june 2024 books...

Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad): This our next ‘Blokes’ bookgroup book. It was first published in 1899 and tells the story of Marlow, a seaman and wanderer, who recounts his physical and psychological journey up the heart of the River Congo in search of an infamous ivory trader, Kurtz. It’s about the Victorian world of adventure, exploration, discovery… and exploitation. It’s a tough read in more ways than one – there’s a sense of the physical and mental struggle of battling through the jungle, but also of the various powers-that-be exploiting Africa for its riches and resources while leaving little or nothing to the Africans who are labouring under them. There are lots of shameful references of the native Africans as being ‘savages’ (indeed, Kurtz himself had been working on behalf of the ‘International Society for the Suppression of Savage Customs’). Through Marlow, Conrad shows the horrors of colonialism and concludes that the Europeans, not the Africans, are the true savages.
Politics On The Edge (Rory Stewart): This will probably turn out to be my ‘Book of the Year’. I’ve long been an admirer of his writing (his book ‘The Marches’ is a particular favourite) and his observations (political or otherwise). You will probably recall that Stewart is a former MP and Minister who was sacked from the Conservative Party by Prime Minister Johnson (for voting against the government). It’s a compelling political autobiography – a brilliant, uncompromising, unfailingly honest portrait of the realities of life in and around Westminster. It’s well-written and hugely entertaining (and somewhat depressing) account of dysfunctional government. Again and again, one is reminded that, because of the farcical ‘first-past-the-post’ electoral system, the arrogance and self-interest of politicians (and in many cases, the dishonesty) seems to be the fundamental aim. I could quote endlessly from the book, but will limit myself to the following two extracts: “I hated how politicians used the pompous grandeur of the Palace of Westminster to pretend to a power they did not have, and to take credit for things they had not done”… and “Nine years in politics had been a shocking education in lack of seriousness. I had begun by noticing how grotesquely unqualified so many of us were for the offices we were given. I had found, working for Liz Truss, a culture that prized campaigning over careful governing, opinion polls over detailed policy debates, announcements over implementation. I felt that we had collectively failed to respond adequately to every major challenge of the past 15 years: the financial crisis, the collapse of the liberal ‘global order’, public despair, and the polarisation of Brexit”. I can’t recommend this brilliant book highly enough.
Foul+Fair (Steve Couch): Author Steve is a good friend from our old days when we lived in Thame, Oxfordshire and I was honoured (and very surprised) to be asked to give my thoughts on the book in its pre-published form (no pressure then!). Key characters are an English teacher whose career is in tatters, but who also coaches a boys’ football team and a single parent police officer who is worried about her career and her son. They both struggle with trying to balance ‘doing the right thing’ and ‘getting the right result’. As a former Sunday League player and as someone who has watched one of his grandsons play in their local side on a number of occasions (and also working as a Deputy House of Head at a comprehensive school after retiring from my architectural practice!), I really enjoyed re-reading the final form of this book (350 pages in 1.5 days gives you a sense of how readable/page-turning this book is!). The story felt entirely authentic. I ‘recognised’ many of the characters and situations… not to mention the ‘overzealous’ team managers, embarrassing loud-mouthed parents, intimidating pupils and the career-obsessed teachers! Very enjoyable.
Late Cuts (Vic Marks): These days, we regard Vic Marks as being one of cricket’s ‘elder statesmen’ but, in my first architectural job in Oxford in the mid-1970s, I recall spending many summer lunchtimes watching him (and the likes of Imran Khan) play at University Parks… and now realise that he was a mere ‘youngster’ (he’s 6 years younger than me!). It’s an entertaining, wide-ranging reflection on the game encompassing his observations on such matters as captains, partnerships, declarations, press conferences and the like - and his contention that the County Championship is the most important aspect of the English game and his despair that its conclusion is relegated to the cold, damp days of the end of September (I just MIGHT have made similar remarks over recent years!). The book (published in 2022… and written between the first and third lockdowns!) is something of a celebration of the game (despite his views of ‘The Hundred’!) in the words of the book’s cover: taking us “beyond the boundary rope, sharing the parts of the game fans don’t get to see, from the food… to the politics of the dressing room… it’s the literary equivalent of an afternoon in the sun at a county outground…”. Perfect summer reading for me!
Charleston: A Bloomsbury House+Garden (Quentin Bell+Virginia Nicholson): Moira bought this lovely book in 1999 but, although I’ve perused its beautifully-illustrated pages on a very regular basis over the years, I realised that I hadn’t actually READ much of it! Quentin Bell (younger son of Clive and Vanessa Bell) was 85 when he started writing the book but, after presenting the first draft, became too ill to continue – so his elder daughter, Virginia Nicholson, completed it. Painters Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant moved to Charleston Farmhouse, in East Sussex, in 1916… and, over the next 50 years, it became the country meeting place for the group of artists, writers and intellectuals known as Bloomsbury (with the artists decorating the walls, doors and furniture). It’s an account of an artistic, somewhat bohemian, creative collection of artists and intellectuals meeting/living together at the house (albeit rather privileged individuals who don’t necessarily have to scrape a living in order to be able to produce their art and writing). Fascinating and stimulating.

general election 2024...

