Anyway – it’s now on the shelves, published and ready to be read, so do go and get yourselves a copy! Bloomsbury have made this YouTube trailer for it – enticing!
…I am still alive!
Still don’t have internet access at our new house – was supposed to come yesterday, but trouble at t’ mill. Will hopefully right itself soon, and I’ll have lots to tell you about!
As a taster, I just finished The O’Sullivan Twins by Enid Blyton… who said Stuck-in-a-Book wasn’t a highbrow place to be?
I’m in the final throes of packing, and tomorrow I
shall be living in Marlborough Road, Oxford, rather than Regent Street, Oxford. Last time I moved, I didn’t have the internet for a few weeks – I do hope the same won’t be true this time, but I thought I’d write and warn you all that any silence is probably involuntary.
This photo might be horribly familiar to those of you who have moved house recently. I’ve only been here a year, and have accumulated an enormous amount of rubbish. Having ‘almost finished’ packing yesterday, I filled three boxes tonight with what can only be described as ‘assorted tat’. How does it happen? Can’t imagine. Oddly enough, when we moved from Worcestershire to Somerset in 2005 (my only major move, since I was shipped off to friends for the 1992 move from Merseyside to Worcestershire) it didn’t seem to take too long or reveal too much unwanted junk. Curious.
What am I up to over the next week or so? This weekend I’m off to London – that was quite a last minute decision, as I have been invited to my friend’s ‘stag party’. I wish there were a less repellent term for that… Marital Preparation Celebration, perhaps. The guy in question is a Christian, as is his brother who is organising it, so I have no qualms on the ethical front – but I don’t really know what to expect. We’ll see. On more familiar ground, I shall be spending the following week attending Book Groups – well, two of ’em. My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier, and To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. The Carbon Copy has been asking me to read the latter ever since he read it at school, and I have been meaning to. So far, wonderful (about 100 pages in) and unmistakably Southern American. Something in the style and characterisation, more than the topics or dialect. I’ll report back on those two in further detail in the future, no doubt, and haven’t forgotten that I owe you a review of The Brontes Went To Woolworths…
Adieu, hopefully not for long!
You may remember I eulogised about Mary Ann Shaffer’s epistolary novel The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society – in fact, it’s had rave reviews from more or less everyone. Elaine at Random Jottings pointed me in the right direction, and the latest fan is Our Vicar’s Wife, who took it to Cornwall with her last week.
Anyway – it’s now on the shelves, published and ready to be read, so do go and get yourselves a copy! Bloomsbury have made a YouTube trailer for it – I tried to embed it in this post, but the technical wizardy flumoxed me – this is the link.
So, the Booker longlist is out. Here it is:
Aravind Adiga The White Tiger
Gaynor Arnold Girl in a Blue Dress
Sebastian Barry The Secret Scripture
John Berger From A to X
Michelle de Kretser The Lost Dog
Amitav Ghosh Sea of Poppies
Linda Grant The Clothes on Their Backs
Mohammed Hanif A Case of Exploding Mangoes
Philip Hensher The Northern Clemency
Joseph O’Neill Netherland
Salman Rushdie The Enchantress of Florence
Tom Rob Smith Child 44
Steve Toltz A Fraction of the Whole
Guess what? I’ve not read any of them, though I do have Tolz’s book (well, three books, isn’t it?) I turned down a chance to read Child 44 because it sound
ed like the absolute opposite of my cup of tea, and I haven’t heard of the others. Actually, I think someone mentioned the Mangoes one at Book Group a while ago… anyway, I have little intention of seeking out the rest.
Turns out I have read two Booker prize winners – Possession by AS Byatt, which was very good, and The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst, which was not. Throwing in all the shortlisted books, I’ve read another five: A Month in the Country by JL Carr; The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood; Atonement and On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan; Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller. That’s seven, out of over 200 possible titles… So you can see that I’m not a particuarly frenetic follower of the prize – though it’s nice to keep half an eye on it, just out of interest.
What I find rather more interesting is the judges – I have a personal interest in this, since a tutor turned down working with me on a thesis, one of the reasons being her commitments as Booker judge – but what an interesting group they make. Do go and have a look on the Wikipedia page. They seem to get some pretty reputable writers, some who have been nominated before, the odd celebrity (Nigella Lawson, anyone?) but generally groups who have stood the test of time far more than the books nominated. And more in my line, as it happens. Of the judges, not all of whom are authors, I’ve read books by:
Frank Kermode
Richard Hoggart
AS Byatt
Susan Hill
Claire Tomalin
Hermione Lee
Fay Weldon
Libby Purves
Sebastian Faulks
Penelope Fitzgerald
Gillian Beer
John Sutherland
and have books by quite a few of the others. In fact, from this year on, I’m going to be watching out for the chosen judges, rather than the chosen books. A far more lastingly interesting indication of the literary world, I reckon.
