february-march 2025 books…

Ascent (Chris Bonington): I hate heights, but love mountains and stories about mountains. This is Bonington looking back on his extraordinary life and his fierce ambition to climb mountains. I’d read one of his previous books (‘Everest The Hard Way’) and found this book equally compelling. He writes well and seems like a decent bloke, but also (perhaps it comes with the territory?) rather selfish (he’s very much a ‘leader’), driven, hugely ambitious and with a certain degree of arrogance… plus lots of determination, skill and drive. In the ongoing quest to bag yet another “unclimbed peak”, several lives were lost en route. The book (first published in 2017 and 420 pages long) is an open, frank account of his adventures but also, towards the end, the devastating fatal MND condition of his wife (of 52 years). Frankly, I felt sorry for his wife - who was constantly ‘abandoned’ for months on end as Bonington dreamed up (or was persuaded to join) another adventure. There’s a poignant passage where his wife overhears a conversation he was having with another mountaineer about an imminent ‘project’ – which she knew nothing about; needless to say, she was deeply upset. Bonington described the next challenge as “unfinished business”, but his sons were less forgiving: “But you promised. You can’t go back. What about Mum?”… but he went anyway. There were times when the book made me quite angry but, overall, I found it absolutely fascinating.
Enchantment (Katherine May): I’d previously read May’s ‘Wintering’ book - ‘the power of rest and retreat in difficult times’ – which I found, at times, both sensible and wise (without being mind-blowingly fresh or original). A friend recommended this book (written during and immediately after the pandemic lockdown) and its cover describes it as ‘reawakening wonder in an exhausted age’. The cover also contains lots of endorsements – ‘life-affirming’… ‘the book your soul needs right now’…and such like. Well, I hate to disappoint you but, although the book did contain a few interesting observations, my overall impressions were: a) I didn’t think it even came close to achieving its objective (‘reawakening wonder…?’); b) I didn’t think it was well written or articulated; c) it contained an awful lot of ‘padding’/’waffle’ (it badly needed editing) d) I honestly feel I could have written a better book (it was THAT bad!!). By the time I’d finished it, I felt both annoyed and somewhat cheated… and that I’d wasted my time. I think my own personal ‘enchantment’ journey is much more alive than her own haphazard and somewhat random journey into ‘reawakening wonder’. Not impressed, I’m afraid!
Inside The Wave (Helen Dunmore): I’ve been re-reading Dunmore’s book of poems as part of my early morning ritual (I think I must have previously read the book 3 or 4 times… and continue to find her poetry enthralling. Dunmore died in 2017, aged 65. This book of poems is her final collection… they’re concerned with the borderline between the living and the dead. They relate to her interest in landscape and the sea but, crucially, about her personal experience of dying (she knew she was dying of cancer)… “To be alive is to be inside the wave, always travelling until it breaks and is gone”. A lovely book that I’ll continue to re-visit in the future. Dunmore and I shared two connections: living in Bristol and loving St Ives.
Small Things Like These (Claire Keegan): Another re-read. This is our next Storysmith bookgroup selection… and with a rather lovely twist – in that we’ll also be watching the film at ‘20^th Century Flicks’. The novel is a mere 114 pages long, but is simply stunning… haunting and yet hopeful. It’s set in 1985, just before Christmas, in an Irish town in County Wexford. The story’s main character is Bill Furlong, a coal merchant with a wife and five daughters. As an infant, Furlong and his mother were taken in by a wealthy Protestant woman living just beyond the town. There’s a convent at the edge of town and, attached to it, a training school and laundry where young women live and work. There are all kinds of rumours about those in attendance… I think I’ll leave it there (I would hate to spoil it for you). It’s a beautiful, breath-taking and tender book that has remained with me over the past two years and will, no doubt, continue to do so. The film, starring Cillian Murphy, does the book total justice.
Reasons To Be Cheerful (Nina Stibbe): It’s been a long time since I last read a Stibbe book (8 years according to my blog) but, with all the horrible stuff going on in the world, I felt I needed a book that made me laugh! Sadly, I was a little disappointed. In this book, Lizzie Vogel (featuring the child and then adolescent protagonist of Stibbe’s previous two novels, ‘Men at the Helm’ and ‘Paradise Lodge’ – I’d only read the second one) has just turned 18 and moved out of the family home and has talked her way into a job as a dental assistant, and is at last living by herself in the big city (Leicester), in a flat above the surgery that comes with the job. Yes, the story might evoke English provincial life in 1980, but the plot is absurd and, although Stibbe’s humour is entertaining (most of the time), I ended up finding the novel just too ridiculous for my liking. I absolutely loved Stibbe’s ‘Love Nina’ book - made up of a series of letters written by writer Stibbe to her sister in the 80s, while she was working as a nanny – but I’m afraid this book wasn’t for me. Sorry.