What are we reading? 29th March 2022

[[deleted user]]

# 64 Lljones wrote: "Posting this for Anne ..."

Great photo. Blacker than black. He doesn't have a nose or mouth!!

[[deleted user]]

# 26 Diana wrote: "I listened to this book by Dorothy Parker because it was the focus of the discussion on the Backlisted podcast Episode 148 (October 18th 2021). Simon Thomas (an identical twin) of the “Tea and Books” podcast and the “Stuck in a Book” blog was a guest. He is the series consultant for British Library Women Writers. Whatever he enjoys reading or writing about is usually my cup of tea...."

Thanks for your mention of Simon Thomas, Diana. He's a new name to me and I'll have some fun browsing through his recommendations.

[Robert]

More grim little headlines from Ukraine. Apparently, Russian ultranationalists are claiming that there is no distinct Ukrainian language, only a dialect of Russian.
Years ago, I read The Dark Side of the Moon (anonymous, introduction by T.S. Eliot), about the Soviet invasion of what had been eastern Poland in 1939. These were accounts by Polish deportees sent to the East and later released. A good book.
Back then, the Russians claimed that there was no distinct Polish language, only a dialect of Ukrainian. The work continues....

[Lljones]

Anne wrote: "He doesn't have a nose or mouth!!"

Well, he does, in fact, have a nose and a mouth. Thanks for pointing out my lack of photography skills! 😉😉

[[deleted user]]

Lljones wrote: "Anne wrote: "He doesn't have a nose or mouth!!"

Well, he does, in fact, have a nose and a mouth. Thanks for pointing out my lack of photography skills! 😉😉"

No, you eejit! I mean he's so black you can't even see a nose and mouth! (I could, on reflection, have expressed myself more clearly ... Me's the eejit)

[scarletnoir]

giveusaclue wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "MK wrote: "Anyone here have Apple TV? I see by the NY Times that Mick Herron's Slow Horses is now on view. http..."

Hi give and @MK...

Could not find anything on my 'usual' channels last night, so decided to give this a go - took 10 min to sign in as I hadn't done it before, lost my password etc., but it proved to be worth it.

The TV version of 'Slow Horses' is good entertainment, swinging back and forward from some lively action sequences to conversation and banter. The cast is excellent. I suppose for those who have read the books, those chats in which we learn who the 'slow horses' are, why they're there, and why they are so called may feel overlong, but if you come to it fresh (as I did) then they're necessary. The office scenes seem designed to out-sordid 'The Ipcress File', which I also saw and enjoyed recently, though the ending in that case seemed over-convoluted and a bit messy.

So far, I have seen and enjoyed the first two episodes, with four left (apparently). It seems as if you can sign up for a free trial - not sure how long that lasts - but I'm not sure that all the episodes have aired yet, so if I was you I'd wait until they have and then try that, maybe.

I did notice one (to me) amusing sign of how quickly tech changes - at one point, a spy surreptitiously copies the contents of a USB stick onto her Apple laptop - looks like my Air - but the latest iteration doesn't have a USB port, so it could no longer work!

[scarletnoir]

Andy wrote: "I was thinking about your post while out walking earlier, and in the case of the book I finished this morning, (review soon…) I have to admit you’re right. Probably not a great choice at the moment.."

Yes, don't think I could read a book where the human race gets wiped out at the end by aliens or whatever - climate change and political short-termism are enough to make me fear it may really happen... so I'd prefer not to read about the possibility.

Though horror isn't my thing, I do like a murder mystery or thriller - so long as the cops get their man/woman/whatever or they get their comeuppance at the end. I would not like it if the perpetrator(s) got away scot-free! Fiction can mete out justice in a way we too rarely observe in 'real life'.

[scarletnoir]

AB76 wrote: "I read "The Dark" so long ago i had forgotten how dark(no pun intended), it actually is.."

Very 'Dark' indeed (as is The Barracks)... McGahern lost his job following publication - the Catholic church took exception to its contents:

https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/re...