There are a few books I’ve finished over the last month, and not blogged about, but they’re now all in boxes… I’m moving house on Wednesday, to the other side of Oxford, and my bookcase is moving tomorrow – thus I had to empty it, and consign all my books to boxes. I did, however, see my new bedroom for the first time today, and it has lots of shelves already there! Hurray! My books need no longer be in piles by my bed. I’m sure they will be, but at least it will be out of volition rather than necessity.
I can just about remember the book I finished early this morning, without fishing it out of the box, and it strays a little from normal Stuck-in-a-Book territory: The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat by Oliver Sacks. I started reading this two or three years ago, simply because the title captured me, somehow it got shelved (I think termtime and essays got in the way) and now I’ve finished. For those who don’t know, it’s non-fiction, described by Wikipedia thus: “The book comprises 24 essays split into 4 sections which each deal with a particular aspect of brain function such as deficits and excesses in the first two sections (with particular emphasis on the right hemisphere of the brain) while the third and fourth describe phenomenological manifestations with reference to spontaneous reminiscences, altered perceptions, and extraordinary qualities of mind found in “retardates”
Gosh, doesn’t that sound dull. Well, it isn’t. Each chapter looks at certain patients/clients (as they were called, though Sacks rather disparages the term) and their medical predicaments – Sacks documents his interaction with these people, and his discovering why their conditions occur, without being too blinding-with-science. A woman who can only see the left-hand side of any object; twins who can identify the day of the week for any date over a span of 8000 years; the man, indeed, who mistook his wife for a hat. What makes this book interesting is twofold – the amazing things which the brain can do or cease to do, or ways in which illness can manifest itself, but secondly, and more importantly, the compassion and humanity with which Sacks describes the cases under consideration. One feels he was bucking a trend in his field of medicine in 1985, when the book was published, and has hopefully led the way. A unique compendium, perhaps, and one which is sometimes upsetting, often enlightening, and always fascinating.
I do believe it’s Thursday, and thus Booking Through Thursday time. This week’s question:
What are your favourite final sentences from books? Is there a book that you liked specially because of its last sentence? Or a book, perhaps that you didn’t like but still remember simply because of the last line?
This is going to be a tricky one to answer without giving away plot details… also tricky because I can’t think of any off the top of my head… I do think the last line of Miss Hargreaves by Frank Baker is very moving, but it has to be read in context, as it’s simply ‘ “Miss Hargreaves… Miss Hargreaves…” ‘. You’ll have to trust me on that one. I also love the final line of Woolf’s To The Lighthouse: ‘Yes, she thought, laying down her brush in extreme fatigue, I have had my vision’. Lengthier, and more famous perhaps, is that from Northanger Abbey. Our Jane doesn’t go for short sentences, mind you…:
To begin perfect happiness at the respective ages of twenty-six and eighteen is to do pretty well ; and professing myself, moreover, convinced that the General’s unjust interference, so far from being really injurious to their felicity, was perhaps rather conducive to it, by improving their knowledge of each other, and adding strength to their attachment, I leave it to be settled by whomsoever it may concern, whether the tendency of this work be altogether to recommend parental tyranny, or reward filial disobedience.
As usual, over to you! More difficult than opening lines, isn’t it?
If my self-splurging the other day weren’t enough, you can see another profile of me today! Mark Thwaite, of erudite blog ReadySteadyBook.com and the Book Depository, asked to do a blog profile of me on the latter. I was very flattered – you may have spotted profiles of dovegreyreader and Cornflower, amongst others, over the past few weeks – and of course agreed. The result can be found by clicking here – and it’s also the first time I’ve revealed a picture of myself, except for sketches and the like.
I mentioned a few books in the interview (who’d have thought!) so might be nice if I provided links to my reviews of them, in case anybody has wandered over from that part of the blogosphere.
Miss Hargreaves by Frank Baker
Vanessa and Virginia by Susan Sellers
The Brontes Went To Woolworths – not yet reviewed, will do soon!
The Bestowing Sun – Neil Grimmett
Yellow – Janni Visman
Angel – Elizabeth Taylor
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society – Mary Ann Shaffer
(by the way, for a chance to win the excellent Guernsey Lit. etc, go along to Elaine’s blog at Random Jottings and enter her prize draw!)
This is another one of those posts which will, sadly, exclude non-UK readers of Stuck-in-a-Book. My little map at the side informs me that people across the world have little activity filling their days other than going to obscure destinations and looking at my blog – perhaps it’s simply members of my immediate family taking surreptitious holidays, but… perhaps not. Anyway, I wanted to blog about a TV programme which is on Channel 4, and thus available to UK readers if they go to 4 on Demand.
Can’t Read, Can’t Write is a documentary series about adult literacy. Phil Beadle, for whom the terms ‘maverick’ and ‘rough diamond’ were probably invented, takes a group of adults with reading ages between 0-12, including some who can’t recognise or pronounce any letters at all. Over six months, he wants to teach them to read and write – despite never having taught anyone to read before.
