Finally got round to reading this, a modern classic which had escaped me. It wasn't quite what I was expecting - funny in places but I wouldn't have dFinally got round to reading this, a modern classic which had escaped me. It wasn't quite what I was expecting - funny in places but I wouldn't have described it mainly as such. The anti-war message, the exaggerated but no doubt partly real ludicrous military bureaucracy and the various tragic events make this a serious work, and the fact that it wasn't published immediately probably saved the author a lot of Mccarthy problems. It is rather long and the chronology is not always straightforward. It's surprising that "Catch 22" became such a well-known phrase and concept from this, as it is not heavily emphasised. On the whole, glad I read it.
Merged review:
Finally got round to reading this, a modern classic which had escaped me. It wasn't quite what I was expecting - funny in places but I wouldn't have described it mainly as such. The anti-war message, the exaggerated but no doubt partly real ludicrous military bureaucracy and the various tragic events make this a serious work, and the fact that it wasn't published immediately probably saved the author a lot of Mccarthy problems. It is rather long and the chronology is not always straightforward. It's surprising that "Catch 22" became such a well-known phrase and concept from this, as it is not heavily emphasised. On the whole, glad I read it....more
Splendid further instalment in this series with a rather tantalising ending. There's a high body count and some occasionally unbelievable plot twists,Splendid further instalment in this series with a rather tantalising ending. There's a high body count and some occasionally unbelievable plot twists, but the characters are strong enough to carry the story and make you believe in them. Ruth is back in Norfolk, having left her prestigious Cambridge post and rejected Frank's proposal. Archaeology, the Norfolk seascape, a more recent historical story, and a modern murder/suicide - or is it? Also, lots of creepy East Anglian folklore. Funny and compassionate, and doesn't dodge the complications of relationships....more
Love the mix of folklore and the atmosphere of the area. This book takes us away from the usual Norfolk Saltmarsh to Cambridge and the Cambridgeshire Love the mix of folklore and the atmosphere of the area. This book takes us away from the usual Norfolk Saltmarsh to Cambridge and the Cambridgeshire fens, which despite family connections there I have always found rather creepy (even without serial killers loitering in the background). The description of the landscape inducing feelings of both claustrophobia and agoraphobia at the same time is spot on. Ruth has a new job, a new partner, and a new life - yet she is drawn back to her old world. This story has a sad historic element (hence the need of a forensic archaeologist) as well as all the further developments in the Ruth/Nelson relationship, and a frightening final denouement. (Oh, and a rather sad end relationshipwise!)...more
Thoroughly enjoyed this. I have recently reread all of Barbara Pym including the volume of selected diaries, notebook entries and other put together bThoroughly enjoyed this. I have recently reread all of Barbara Pym including the volume of selected diaries, notebook entries and other put together by her literary executor Hazel Holt, which obviously was a bit selective, not least because some of the people were still alive at the time. This fills in some of the gaps, particularly the visits to Germany in the 1930s (which involved initial enthusiasm for the Nazis and an affair with an SS officer), and her fling with Julian Amery (whom I met once, about 40 years later, when he was a venerable Conservative MP, who maybe wouldn't have appreciated a brief youthful liaison being made public). The chapter headings I found a bit whimsical but I think they are meant to be in the tradition of earlier English novels, such as Tom Jones. This is a very long book and could have been pruned a bit, but then somehow you do want to read all of this story! There are photographs, including some which were not in the earlier volume ("A very private eye"), and references to all the mainly archival sources. I would have liked a brief biographical section for the other people mentioned, perhaps - it would be nice to know what happened to some of them. A must for any Pym enthusiast....more
This doesn't really need a review, does it? This edition has the original Tenniel illustrations, which are wonderful.This doesn't really need a review, does it? This edition has the original Tenniel illustrations, which are wonderful....more
I love the work of Hoskins in general but hadn't read this one before. Very approachable history and description of Devon, with something for anyone iI love the work of Hoskins in general but hadn't read this one before. Very approachable history and description of Devon, with something for anyone interested in landscape history, geography, or local history (and Devon, of course). There are one or two places in which knowledge has perhaps been superseded since this was written in 1959, such as the possibility, raised by the discovery of a Bronze Age shipwreck, that tin was in fact being exported from Devon much earlier than Hoskins allows, but with his enthusiasm for new knowledge I think he would have welcomed this. There are a few funny quirks - the "savage extortion" of taxation which ruins all our lives (in 1959), really? (with no mention of the free at point of use healthcare paid for by taxation, but which would surely have been beneficial to earlier generations in the tax-free golden age!) He doesn't mention the cholera outbreaks in the big cities, either (Plymouth was badly affected in 1849), unless I missed it. He is a wonderful and influential writer in his field, and the individual quirks are fun (the paper cover of my copy, which probably dates from the 1960s reprint, says that he has retired from academic life partly in order to write the books which can't be done "in a modern university"). A must for all Devonians!...more
