Reading has provided a welcome distraction from Covid-19 these past few weeks. Maybe some other time I’ll blog about my experiences of homeschooling and (eek) returning to ward nursing 20 years after I left to work in the community [basically though: both scenarios are pretty well illustrated by any of the “I am functionally clueless” memes doing the rounds!]. Here’s what I managed to read in March:
I’ve said many times before that I’m yet to meet a Wainwright Prize-nominated book that I haven’t loved, and Raynor Winn’s The Salt Path is no exception to that. This is the account of her and her husband Moth’s loss of everything – home, income, possessions – after a dodgy investment came back to haunt them in the courts, followed within the same week by Moth’s diagnosis of a terminal illness called CBD, and their decision to drop everything and hike the South-West Path in England (630 miles of coast path through Dorset, Devon, and Cornwall). It is not a straightforward ‘nature as redemption’ story – the realities of homelessness, failing bodies, reliance on their wits and £48 a week benefits mean that this is sometimes a very distressing read, although ultimately the book ends with a note of hope. The author’s follow up book is out later this year, and I for one will definitely be reading it. 4.5/5.
The Unwitchy Witch is by Tom Cooney, who is a member of the online writing group I’m part of. It’s a Halloween story aimed at age 5-10 year olds. Arabelle and her younger sister Luna are being trained by their witch mum to follow in her footsteps. Her dad can’t be a witch, but that’s not to say that he’s not a wizard in other ways. However, unlike Luna, who’s a natural, Arabelle isn’t that good at spells, and resists becoming a witch. An argument between their parents mean that mum and Luna move out for a few days. Will the family come back together again? Will their Halloween party mean that they are accepted at last by families at school? And will Arabelle ever learn how to cast spells? A sweet story, that probably could have done with a bit more editing, but I think the story ideas and level of language works well for the age group. 3/5.
Being a glutton for punishment, every so often I read a book which really really stre-e-e-e-e-tches me! Since the start of this year I’ve been reading Poezii, aka the complete poetry of Mihai Eminescu, in the original Romanian, which I downloaded in one of those it-was-a-good-idea-at-the-time moments from Project Gutenberg. I’ll be honest, I skimmed quite a lot of this (I’d probably have skimmed them in translation too, especially the long poems!), but I did get through it and am glad I can say I’ve read at least some of it! Eminescu is held in similar esteem in Romania as Shakespeare is in England and Burns is in Scotland, and is often similarly invoked by nationalist politicians. I can’t say I understood loads of the poems (I did do better with the very extensive introduction), but I can say that he draws on an impressive amount of sources – along with the pastoral and love poems featuring flowers, clouds, rivers, forests, stars, meadows etc, he also regularly draws on philosophers, literature (including Shakespeare), Christianity, Islam, Greek and Roman mythology, even Darwin more than once. He was pretty prolific, and I’ll say this for him, he really has a way with rhyming words! I think I’ll have a look on YouTube and see if I can find any of his poems being recited – Romanian is a very musical and poetic language, and I bet these poems sound beautiful when they’re not read with an English accent! 3/5 (but 10/10 for me for effort!).
Venice by Jan Morris is a classic of travel writing. Originally published in the early 60s, and regularly updated since then (my version, which has been on my shelves since I think 2003, was published in 1993), it’s not a guide, so much as an immersive history. I visited Venice in 2010 (I even took this book with me, although I didn’t get round to reading it!), so it was nice to be able to picture some of the places being talked about. I really enjoyed this (though it did feel very Radio 4, ‘highbrow for the masses’). 4/5.
I needed something light and silly in these worrying times, to take my mind off it for a few minutes. Cue Asterix and the Roman agent, I can always rely on Asterix and his merry band of Gauls to provide some much-needed levity. In this one, Caesar resorts to psychological warfare to try to break the unity of the indomitable Gauls, using the treacherous agent Tortuous Convolvulus to sow discord and enmity. The usual silliness ensues. 3.5/5.
Peter Mayle’s Bon Appetit! Travels through France with knife, fork and corkscrew was a nice, entertaining read and a very pleasant diversion from the current stress of covid-19 lockdown. Here he attends food festivals and events around France, discussing both the food and the events, and very enjoyable it was too. I think I prefer A Year in Provence to this, but it was still fun and made me smile. 3.5/5.
Between Two Rivers is a memoir by Dorothy Al Khafaji, an English woman who met and married an Iraqi student and then lived with him and their children in Baghdad for nearly 20 years, returning to the UK only a few weeks before the start of the Iran-Iraq War in the mid-1980s. She details everyday life in Baghdad, partly from the perspective of a foreigner learning to settle in a new country, with all those challenges, but also (and to be honest, more interestingly to me), life in Iraq before Saddam and then as he came to power and increased his grip on the country. She probably could have missed out a few of the family arguments, but otherwise I thought this was a really interesting read, and a good antidote to the prevailing view of Iraq today as a barely-recovering war zone. 4/5.
Jackie Kirkham 