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that the book contained substantial amounts of autobiographical material, though as usual it's hard to know where fact ends and fiction begins in these cases.

[scarletnoir]

Tam wrote: "Yay!.. I have actually got to the end of ‘Fathers and Sons’, by Russian author Turgenev.... I am positing the view that the average Russian author of those days was very keen on showing off how well read, and international, they were in their reading habits. I cannot see any other reason for such a high number of quotations in French. "

In fact, French was the first language learnt by many members of the Russian nobility in that period between 18th-19th C., as is explained here:

https://www.rbth.com/history/332300-4...

(It's worth pointing out that the protagonist in Tolstoy's 'War and Peace' is not called 'Pyotr' but by the French version, 'Pierre'...)

This European/French outlook was one of the bones of contention between Turgenev and Dostoyevsky:

In a famous retort, Dostoevsky once urged Turgenev to buy a telescope for himself in Paris so he could better examine his fellow Russians – thus echoing the popular notion that the westernized Turgenev was out of touch with Russian society.
https://www.europenowjournal.org/2017...

(BTW - that is an interesting article, which I came across just now when researching pieces to respond to the points you make.)

As for the book itself - can't really help, as I read it too long ago - sorry!

[scarletnoir]

I recently reviewed David Downing's 'Zoo Station', set in Berlin, 1938... one of the interests shared by the (English) protagonist and his (German) son is a love of football and Hertha Berlin (or Hertha BSC)... which forms a sort-of link to a recent article on the BBC about a Holocaust survivor whose love for a football team led, finally, to an opening up about the horrors he experienced ... it's worth a read:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/...

[Robert]

scarletnoir wrote: "Tam wrote: "Yay!.. I have actually got to the end of ‘Fathers and Sons’, by Russian author Turgenev.... I am positing the view that the average Russian author of those days was very keen on showing..."

When I told my Russian friend that I thought Grossman, in his Life and Fate, was writing the sequel to War and Peace, she said "Robert, how can you say that? You have not read War and Peace."
So I found a copy of War and Peace, began reading, and was well on my way to becoming a Tolstoy fan when I showed her the book, pointing out the bookmark.
She leafed through the book. "But it's all in English!"
"It's called a translation, dear."
"But War and Peace is half in French!"
I looked it up. She was right. She said that Russian high school students were required to have a French course and a Russian history course the year before they read War and Peace....
When I finished Tolstoy's book, she said "You were right, Robert. Life and Fate is like War and Peace."

[CCCubbon]

By sheer chance yesterday I happened upon one of my posts reproduced by a Portuguese bookseller without crediting me.
I believe that it is a post from a year or so ago and refers to my dodgy vision and a book published in 1919 called The Malory Verse Book. It’s an old first edition and I was looking for information.
I believe that I wrote this post which includes a poem called The Dawn Patrol for lorent - the lady pilot who left.
I dont really object very much although spme acknowledgement would have been proper I think.

[scarletnoir]

Robert wrote: ""But War and Peace is half in French!"
I looked it up. She was right. She said that Russian high school students were required to have a French course and a Russian history course the year before they read War and Peace...."

Very interesting - I didn't know that. Perhaps it's no surprise, given the way French was taught to and admired by the Russian aristocracy of the time.

I came across this comment on Dostoyevsky's use of French:

Dostoevsky employs French in a most deliberate way. The amount of French spoken by each major character is an important index to the degree of his corruption and fits in perfectly with what is now generally recognized as the moral and symbolical structure of the novel.

Another person in that thread disagrees, or at least has another angle on it:

In Dostoyevsky's The Devils there's an awful lot of mid-sentence French spoken by one character (Verkhovensky) in particular, but the impression I get from this is not so much that the character is corrupt as that he's affected...

It's quite an interesting discussion:
https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll...