Revisiting another childhood favourite. (I never had the first book, but apparently it's very like this one - only, if the children learnt their lessoRevisiting another childhood favourite. (I never had the first book, but apparently it's very like this one - only, if the children learnt their lesson the first time round, it shouldn't have been necessary for Nurse Matilda to return!) The story is of a magical nanny who appears to deal with a large household of very naughty children who play some dreadful practical jokes on everyone around them, in this case while they are staying with a rich great aunt in London while their parents have gone on holiday without them. I liked this as a child, and from my careful inscription in the front I seem to have had it when I was 8 or 9. It's a cautionary tale, really, about kindness and consideration to others: each time they get the point Nurse Matilda becomes a little less ugly, and glows mysteriously, and the only problem is that once the lesson has been learnt the magical nanny will disappear (or perhaps not, as it seems there was a further book!). It's quite funny, and the illustrations are wonderful - very atmospheric, you might be in Edwardian London....more
This is a fun read, perhaps in the category of "cosy" mystery due to the circumstances of the elderly group in their comfortable retirement village, aThis is a fun read, perhaps in the category of "cosy" mystery due to the circumstances of the elderly group in their comfortable retirement village, although what they uncover is far from cosy. One of the main characters, Elizabeth, is a retired spook (her memory fails her slightly when she says her office in Curzon Street closed in the 1980s - it was still operating in the 1990s :) ). There are some funny moments and it's rather good on the details of the lives of the fairly well-off elderly. Some of them have interesting professional pasts, some are beginning to suffer memory loss. What might come out in such circumstances? (something which has startled some of us as the generation above us reaches this point). I didn't know about the author's celebrity status and I've never seen him on TV - I'm guessing the book's success is partly owing to that, but it is amusing and well-written and kept me guessing, although the story became quite convoluted and I misunderstood one bit completely and had to double back to check the details. I will definitely look out for the sequel though!...more
Loved it. (At first I was a bit thrown by the lack of full stops, but the many line breaks helped.) I loved the way all the different lives connected Loved it. (At first I was a bit thrown by the lack of full stops, but the many line breaks helped.) I loved the way all the different lives connected at some point, and particularly liked the ending, which brought together some apparently very different experiences. I was drawn right into the lives of the 12 very different women, which span a huge amount of both black and white experience and history, and a mixture of gender-related identity differences too. Some secrets, at least, remain secret, except to us the readers. Wonderful (I'm even tempted to do a DNA test myself now!)...more
This is very good. If you care about public services - libraries, in this case, but it raises other questions too - it will both encourage you and makThis is very good. If you care about public services - libraries, in this case, but it raises other questions too - it will both encourage you and make you angry in equal measure. My experience of public libraries was, in my first professional role, in a traditional public reference library in central London - the sort which has now by and large been swept away by austerity measures and cost-cutting. This was before the internet, so the work was a bit different, but there were many homeless regular users and we were used to people with serious mental health issues (and nowhere much else to go). At the same time we had many regular users who didn't fall into this category and objected to the presence of the "others". The balance is a hard one to maintain. My second stint in public libraries was in a branch library a little more like the ones Allie Morgan describes, but in a more genteel area. Not so many of the obvious social outcasts here but oh! the problems of managing children's events in a fairly open-plan environment, alongside people who wanted somewhere quiet to read the newspaper and thought that children should be seen and not heard ... In both places I had two things which seem to be missing from Allie Morgan's experience. One was supportive management and fellow staff, who were all basically on the same page. The other was active trade unions, which management encouraged us to join and which, for instance, meant that we would never be single-staffed in a branch (this came at a cost as people would be sent on relief from other branches at short notice). Although this was a "nice" area there were still problems, particularly of teenage vandalism, and the "no single staff" rule had been brought in due to an assault on a pregnant lone worker years before. As austerity bites this can be the one of the first things management eye as a cost-saving. One of the main things which has changed in the last 20 years or so has been the reorganisation of local government, which has nearly always led to libraries being downgraded and assimilated into larger council departments. No more dedicated library committee with its own councillor