may-june 2024 books…

The Love Song Of Miss Queenie Hennessy (Rachel Joyce): I first read ‘The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry’ back in 2013 (and have since re-read it and seen the film)… it tells of Fry walking the length of England to ‘save’ Queenie Hennessy before she dies. Ru passed on this companion follow-up book (published in 2014) to me – giving Queenie’s story/love song… confessing secrets hidden for 20 years. It’s set in a hospice (and I really got to love the residents… and the sister nuns who run it). It’s a beautifully-written, uplifting, profound, thought-provoking, funny and moving novel… and I really enjoyed it.
Maureen Fry And The Angel Of The North (Rachel Joyce): Ru also passed on this additional ‘Unlikely Pilgrimage’ companion book (published in 2022) and so it seemed only right to follow up Queenie’s story with Harold Fry’s wife’s tale! It’s set 10 years on from Harold’s iconic walk and, this time, it’s his wife Maureen’s turn to make a journey. Maureen hardly features in the first two books and, whenever she does, comes across as a somewhat awkward, prickly, isolated character. This book is a moving portrait of a woman who still hasn’t come to terms with grief (*no spoilers*)… it’s about pain, but also about redemption.
Wolf Pack (Will Dean): This is the fifth Will Dean book I’ve read (in other words, I’ve read all five Tuva Moodyson mysteries). The action’s set around Rose Farm, Sweden; it’s home to a group of survivalists, completely cut off from the outside world… until a young woman goes missing within the perimeter of the farm compound. There’s a heinous crime and Tuva (a reporter on a local newspaper) searches for answers and attempts to talk her way inside the tight-knit group to learn more… but finds herself in danger of the pack turning against her. I think I’d better leave it there – will she make her way back to safety so she can expose the truth? In many ways, these Tuva Mysteries are all the same – the settings are the same (isolated communities set in wild elk forests); bleak weather; strange happenings; strange people; and, of course, Tuva exposing herself to danger (again!). Another very ‘enjoyable’ Scandi Noir novel… I really like the central character; the relatively short chapters suit my reading style; and I like its pace, plot and atmosphere.
Politics Is For People (Shirley Williams): With a general election looming, I thought it would be interesting to read Williams’s political views from more than 40 years ago (the book was first published in 1981; oldies will recall that she was a former Labour minister and a founder member of the Social Democrats). I’ve always had a high regard for Williams’s political convictions/attitudes and the book proved to be a fascinating, forthright, intelligent read. There is far too much detail in the book to enable an adequate summary in this brief review. Of course, today’s is a very different world – the internet/technological advances; social effects of new technology; climate change issues weren’t really on the agenda; and the like – but it was sobering to be reminded that some things don’t change much at all… we still have wars and conflict; poverty; society’s haves and have-nots; class and segregation; huge social/welfare challenges; housing; health+social care; education; cost of living crisis. Immigration hardly had a mention – except that it was needed to boost employment in certain sectors. Ironically, she was also dismissive of marginal voices calling for the UK’s withdrawal from EC(!)… “in an interdependent world countries cannot opt out”… “there would be a virtual cessation of international investment in Britain” and “Britain’s significance to her other friends and allies would seriously diminish”. In education, she was advocating ‘apprentices for everyone’. She was saddened by ongoing conservative governments’ entirely predictable support for increases in public spending on law+order and defence, while wanting to reduce expenditure on education, health and social services etc; she was critical of the remoteness, bureaucracy, conservatism and incompetence of many aspects of government (and political institutions). She called for the devolution of power and decentralization in government, big business, and unions (in three sweeping proposals, she suggested a ten-year plan to bring the welfare state into the future, a Marshall Plan to assist the Third World, and greater disarmament after a period of successful détente (oh, the irony!). It’s a wide-ranging, stimulating book.
The Girls Of Slender Means (Muriel Spark): This novel (first published in 1963) is set in London in 1945, where the city is coming to terms with a war that is grinding to a halt, and focusses on the tightly-knit world of a Kensington hostel (the May of Teck Club) - an establishment that existed "for the Pecuniary Convenience and Social Protection of Ladies of Slender Means below the age of Thirty Years, who are obliged to reside apart from their Families in order to follow an Occupation in London". It’s a comic (and tragic), beautifully-written book, full of hilarious descriptions of the hostel’s inhabitants (and their visitors) – although it did take me a little time to ‘get into’. But, at the same time, there is a strong sense of what these young women have had to contend with during the dark days of war and now, as they start to emerge into peacetime, there is a mood of freedom and a fresh start BUT also a strong feeling of uncertainty and half-perceived notions about what their lives might become; fearless and frightened at the same time.