If this sounds like a stunt or silly experiment, well, perhaps it once was in the minds of channel executives – but the pupils in the programme put a stop to any of that. They are such involving people, really loveable and make empathy as easy as turning the television on. Granted, we only seem to follow four people (perhaps the others didn’t want to be interviewed?) but that’s more than enough. There’s James, 28, a labourer who has nobody to help him learn at home; Linda, 46, who listens to Shakespeare on audio book but doesn’t know her alphabet; Kelly, so keen to attend lessons that she brings her children in the rain when she can’t get childcare. The most wonderful, though, is Teresa (above). In her 50s, she couldn’t read a word – and, through being introduced to a phonetic method of learning, is quite an able reader within a few weeks. One of the most moving moments I have ever seen on television was last week, when she finished A Very Hungry Caterpillar. “I’ve read a book,” she wept, “I’ve read a book.” This week she joined a library, and got a copy of Little Women, the book she’d always wanted to read. The joy and pride across her face was stunning to watch, and certainly brought a tear to my eye.
Reading is something I take for granted – I remember struggling a little bit an early age (well, I was slower than The Carbon Copy – probably not very behind, but every minute’s difference matters for twins) but it’s something which I couldn’t do without. That these people have to go through life without reading – usually because of an education system which couldn’t differentiate learning methods, and sometimes even having to hide their inability from their families – well, it’s shocking. Especially when these are people who really want to read, not lazy drop-outs by any means. I’m glad Can’t Read, Can’t Write has brought the matter to national attention, but more than that it is a spectacular piece of documentary, and utterly moving.
I’m sure the glimpse of Mapp and Lucia got you all happy and either nostalgic or full of anticipation for the future. Well, the end is not yet in sight. I mentioned Tom Holt’s much-loved sequels to the Benson novels – well, there will soon be another volume to add to the flock, to mix metaphors. Step forward Guy Fraser-Sampson, and Major Benjy…
I’ve been in touch with Guy, and asked him to tell us a little about it all…
-Start with a brief biog, about 40 words, perhaps? [Guy Fraser-Sampson] Hard on the heels of Sebastian Faulks’s re-launch of James Bond comes resurrectionist news of a very different ilk. Guy Fraser-Sampson, until now known as a best-selling non-fiction author, has written a new Mapp and Lucia book with the full blessing of E.F. Benson’s estate. “Major Benjy” will be published by Troubador on 1 September and will be eagerly awaited by fans around the world, as the original books (made into an equally popular TV series some years back) still command a huge cult following. -So, how did you first come across EF Benson’s Mapp & Lucia series? [Guy Fraser-Sampson] At the age of 10, listening to “A Book at Bedtime” under the bedclothes! I have to admit, though, that I appreciated them more the older I got. I have re-read them all repeatedly over the years. -Ok, imagine I’ve never read any of them – who are Mapp & Lucia, and what are the books about? [Guy Fraser-Sampson] Fred Benson wrote both “Queen Lucia” and “Miss Mapp” as single books, but then later had the stroke of genius to bring these two dreadful women together, set them up in opposition to each other, and turn it into a series. Set in the mythical town of Tilling (in fact Rye , where Benson lived) they are constantly attempting to out-do and out-wit each other with hilarious results. With the sole exception of Jeeves and Wooster , it must be the most enduring series of comic fiction ever published. It retains a huge cult following to this day, with countless internet fan groups, local clubs and a grand gathering in Rye every September. -So – where does ‘Major Benjy’ fit in? [Guy Fraser-Sampson] “Major Benjy” is slightly unusual in that it is not a sequel in the true sense. It fits into a narrative gap between two of the existing books (“Miss Mapp” and “Mapp and Lucia”) and ties up a lot of loose ends in the process. -What do you EF Benson would think of them? [Guy Fraser-Sampson] That’s not really for me to say, but my instinct is that he would love “Major Benjy”. There was a lot of stuff he could not expressly articulate at the time – about gay relationships for example – which I can state, albeit very gently. In addition, I have fleshed out the supporting cast which even his fans admit was a bit of a weak point with Fred himself. -And the questions to which I always want to know the answer at Stuck-in-a-Book – who are some of your favourite authors? [Guy Fraser-Sampson] That’s a big question since I don’t have TV and have always been a voracious reader. I consume several books a week. For fiction other than Benson: Durrell, Farrell, O’Brian, Burgess, Davies and Rushdie. For unjustly neglected novelists I would say Hamilton and Raymond (though I see their work is now being re-printed) Derek Robinson and Frank McGillion. For lighter reading, I enjoy Vargas, Pryce, Perez-Reverte, and de Berniere’s South American trilogy. -what book are you reading at the moment? [Guy Fraser-Sampson] “Murther and Walking Spirits” by Robertson Davies, bought in a second-hand bookshop in Lyme Regis. I am also re-reading Tilling on Forster and Forster’s “Abinger Harvest”, both bought from my local book stall at Swiss Cottage market. Ditto “Cultural Amnesia” by Clive James bought from Daunt Books in Marylebone. -And how can I buy a copy of Major Benjy? [Guy Fraser-Sampson] There have already been some good orders from independent bookshops all over the UK , so please check your local bookshop first. If not, go to http://www.troubador.co.uk For US and Canadian readers, the best option is probably Amazon unless you happen to live near a large bookstore.