members, no more librarians in positions of authority - rather, remaining library staff having to explain the significance of the 1964 Act yet again to disbelieving managers from outside the profession (yes, it is a statutory service, so no, you can't just get rid of it). This book raised all sorts of ghosts from the past for me, and reinforced my anger at the cruelty of the current benefits system. How on earth can you expect people who sometimes cannot even read and write (yes, I too learned how to spot this one) to access the things they need to use to do monitored job searches? Why are men in their 60s who are too ill to work being forced to jump through these hoops, or starve? How did we ever reach the point of losing our humanity to this extent? Libraries are simultaneously being told that they are expected to fill the gaps in the system and give people the help they don't seem to be getting elsewhere, and also that they are "a luxury we can't afford" and can be replaced by phone boxes of cast-off paperbacks. This is a well-written book which shines a light on many aspects of libraries which people often seem blind to. Allie Morgan and coworkers could do with a decent union, too (I'm assuming there isn't one there, unless it's been cowed into silence by austerity measures and management bullying)....more
This is the end of a trilogy, and it would be a good idea to read the others first (particularly the first in the series, as this one is largely set iThis is the end of a trilogy, and it would be a good idea to read the others first (particularly the first in the series, as this one is largely set in the same Derbyshire village and there are recurring elements in the story). The historical background is the aftermath of the First World War: wounded ex-servicemen settling back, or not, into civilian life; people who have taken advantage of the situation to reinvent themselves or hide their past; the influence of spiritualists, in some cases fraudulent, preying on the bereaved; the deaths from the post-war influenza epidemic; the threat of capital punishment (which doesn't seem to stop murders!); the secrecy in which gay men were obliged to live. We meet the Inspector from Scotland Yard, Albert Lincoln, from the earlier books, who has his own secret to keep. He is sent up to Derbyshire to investigate the disappearance of an MP, but things soon take an unexpected turn and he stays on with a number of other events to address. Loose ends both from his earlier cases and his own personal life are resolved by the end, which is as happy as it might be in the circumstances. This kept me guessing, even though at first it all seemed a bit too melodramatic and complicated. I love the dedication "To everyone who works in libraries and bookshops", and the role the public library plays in one of the cases!...more
Liked this very much. I didn't see much of the TV series and I was expecting this to be "the book of the series", which it isn't - it is further readiLiked this very much. I didn't see much of the TV series and I was expecting this to be "the book of the series", which it isn't - it is further reading on the social, geographical and historical background of housing, land use - urban life in Britain (and its rural antecedents). The mix of urban history and geography is one which appeals to many of my interests and it sets so much in perspective. There are lots of interesting leads to follow up in the resources and bibliography at the end. ...more
This is very enjoyable. There are some very funny anecdotes and lots of gossip, especially amusing accounts of events involving royalty (no surprises This is very enjoyable. There are some very funny anecdotes and lots of gossip, especially amusing accounts of events involving royalty (no surprises there). I wouldn't say it exactly lifts the lid on anything we don't already know about the political scene, but it does confirm some of it. Some of these people are simply ghastly, spoiled and greedy and selfish, playing games which have such a serious impact on other people's lives while being largely cushioned from the effect they have. Sasha Swire is not a straightforward "typical" Tory, though - there are conflicts of opinion, some astute predictions, and there is self-awareness which is sorely wanting in some others. She has been criticised elsewhere for the phrase "the Jewish lobby infiltrating parliament" but in context it's clear that this is referring to a pro-Israeli faction, not the same thing but a tricky one which trips many up (more usually on the left) and would have benefited from being rephrased. She is so so accurate in her succinct summary of gatherings of the party faithful (the elderly membership, that is, not the ones close to the action) - not that I know her husband's former constituency but it sounds very much like others. She is inconsistent in some things - believes countries should be able to determine their own future, is sympathetic to the Catalans, but horrified at the idea of the Scots doing so. Her views on Brexit include jeering at predictions that Kent will have lorry parks built all over it - time has already rather proved them right. The diary is particularly interesting on the mess and fallout from the 2016 referendum, the failure to plan anything (while playing the aforementioned games), the extraordinary period of Theresa May's premiership and the beginning of Boris Johnson's. COVID has changed the picture somewhat since then (how do all these wealthy people cope when unable to pop off to Ibiza or Greece to party all weekend or visit their spare houses?) I do so hope that there is someone still on the inside keeping a similar diary on the current shenanigans in the corridors of power....more