(Of course, we all know that nowadays most evil characters in American films speak with an English accent... )

[scarletnoir]

CCCubbon wrote: "By sheer chance yesterday I happened upon one of my posts reproduced by a Portuguese bookseller without crediting me..."

That is rather naughty - why do it? When I quote someone, I try always to include a link to the full version in case others want to follow up the discussion or train of thought. (I may have accidentally forgotten on occasion, but not deliberately!)

[AB76]

Robert wrote: "More grim little headlines from Ukraine. Apparently, Russian ultranationalists are claiming that there is no distinct Ukrainian language, only a dialect of Russian.
Years ago, I read The Dark Side..."

good to see mention of the Ukraine situation Robert and yes, the assault on Ruthenian-Ukrainian identity continues, with russian media suggesting re-education and repression will be needed for the ukraine people, as they are infected by Nationalist propaganda

i think ukrainian is quite similar to belarussian and close to polish but obviously is a clear and distinct tongue,i dont speak russian but when the great Zelensky speaks in ukrainian it sounds vividly different to russian.

shame Anastasia isnt here to inform us on its origins, i hope she is ok, she is active on GR, i checked

NB. i used ruthenian as an identity as west ukrainiains, especially those who once lived in the A-H empire were referred to as "Ruthenes" with a distinct 50/50 Uniate/Orthodox religious identity, in Imperial Russia, the majority of Ukrainians were Orthodox

[Andy]

Greenfairy wrote: "Hello group, I' ve been missing due to a heavy cold - or a cold- related lurgy of some sort, covid tests were negative but it left me tired and unable to concentrate.
The best thing that I have rea..."

Thanks GreenFairy. The Tuckova sounds really interesting.

[Andy]

scarletnoir wrote: "Andy wrote: "I was thinking about your post while out walking earlier, and in the case of the book I finished this morning, (review soon…) I have to admit you’re right. Probably not a great choice ..."

I think your comment of wanting a comeuppance is shared by most people. I’m ambivalent about it though.
In the last 10 years or so, or exchanging book and occasionally movie reviews I don’t think I’ve come across anyone with my tastes for horror. No surprise of course. I’m not a monster person, but the darker the better in my reading usually. I do like to be alone deep in a Carpathian forest at night, for example, and think ‘bring it on’. I think it may stem from atheism, and being brought up as a catholic. I’d quite like their to be something out there..

[Andy]

I’m about 800 metres up in the eastern end of the Alps, at a farm in Jezersko just a kilometre or so from the Austrian border, and we have a rough morning here, thundery snow. Must be more than 5 centimetres has accumulated in about 20 minutes. I’ll take the dog out when I get chance, but it won’t be for long. A bit of reading this morning, listening to Saturday Live on Radio 4, and watch Tiger and the European Rugby this afternoon.
I’ve just written a review for a book I really enjoyed,

Rose Royal by Nicolas Mathieu, translated by Lena Muller and Andre Hansen.

Just past 50, long since divorced, Rose has come to terms with her lonely existence, though at heart frustration and disenchantment with life loom large. The only solace in her mundane weekly routine being nightly beers after work in the Royal bar.
As regards men, she has seen a lot, from violent ex-lovers, to being in suffocating relationships dominated by intimidation and bullying. Until recently she has been submissive, but after a temptation to argue with her last abusive partner she carries a .38 calibre handgun in her handbag.
After an incident in an unusually busy Royal, that conjures traumatic memories of the Bataclan massacre, she strikes up with Luc, who seems to be another lost soul. The stars have aligned it appears; she helps him, her favourite music track is playing, they seem to need each other.
This is Mathieu at his best. I enjoyed And Their Children After Them, for which he won the Prix Goncourt, but this diversion into noir shows, for me at least, what he does best.
Rose is a woman on the edge; beautifully drawn, vulnerable and downhearted. Around her Parisian life is fickle and unpredictable, which is perhaps what keeps her going. Somehow her affair with Luc endures, going past the point of no return.
In just 80 or so pages Mathieu has built up almost an intolerable suspense, and the novel’s climax certainly delivers.
For sure there will be comparisons to Simenon’s romans durs, but that is very much to the book’s credit. There is that precise, spare prose, but this is a tale of contemporary Paris, of the determination of people to live their lives in the face of that instinctive feeling of terror lurking, and of misogyny and its damage.

