It would have been so easy this morning to indulge myself in one big self-pitying moan. Suffice to say, a change in brand of HT has not helped my tender joints and aching muscles. I shan’t be limbo-dancing any day soon.
I got diverted by reading Maureen Lipman’s cultural fixes from yesterday's Times and thought that’s what I’d do instead. So here’s an insight into the profoundly sophisticated cultural life of Jan Brown. Den has appropriated that section now so it’s my version - literature today:
Last book read: The Secret Commonwealth (Book of Dust volume 2) by Philip Pullman. I don’t know what to say really. First, physically it is a delight.
The hard covers are black sprinkled with gold dust (the mystery of Dust is the theme common to both trilogies) and the dust jacket, when you study it, is wonderful: a dark train over a dark viaduct taking you to or from mysterious mountains. The book is over 700 pages and torture for my hands in their current state but I have persisted, balanced it on the duvet, my chest, whatever... I’ve been entranced even though I know it’s a Young Adult book (he certainly makes no concessions, in vocabulary or content), yet I’ve thought all the way through that it could be a lot shorter. I’ve enjoyed every word but I think he’s indulged himself. What I can’t forgive is the ending or what passes for an ending. The book just stops. No answers, no ends tied up - and I have to wait another two years by which time I will have forgotten. I am not ashamed to admit I was left with my mouth gaping in shock (anger?)
Then I read the author’s note and learnt that the new character introduced at the end was named after a schoolgirl who died alongside her family in the Grenfell Towers disaster. Her teacher bid £1500 for the privilege. What a teacher; what a pupil she must have been. What a loss. I cried. Then I wondered if I was crying because there’s always the remotest possibility I might not read volume 3.
Favourite book: Oh come on. I have read countless books, some repeatedly. As a child I wouldn’t have hesitated. It was Little Black Sambo, a constant joy to me. To the extent that, when it was removed from library shelves in the 70s, I dashed to Austicks and bought a copy which I still have. It never gave me any racist ideas. To me it was a victory of humans over the wicked tigers that melted to butter. I’ve read Pride & Prejudice repeatedly.
Maybe I’d settle for Hilary Mantel’s Bring Up The Bodies which I thought was even better (and more concise) than Wolf Hall, which I adored. I know all the history yet she held me riveted throughout - that is good writing. Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life is a contender though (once I got past the repetition and understood the point of it). Such a clever and thought-provoking idea.
Book I wish I’d written: Anything that hasn’t left me groaning or flinching, Usually those are the bad kindle choices and I have two folders: Avoid and Give Up. Until the arrival of the kindle, I made a point of never not finishing a book, no matter how bad (I do have a technique of selective reading to race me to the end though). Now I realise there are too many bad books out there and I’m not wasting my time on them. I would love to have written a book but, having done a couple of short online courses on writing, I realise I don’t have a book in me. I’m too lazy to discipline myself to write in such depth. I much prefer flash fiction and hope to extend it to short stories, but I have no dreams of publication (says me, having just bought my second copy of Compositions because it has my story IN PRINT and I can’t remember who I lent it to and who has forgotten to return it). Vanity? Pride :)
Back to the question: don't laugh - I’d love to have written Alfred Cobban’s A History of Modern France. It is to him I owe my fairly extensive vocabulary and adequate understanding so I could teach The French Revolution and France up to defeat in the Franco-Prussian War 1870 with apparent confidence.
An afterthought: It was terribly written (I skimmed it as fast as I could just to satisfy Eveline from tai chi who brought the copy to class and dared me to read it) but if I’d written 50 Shades of Grey I’d be rather well off now, wouldn’t I?
Book I never finished:
I’ve already said I made a point of finishing every book, no matter how badly written but there is one book I still hold onto in the hope I’ll find the strength to read it. The newer print of this includes a garish red circle saying The Controversial Bestseller. I find that sad. The book should be read on merit, not sensational recommendation. I bought it on recommendation of the Times when it was first published. Jonathan Little’s The Kindly Ones is different. It’s written from the perspective of a fairly hope-less doctor in Nazi Germany, obliged to join the party in order to practise medicine, called up and obliged to join the Wehrmacht and sent to the Eastern Front. It’s ruthless in its detail and I gave up, emotionally drained at the pointless slaughter of thousands of Jews, Romanies and anyone else of no value to the Reich, carried out with no plans, nothing logistical worked out, showing how mindless much of it appeared to be. The only comparison I can think of is the Russian Civil War where both sides committed such atrocities simply because they had no idea what else to do. I will read this book One Day.
Most influential poem: I’ve always said I don’t like poetry and have never written anything but doggerel in my life. Then Mum produced a couple of hand-made booklets of poems written by Janet Hellicar in 1M and 3M (age 11 and 13). Definitely not a poet in the making there.
I was won over by studying the war poets for O level and reading Up The Line To Death, an anthology I got from the travelling library which actually really upset me because of the illustrations. Again, I bought a copy as an adult and have it somewhere. For A level, I was scarred for life by Wordsworth’s Prelude yet I can still quote from Ode to Autumn and think it one of the most evocative things I’ve read.
To be continued one day...Time to read a juicy series of murders (my favourite genre)
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