I started writing this in a café yesterday (18 June) and seemed to recall that 18 June was a general election day many years ago. Having subsequently checked with Wikipedia, my vague memory proved to be correct. Funny how you remember such things – although the fact it was my first time voting in a general election might have spiked my memory (1970)! Edward Heath was PM.
Ironically, 54 years later, if the imminent election had been scheduled for this September, it would also have marked granddaughter Iris’s first time of voting. Sadly, she’s missing out.
I’m afraid that I’ve tried to avoid general election coverage this time around.
None of the parties… or their leaders… or their policies enthuse or encourage me. I cannot believe that, at a time of acute Climate Crisis, there is so few environmental issues being discussed.
Somewhat bizarrely, I’ve read three ‘political’ books since the 2024 election was announced (by Shirley Williams, Jon Snow and Rory Stewart). They’ve all been insightful in their way – particularly Rory Stewart’s. Stewart (former MP and Conservative government minister… and a member of the Labour Party as a teenager!) in his book ‘Politics on the Edge’ is quite revealing about the way we are ‘governed’. I could quote extensively from his book, but the following two extracts will illustrate the state of things:
“Cameron’s government continued to be an elective dictatorship, propped up by the quasi-secret service known as the whips. While most MPs spoke publicly and loudly, facing the opposition benches, the whips hid behind the Speaker’s Chair, and their gaze was turned not to the opposition benches but inwards to their own, whispering and scribbling down examples of loyalty and insolence, helpfulness or foolishness, to report to their chief…” and how Stewart “hated how politicians used the pompous grandeur of the Palace of Westminster to pretend to a power they did not have, and to take credit for things they had not done…”.
It may just be the ageing process(?!), but I don’t think I’ve ever been more depressed by the state of the country and the way we are governed than I am now. For so many of us, the (first past the post) system is broken… an individual’s voice goes unheard… your vote is very unlikely to matter. Politics, these days, seems to be all about power and prestige – with governments run by a relatively small group of career-focussed MPs (many of them public-school educated - in 2019, two-thirds of cabinet ministers were public school educated) with all parliamentary votes strictly controlled by the Party Whips. There are exceptions, of course, but self-interest seems to be high on the list of their priorities. Lobbying your own MP is likely to have very little effect of what policies are actually adopted.
But don’t you worry your pretty little heads because, if you’re lucky, disgraced former prime minister Johnson will write to you encouraging you to vote Tory and, of course, Mr Farage has pledged that he will “run for PM in 2029”.
Is this REALLY the best we can come up with?

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.