[giveusaclue]

scarletnoir wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "MK wrote: "Anyone here have Apple TV? I see by the NY Times that Mick Herron's Slow Horses ..."

Thanks scarlet, I see it got good reviews. Perhaps one day it will come on "ordinary" tv. I have SKY Sports through virgin and honetly don't feel like increasing my expenditure, you have to stop somewhere!

As far as here and the Guardian is concerned, I think I prefer here, it is easier to find for one thing and it feels friendlier.

[giveusaclue]

Greenfairy wrote: "Hello group, I' ve been missing due to a heavy cold - or a cold- related lurgy of some sort, covid tests were negative but it left me tired and unable to concentrate.
The best thing that I have rea..."

Sorry you have been under the weather, funny how it does sound very similar to covid. But take it easy and get better soon.

[scarletnoir]

giveusaclue wrote: "I have SKY Sports through virgin and honestly don't feel like increasing my expenditure...

Once the series is finished, you might like to give the 'free 7-day trial' a go - should be long enough to see the series!

https://www.apple.com/uk/apple-tv-plus/

(I would not have paid a subscription, either - as I said, it came free with the Mac Air.)

[AB76]

Andy wrote: "I’m about 800 metres up in the eastern end of the Alps, at a farm in Jezersko just a kilometre or so from the Austrian border, and we have a rough morning here, thundery snow. Must be more than 5 c..."

sounds wintry andy down there, i think you are in the region that Peter Handke describes in "Repetition" his 80s novel that covers the Slovene-Austrian border area and further into Slovenia.

Handke was half Carinthian-Slovene and the novel is based around the narrator exploring ancestors in that side of the family

Slovene Carinthia is a very small region, i think the Ravne steelworks feature in the novel
Correction: sounds like you are further West in Upper Carniola

[AB76]

Andy wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "Andy wrote: "I was thinking about your post while out walking earlier, and in the case of the book I finished this morning, (review soon…) I have to admit you’re right. Probably..."

Carpathian forests at night...bring it on .superb image!

[scarletnoir]

Andy wrote: ">
I’m about 800 metres up in the eastern end of the Alps, at a farm in Jezersko just a kilometre or so from the Austrian border, and we have a rough morning here, thundery snow....I’ve just written a review for a book I really enjoyed,

Rose Royal by Nicolas Mathieu, translated by Lena Muller and Andre Hansen. "

Thanks for the fascinating setting, and the review - I may give this one a go in French... your current situation reminds me of a book I have on the 'possible TBR' list - Snow, Dog, Foot, which tempts me despite the 'talking dog' idea - I can always interpret that as hallucination, in all probability!

As for I do like to be alone deep in a Carpathian forest at night, for example, and think ‘bring it on’. I think it may stem from atheism, and being brought up as a catholic. I’d quite like there to be something out there... , I'm sure we'd all prefer it if there was 'something out there' - at least, so long as it was 'well-wishing' or maybe 'bienveillant', but many of us just can't suspend disbelief...

[Andy]

AB76 wrote: "Andy wrote: "I’m about 800 metres up in the eastern end of the Alps, at a farm in Jezersko just a kilometre or so from the Austrian border, and we have a rough morning here, thundery snow. Must be ..."

Yes AB.. Upper Carniola..

[Andy]

scarletnoir wrote: "Andy wrote: ">
I’m about 800 metres up in the eastern end of the Alps, at a farm in Jezersko just a kilometre or so from the Austrian border, and we have a rough morning here, thundery snow....I’ve..."

I’ve been after that book (Morandini) for while SN. It was recommended ages ago by someone at TLS, and is the only one I haven’t read in the Peirene Closed Universe series. The other two, Ankomst and The Pear Field are excellent.

