebrated on the 'wrong' day.
Excellent.

Just re-read Five Quarters of the Orange, by Joanne Harris. I think this is my favourite of hers. I love the stories where her darker side emerges.

I am reading Friends, Lovers, Chocolate, by Alexander McCall Smith. I like this better than his Mma Ramotswe books about Botswana. He is pretty good at getting inside the head of a modern, intelligent woman.

Kate Long - The Daughter Game

Kate Long's books always keep me reading. I read Swallowing Grandma on a transatlantic flight and it entertained me for the whole journey. I especially enjoy her witty, realistic dialogue, and sharply observed characters.

Her most recent novel, The Daughter Game, doesn't have so many laugh-out-loud moments as the others, but I still picked it up first thing in the morning in preference to my laptop.

The book starts with a scene where the main character, Anna, melts her headmaster with a flamethrower – letting us know that she has a good line in imaginary vengeance, and setting the tone for this lively, warm, and funny though sometimes disturbing book.

Anna is a successful school teacher, but her apparent confidence hides conflicts. She has a history of miscarriages, and is increasingly dissatisfied in her marriage to an ex-teacher who is now a full-time writer. All of the pressures lead her to question everything about her life, from her relationship with her dead mother to her longing for a child.

She has an affair with her brother-in-law, but he wants more from her than she can give. In school a friendship with a promising new female student becomes too intense as Anna sees her as a daughter figure.

Anna’s journey takes us from classroom to staff room, from her middle-class home to a rented caravan to a run-down slum, and I travelled with her all the way.

I have to admit I was rooting for a different ending, but the one in the book makes sense, and I guess it shows I was involved with the characters.

I Claudius

Well, in spite of my negative comments a couple of posts ago, I finished it, and intend to look out for Claudius the God. This book makes our modern politics look ethical. Almost.

We still haven't watched the remaining episodes of the DVD.

The Glass-Blowers - Daphne du Maurier

I picked this up in the pile of secondhand books sold for charity at my local Co-op.


It's a fictionalised account of the life of du Maurier's own French ancestors around the time of the French Revolution. Must look up the newish biography of D du M.

The central character is sister to a master-craftsman glass-blower, and married to another. They become involved in the new revolutionary politics, dispossessing the old aristocracy and later end up being attacked in their turn, when the political wheel moved round. An absorbing story, full of warmth, and strong characters. I used to think that such inhumanity to others in times of economic hardship belonged to the dark ages, but now the story has too many resonances with what we see daily in news bulletins.

More on this I hope, when I have time.

I, Claudius - film and book

Well, it's a TV adaptation from 1976. I think this will keep us occupied for a week or more, since there are around a dozen episodes.

We watched the first couple last night, and I found them much more understandable than the Robert Graves book. The book reads a bit like an academic treatise with bits of gossip intermingled, and the huge number of characters, with their many marriages and interrelationships is difficult to follow. In the TV version with Sian Phillips as evil Livia, and Derek Jacobi as Claw-claw-claudius, things are clearer. So I'm going to read the book alongside the film.

Catching up

I'm copying down a few notes I made while staying in Tuscany for a week - a quiet cottage, with a few books and no internet connection, except in the office. I have not made any very meaningful comments, here.

Some of the books were there already -

Alexander McCall Smith: The Good Husband of Zebra Drive
No 1 Ladies’ detective agency, with its determinist view of characters – people should be happy as they are and not attempt things that are beyond them.
Problems as her husband Mr J L B Matekoni decides he will investigate a case of an errant husband, and mistakes a photograph for that of his own wife. Then one of his mechanics decides to start a taxi service. Mma Ramotswe’s assistant wants to change her job because she is about to get married.
They investigate thefts from a local office supplier, and only solve it by giving the culprit the keys to the cupboard – he takes the lot. The deaths at the local hospital – the cleaner is turning off the ventilator to plug in her vacuum cleaner.
A general feel-good series, set in Botswana, where McCall Smith spent some time.


Karen Essex – Leonardo’s Swans

Isabelle d’Este, her sister Beatrice, daughters of Ercole d’Este
Francesco Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua. M. Isabella
Ludovico Sforza of Milan marries Beatrice
There are intrigues involving the French kings etc, and all through this Leonardo is at Milan. Il magistro, who doesn’t eat meat because he doesn’t want his body to be the tomb of another animal, but invents machines of war, never finishes his commissions.
Isabella’s great ambition is to have her portrait painted by Leonardo, though this never happened – there was a drawing, which is now in the Louvre. She also appears as a pregnant muse in the centre of a Mantegna painting – Venus and Apollo on Mount Parnassus, in the Louvre. Soap and sex and history mixed together.