april-may 2024 books…

Maigret Stonewalled (Georges Simenon): I like the Maigret character – although I think this is only the fourth Maigret mystery I’ve read (first published in 1931). On the face of it, it appears to be a simple enough case… a commercial traveller killed in a hotel bedroom on the Loire and yet Maigret senses that things aren’t quite as they appear. It transpires that, for the best part of 18 years, the victim had led an elaborate double life… until a man emerges demanding money. The plot is quite complicated (I lost my way a few times!) and involves, among other things, a reversal of identity and much ingenuity. An enjoyable, entertaining read.
Big Caesars and Little Caesars (Ferdinand Mount): For two years, Mount was head of Margaret Thatcher’s think-tank/Number 10’s Policy Unit… so I took on this book with somewhat mixed feelings. But the preface immediately reassured me: “The world seems to be full of self-proclaimed Strong Men strutting their stuff, or waiting in the wings… How can these uncouth figures with their funny hair, their rude manners and their bad jokes take such a hold on the popular imagination?”. It’s a fascinating, intelligent, “wry field guide to autocrats” (as The Guardian’s Rachael Cooke puts it) covering a whole host of ‘Caesars’ – from Julius Caesar, Oliver Cromwell, Napoleon, Bolivar, Mussolini, Salazar, De Gaulle, Indira Gandhi to the likes of Trump and Johnson. He’s particularly damning about Trump and Johnson - although he doesn’t regard them as being so exceptional as we might imagine. Perhaps unsurprisingly, I found these sections the most interesting (but also pretty alarming… especially the likely prospect of a Trump second term). Mount leaves the reader with a sense that although Johnson has gone (we think), we need to keep our eyes peeled for others just like him already waiting in the wings. It’s a sobering book from a very experienced and knowledgeable political journalist. I found it quite compelling.  
A Postillion Struck By Lightning (Dirk Bogarde): This is the first volume of Bogarde’s autography (first published in 1977). I first read this book in 1990 and went on to read volumes 2+3… I enjoyed them all enormously and thought it was about time I re-visited it (after 34 years!!). It’s a beautifully-written book, full of funny, sad anecdotes and charm… evoking his idyllic Sussex childhood, his tough and lonely initiation into the harsher realities at a Glasgow technical school and the early days as an aspiring artist (the book contains a lot of his ‘scribbles’) and then as an actor up until he goes to Hollywood. Second time around, I found it a rather lovely, funny and nostalgic read… (although I admit to getting a little bored by some his early childhood recollections). I think I need to re-read volume 2+3 again.
The State Of Us (Jon Snow): Jon Snow is something of a hero of mine (AND he and I gathered coal together from the coal cellar each morning in 1990 when we were both staying in apartments at Ardtornish in the western highlands! I KNOW!!)(somewhat ridiculously, I noticed that I’d added a note in the Bogarde book explaining that I read it while on holiday at Ardtornish!!). This is a book of his reflections on the life of the nation over the past five decades. I found it a rather wonderful, honest book. His father was a bishop and he had a public school education at a choral school (he’s somewhat embarrassed by this and highly critical of what he regards the “privileged arrogance” arising from a public school background). Remarkably, he admits to not knowing anybody who was state-educated until he went to Scarborough Tech (and from there he went on to a short-lived degree experience at Liverpool Uni – he was kicked out for demonstrating against Apartheid). He admits to being far from academic (his A-Level grades were C, D and E) and clearly had some ‘good breaks’ early in his journalistic career. He’s passionate about inequality and multi-culturalism… and these passions extend to the appalling background to the Grenfell Tower tragedy, Brexit, unfairness and injustice and the beauty of Iran. In his time, he interviewed every prime minister since Thatcher (about whom, perhaps surprisingly, he is complimentary – unlike the likes of Mr Johnson!). I found it a really compelling, encouraging and optimistic story about our society. I highly recommend it to you!
The Queen's Gambit (Walter Tevis): This book, first published in 1983, is our next Storysmith bookgroup book… based on a sporting theme (chess was selected!). We used to play chess at the end of term at school and other pupils were always keen to play me – essentially because they knew they could beat me! Essentially, it’s about an 8-year-old American girl in an orphanage who is taught to play chess by the school’s janitor and ends up (spoiler alert: with some ‘issues’ on the way!) forging a new life for herself by progressing to the top of the US chess rankings… and beyond. A novel about chess is not my ideal kind of book (although I’m now something of an expert on opening playing strategies – Albion Counter Gambit, Queen’s Gambit, Sicilian etc etc!)… and yet I found this to be something of a compelling page-turner. My only real reservations relate to the somewhat too-good-to-be-true, rags-to-riches fantasy of it all. An enjoyable read nevertheless.

that they may face the rising sun…

I went along to the Watershed again this afternoon to watch Pat Collins’ film “That They May Face The Rising Sun”… based on John McGahern’s final novel (which I’ve yet to read – but I HAVE read and loved four of McGahern’s other books).
The film captures a year in the life of a rural, lakeside community in late 1970s Ireland.
Joe (Barry Ward) and Kate (Anna Bederke) have returned from London to live and work in a small, close-knit community in a remote lakeside setting in rural Ireland, close to where Joe grew up. He’s a writer and she’s an artist who retains part ownership of a London gallery. Can the harsh, simple farming life (shoehorned into their writer/artist lives) sustain them?
The film rather beautifully explores their lives (and those of their neighbours) and the rituals of work, play, community bonds and the passing seasons.
The Irish scenery is stunning (of course) and I loved the accompanying simple piano music/sounds of nature. The additional characters – Lalor Roddy (Patrick), Sean McGinley (Johnny), Phillip Dolan (Jamesie), Ruth McCabe (Mary), John Olohan (The Shah) and Brandan Conroy (Bill) are all rather wonderfully played.
I very much enjoyed the film – I thought the pace was beautifully apt… and somewhat similar to my experiences of reading McGahern’s impressive books.

polling day: ID required (and other political devices)...

