june 2023 books…

The Provincial Lady Goes Further (EM Delafield): Delafield’s novel ‘The Diary Of A Provincial Lady’ is in four parts (this is number two, published in 1932; I read the first one last October). Again, I thoroughly enjoyed this book – it’s beautifully-written, satirical diary of a social climber living in rural Devonshire. Once again, the provincial lady faces the problems of never having enough money, an unruly house and garden, problems recruiting staff, never well-read enough, never attractive enough etc. In this account, she becomes a published author and, as a result, feels she needs to find herself a London ‘flat’ where she can focus on her writing. Needless to say, not much actual writing gets done – as her city social life rather ‘gets in the way’ (and, of course, she’s always fretting that she hasn’t got the appropriate clothes, compared with her friends, or money to compete with them). Her wonderful, boring, mono-syllabic husband, Robert, is again a star. As before, an absolute joy to read.
The Hollow (Agatha Christie): First published in 1946 (our copy 1961, priced 2s6d)… another of the extensive batch of Christie novels on our bookshelves! In some ways, opting to read Agatha Christie feels like a ‘cop out’ but, in the complex and often depressing world, knowing you can rely on her to come up with an intriguing, entertaining plot feels sufficient! Yes, this mystery has all the usual clichés – the titled upper class family, the country house, the servants, a murder… oh, and, of course, Hercule Poirot! Cleverly plotted (with lots of pointers towards different individuals as being the ‘guilty party’) - occasionally a little too contrived perhaps – but satisfying nevertheless.
Rogue Male (Geoffrey Household): First published in 1939. I bought this book for Moira initially, but she decided that it wasn’t quite her ‘thing’ as far as ‘classic thrillers’ were concerned. It’s considered to be “one of the classic thrillers of the 20^th century”. An Englishman plans to assassinate the dictator of a European country, but is foiled at the last minute and captured by ruthless torturers and then thrown over a cliff. But he falls into a marsh whose softness saves his life. He takes refuge in a tree, and then begins, desperately wounded, to make his way towards the coast. The hunter has become the hunted. That’s as much as I’ll explain… All that I’ll add is that it’s a brilliant, intricate plot – carefully compiled and entirely convincing in all its details. A real escape and pursue adventure.
Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Dog (Dylan Thomas): This is our next Storysmith bookgroup selection: ten, wonderfully evocative short stories by the exceptional Dylan Thomas (first published in 1940). The stories – written in his 20s - are a wonderful mix… autobiographical, with boyhood recollections of family life (and his relatives); dreams of fame and fortune as a budding poet; poverty and unemployment; searching for love (and all the frustrations). Some are just very funny; some are pure nostalgia; some are achingly poignant. As you would expect, the prose and the descriptions are rather brilliant… and made me attempt to read long passages/meandering sentences to myself out loud(!). Think it’s time I re-read ‘Under Milk Wood’!
H Is For Hawk (Helen Macdonald): This is our Blokes’ latest book. As a child, the author was determined to become a falconer(?)… and read all the classic books on the subject. Years later, when her father died and she was deeply affected by grief, she became obsessed with the idea of training her own goshawk… and ended up purchasing ‘Mabel’ (the author’s choice of name) and taking her home to Cambridge and beginning the long, strange business of trying to train this ‘wildest of creatures’. It’s a rather beautiful book (she’s an excellent writer). It’s not just about the long process of training a goshawk, it’s also a book about memory and grieving. Part of the book is taken up with her fascination of TH White’s book ‘The Goshawk’ (first published in 1951), telling his own story of trying to train a wild goshawk. Although I could understand how White’s experience had been the trigger for Macdonald’s own determination to train a goshawk, I felt that it took up too much of her ‘story’. On the other hand, I thought her description of the twin challenges of trying to deal with the death of her father and training Mabel were both heartfelt and quite profound. Macdonald is a writer, naturalist, and an Affiliated Research Scholar at the University of Cambridge Department of History and Philosophy of Science (she had studied English at Cambridge) – but one of the things that struck me most in reading the book was that she was, essentially, quite a lonely person and that her love of her goshawk made up for needing relationships with people… but, hey, what do I know? I’m probably wrong. As someone who loves to watch birds in flight, but absolutely hates the very idea of actually touching one (having a bird trapped in our house in Thame – it fell down the chimney – was an absolute nightmare!!), reading a book about birds was a mixed blessing… BUT Macdonald is a very good writer and I enjoyed her story (and learnt a lot about hawks!).