The final story in the Dark Iceland series, apparently, so a last chance to catch up with the loose ends of Ari Thor's life (you could of course read The final story in the Dark Iceland series, apparently, so a last chance to catch up with the loose ends of Ari Thor's life (you could of course read this without having read the others, but they are better read in order in my opinion). The best thing, apart from the chance to catch up with Ari Thor some time after the previous case, is the northern Icelandic background, which has changed a bit over the course of the series - the winter is still harsh, of course, but the new tunnel means the town is not so cut off, and there are signs of economic recovery, with more use being made of older, abandoned properties. The whole sequence of events takes place over the Easter weekend, and a snowstorm and bad weather once again intervenes in Ari's life, sending his ex-girlfriend and young son away early from a planned holiday with him but giving him the chance to find happiness elsewhere too. The actual death in the case seems less important - yet in the end Ari's investigation of what seems to be clearly a suicide unexpectedly uncovers two other crimes, one connected to the death and one not. (I did feel that Ari shared a bit too much information with the other people involved in a way that seemed a bit unprofessional and in one case led to another death, for which he doesn't appear to blame himself). This is, we're given to understand, the end of this series....more
A study of ageing (I think!), and the loves, jealousies and missed opportunities of a group of elderly aristocrats and their circle living (mainly) inA study of ageing (I think!), and the loves, jealousies and missed opportunities of a group of elderly aristocrats and their circle living (mainly) in France. It's quite a complicated group, characterised by immense wealth and property but a lack of younger people - no heirs, in several cases (partly because of the said missed opportunities). Although this is allegedly the story of Lady Maclean I found the early focus on another couple's secret long-term relationship threw me off feeling that this was so. The selfishness of some of these people, who never really seem to have planned for the future at all, is quite remarkable, and the sudden death of one of them raises a lot of interesting questions as in the end the secret is revealed (but might never have been). Thought-provoking....more
This is charming (and not what I was expecting!) Funny, and also very moving, story of a stray cat taken in by someone who is (as it eventually appearThis is charming (and not what I was expecting!) Funny, and also very moving, story of a stray cat taken in by someone who is (as it eventually appears) originally a kind of human stray himself with quite a lot of sadness and missed opportunities in his life. It's told from the cat's perspective (the cat is witty and observant). The journey of the two is ostensibly to find a new home for the cat, Nana, whose owner Satoru can no longer keep him for reasons which eventually become clear. It is really a pilgrimage to see his old friends again, but each one although willing to take in the cat proves unsuitable for various reasons. Gradually a whole story of love and kindness in adversity is revealed. Be prepared with a box of tissues for the end - which even so is not at all depressing. (All told against the background of various Japanese locations at different seasons, which is lovely)....more
Not really the sort of book I read much these days but this is an enjoyable, not too demanding light read. It's a historical saga set in Cornwall and Not really the sort of book I read much these days but this is an enjoyable, not too demanding light read. It's a historical saga set in Cornwall and the Cornish setting and bits of industrial history and background are very well done. There is a lot of the hardship in the lives of ordinary people in a variety of jobs or sometimes lacking them. It does verge on cliche at times, perhaps because it's in a tradition which has been fairly well worked already (I know a lot of people went down with the Titanic - but if everyone who does so in literature was on it it must have been an enormous ship!) I liked the way the links between Cornwall and Brittany are lightly touched on. There is a hint of Daphne du Maurier in the story of Philippe, too, and the ending leaves romantic possibilities open for the heroine (perhaps!)...more
Fun, "cosy" crime, if there is such a thing - referencing the world of crime writers, literary festivals and their followers. Some of it is quite unliFun, "cosy" crime, if there is such a thing - referencing the world of crime writers, literary festivals and their followers. Some of it is quite unlikely, really, but it is still somehow quite believable. Interesting insights into the various experiences of the elderly, too....more
Loved this - the story of a house which was originally a weekend retreat for an affluent Jewish doctor and his family from Berlin (the author's great-Loved this - the story of a house which was originally a weekend retreat for an affluent Jewish doctor and his family from Berlin (the author's great-grandfather), and the vicissitudes it has been through since through a tumultuous period of German history, including all its subsequent residents, its fall into dereliction, and its rescue and plan to save it. The village was just over the border into the DDR after the war, and the wall was built between the house and the lake by which it stood. A fascinating recovery of lost stories and experiences, with very thorough use of the archives which are now available - Stasi files included. This brings to life what partition meant for many ordinary people whose daily lives were affected (especially living so very close to the border). ...more
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