Carol Drinkwater – The Olive Season
An actress and a film producer buy an olive farm in Provence, then get married. She has a miscarriage, and they put all their energy into olive growing. It is full of local characters, such as the Arab gardener, Quashia, the local olive farmer and builder, Rene, the local celebs and minor aristocrats, and the incoming Russian Mafia and a dose of superstition as she employs water-diviners and takes photographs where the subject disappears from the picture, and soon dies. The life-style of jetting off to London, NY, Australia is a little out of my range. Nevertheless, written in a down-to-earth manner, apart from the odd spiritual bits. All in spite of the two MCs not being conventionally ‘religious’.


I bought this one in Radda-n Chianti, when I realised I was running out of reading material.
Anne Tyler –Digging to America
Two families in Baltimore adopt Korean babies and keep in touch as they grow up. The main character (though the viewpoint shifts) is Maryam Yazdan, an Iranian immigrant in her late fifties/early sixties, the ‘grandmother’ of Susan (Sooki), and her relationship with her son, his wife and the child, then later with the other family and in particular Dave, the ‘grandfather’ of Jo-Hin ( the other Korean adopted child). Her difficulties in fitting in either in America, or in Iran even if she were to return. Exile, pride, self-sufficiency – being an outsider. There are also a couple in Vermont, Farah (Maryam’s cousin) and her husband, William – who are more Iranian than the Iranians.

This is a book Harry bought in the airport.
Carolly Erickson – Brief Lives of the English Monarchs
From William the Conqueror to Elizabeth II – well written and researched, easy to read, though I am sure I shall forget all the facts.

Atonement - book and film

Watched the film on 15th April. Very much enjoyed, though the layers (of time and reality) take a bit of getting used to. I am re-reading the book. Watch this space.

Yes, I finished it while on holiday - excellent book with a good strong story, well told, with convincing atmosphere when McEwan depicts inter-war wealthy family life, complete with class differences, and their effect on attitudes. Later the harrowing wartime experiences, of soldiers and nurses are vivid.

All wrapped up in an exploration of the role of a writer of fiction alongside guilt and innocence and self-justification. What is truth?

Jodi Picoult - Plain Truth

A dead premature baby is found hidden in the barn of the Fishers, an Amish family. Eighteen-year-old Katie claims to remember nothing of the birth or her pregnancy, though medical evidence establishes that she is the mother, and circumstantial evidence indicates that she is the likely killer.

Ellie Hathaway, a successful lawyer, is questioning her role as a defense attorney. She believes she has used her skill to allow criminals to evade justice, in the interests of furthering her own career. Ellie has recently become desperate to have a child of her own but has split up with her long-term boyfriend. She is persuaded to defend Katie, and because of the bail conditions imposed finds herself sharing the life of the Fisher family.

As the story unrolls, Picoult examines different value systems, ideas of justice and family relationships. One thing I like about her books is that the choices the characters make are difficult, and the line between good and evil is not entirely clear.

Khaled Hosseini - 1000 Splendid Suns

This is the second book by the author of The Kite Runner. I have not yet seen that film, though I have read the book.

Hosseini's novel covers the miserable lives of two women in Afghanistan, covering the period before the arrival of communism, its overthrow, the jihad, the coming to power of the Taliban. It ends as the Taliban have been removed, and Laila and her childhood love, Tariq, reunited after many years, return to Kabul.
I found the book interesting for its social history, the information about the position of women, and the exploration of the relationship between the two central characters. Mariam the illegitimate child of a rich man from Herat,is married off to Rasheed, a bitter older man and the relationship becomes increasingly oppressive and violent as she fails to give him a child. Twenty years later Laila, the daughter of an educated couple in Kabul, who die in an explosion, becomes Rasheed's wife, in order to cover up her pregnancy by Tariq. The relationship between husband and wife turns sour after the birth of Laila's second child, a boy. Meanwhile the two women change from enemies to close friends.

I would have enjoyed the book much more if Rasheed had not been such an obnoxious individual. The personal violence becomes more horrifying than all the repression going on in the country.

Another aspect that I found unsatisfying is the shift in point of view from Mariam to Laila part of the way through the book. I would have liked to follow Mariam more closely during the intervening years before she and Laila are thrown together.