I’m currently reading Ferdinand Mount’s book “Big Caesars and Little Caesars” (“how they rise and fall – from Julius Caesar to Boris Johnson”). As a former editor of ‘The Spectator’ and head of Margaret Thatcher’s think-tank, rest assured that he’s no liberal-lefty!!
It’s a fascinating book and well worth reading if you are ‘politically inclined’(!)…
But, with local elections taking place tomorrow (2 May), I thought his comments about the need for the electorate to produce photographic ID at the polling stations in order to cast their votes were timely reminders of one of the ways we’re being manipulated by the Conservative government - just one of five measures* he highlights (apologies for quoting at such length, but I think it’s important):
“Voter suppression:  
But of course in order to exercise power in this exuberant style, the Tories have to acquire power and hang on to it. The first priority is to win the upcoming general election, and prepare for the election after that. What is the best method of improving your chances? First, to adjust the boundaries of the constituencies to maximise the impact of your votes... Then, not only to encourage your voters to turn out by every possible means, but also to discourage the potential voters for the other side, either by preventing them from registering on the electoral roll or to make it difficult for them to cast their votes – so-called ‘voter suppression’. Thirdly, most flagrantly, by stuffing the ballot boxes with votes by people who don’t exist or have already voted or are not qualified to vote…
British general elections… have been remarkably free and fair for a long time – ever since voter personation and other dodges were finally eliminated in Northern Ireland. There has been no substantial evidence of fraud at any recent general elections. Yet the Tories’ 2019 election manifesto included this pledge: ‘We will protect the integrity of our democracy by introducing voter identification to vote at polling stations, stopping postal vote harvesting and measures to prevent any foreign interference with elections’.
All this, now contained in the Elections Act, is an egregious solution to a non-existent problem. It can have one purpose only: to suppress the votes of the poorer and less organised voters who are less likely to possess photo ID. When voter ID was made mandatory in Northern Ireland in 2002, the number of voters on the new register dropped by 120,000 or 10 per cent. This suspicion is confirmed by a second pledge, to make it easier for British expats to vote in parliamentary elections, expiates being plausibly thought far more likely to vote Tory, just as the worst off are more likely to vote Labour. Thus one set of voters whose fortunes do not depend on the actions of the UK is to be encouraged, while a far larger number of voters who do depend – often desperately – on what the British government does or does not do for them is to be discouraged. It is hard to imagine a more flagrant strategy to rig the result. It may be that as holding voter ID becomes more universal over the years, the adverse effect will diminish. But what is clear is that the MOTIVE behind the Elections Bill is to secure party advantage under the cloak of fairness.”
Believe me, I COULD have quoted far more extensively on this and other related subjects (eg. Trump and Johnson don’t emerge in Mount’s book in anything like a ‘good light’!).
Be afraid. Be very afraid!
PS: * The other measures Mount refers to (arising out of the Conservative manifesto for the  2019 general election) relate to the following: ‘Dissolving Parliament’; ‘Sacking MPs’; ‘Sacking civil servants’ and ‘Taming the judges’.

cricket: our summer game…

Yesterday, I went along to watch the final day of the county championship game between Gloucestershire and Middlesex at Bristol (just a 75 bus ride away from home).
It was very good to back watching some cricket again (my first game of the season) but, in truth, it felt a somewhat dispiriting game in so many ways.
Although the odds were clearly on the game ending in a draw, I’d actually thought there was a chance of an exciting finish… say with Gloucestershire chasing 250 runs to win in the afternoon?
Sadly, both captains seemed intent on NOT LOSING rather than pressing for a victory. Gloucestershire (admittedly minus one of their bowlers due to injury) set defensive fields all morning and Middlesex batted on far too long into the afternoon (why on earth didn’t they declare at lunchtime, some 280 runs ahead?). In the end, they left Gloucestershire to score 331 runs to win in 58 overs (5.7 runs/over)… Gloucestershire opted to simply see out the game and finished on 127-3.
Clearly, the cricket authorities see the one-day, 20Twenty and The Hundred games as their main opportunities to make money… which means that the traditional county championship games are horse-shoed into the start and end of the cricket season – which essentially means playing the bulk of championship games in April, May and September – reserving most of June, July and August for the money-spinning games.
Yesterday’s game at Bristol highlighted the stark reality (and perhaps the eventual demise?) of the 4-day game… there were fewer than 100 spectators (it might even have been as little as 50!?)… all wrapped in their waterproofs, fleeces, woolly hats (and even gloves)!
Whatsmore, so far this season, the county championship (in part because it’s being played during the worst weather months) has hardly set the sporting world on fire (understatement!). Out of the 34 games played in the two Divisions, 27 of them have resulted in draws!
Unless changes are made, I can’t see the county championship surviving another 10 years (at most!?).
It might just ‘see me out’, but it’ll mark the sad end of an era… and cricket will never be the same again.
PS: But, hey, on a positive note, I was delighted that I only had to pay £10 for my ticket (I think it’s usually £18-20)… Was this because it was the final day’s play? Whatever the reason, I commend Gloucestershire for the gesture.
Photograph: Your cricket correspondent captured the moment when Gloucestershire started their second innings: Dent c Davies b Helm 0!