[MK]

For fans of Hollywood a free e-read - Read a free ebook version at luminosoa.org - of Ink-Stained Hollywood: The Triumph of American Cinema’s Trade Press

[Georg]

I have given up on several crime novels early on, but this is probably the first I threw with great force after 200/360+ pages.

A young doctor has vanished. Her close friends are clueless. She is estranged from her powerful, affluent family-with-connections-in-all-the-right-places. They do not care what might have happened to her.
Small traces of blood are found in her apartment. Fetal blood. Now what could that allude to in 1950s Ireland?

Elegy for April

Who is the eponymous April? I haven't got a clue. She is, literally, "non-descript". The car dealer was luckier. He is completely irrelevant, but at least I know exactly how he looks like.

No plot, characters I would hesitate to call even two-dimensional and a time and place setting that seems contrived and artificial.

The author of the German edition: "John Banville alias Benjamin Black". A bait for readers who do not consider crime fiction as literature? A counterproductive move, as far as I am concerned.

To write a good crime novel is, imo, more challenging than to write a good novel. Had this been weak on the crime side only while being otherwise a good novel it would have been fine with me. As it were I found it was really sh*** on both accounts.

I can't even be arsed to look up the solution.

[AB76]

Andy wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Andy wrote: "I’m about 800 metres up in the eastern end of the Alps, at a farm in Jezersko just a kilometre or so from the Austrian border, and we have a rough morning here, thundery s..."

interesting area, i want to visit Prekmurje in the far NE of Slovenia, which has a significant protestant minority

[MK]

Help. I expect I could find it if I were diligent enough, but lazy. So I am asking - what was the Simenon mentioned here within the last month or so?

Please advise as I meant to add it to that unending list.

[MK]

Georg wrote: "I have given up on several crime novels early on, but this is probably the first I threw with great force after 200/360+ pages.

A young doctor has vanished. Her close friends are clueless. She is ..."
Sometimes you just have to write-off an author and decide that you are not going to even go so far as put a book on hold at the library, much less open your wallet.

That happened to me with Banville's Snow which was too depressing and with Horowitz's Magpie Murders which was 'too cute for words.'

There are plenty of mystery authors in the world to keep me busy without them.

[Berkley]

Andy wrote: "Rose Royal by Nicolas Mathieu, translated by Lena Muller and Andre Hansen. Rose Royal by Nicolas Mathieu."

I might want to give this one a try myself. Interesting that there's quite a number of reader reviews in German - does that mean that Mathieu has a large following there, I wonder?

[Gpfr]

MK wrote: "Help. I expect I could find it if I were diligent enough, but lazy. So I am asking - what was the Simenon mentioned here within the last month or so?..."

If you put Simenon into 'Search discussion posts', you should find it quite easily

[CCCubbon]

Shadowlands3

I read the chapter about the Outer Hebridean island of St Kilda, remote and rocky place probably inhabited by prehistoric people and then right up to 75 years ago when all left. It’s an interesting tale of primitive people and their eventual exploitation by tourism but I was most fascinated by the mention of the deaths of 67% of new born babies from tetanus. Perhaps fascinated is the wrong word but I cannot think of another.
These deaths were recorded over a couple of hundred years during the 18/19Cs . We learn something everyday and I had never realised that tetanus was the name for lockjaw. Babies would not suckle properly and their poor mouths lock, death occurring on the eighth day.
I wanted to find out more than Matthew Green related, wanted to know if any research had been done as to why this disease was so prevalent and subsequently found this most interesting paper

https://www.rcpe.ac.uk/sites/default/...

The islanders didn’t know why their babies died and it was thought for a long time that it was because of the unhygienic conditions in the houses. Because so many babies died the infants would be swaddled in unclean cloths until after the eighth day if they survived and this could have had an effect but nowadays, according to this paper the source of infection is likely to have been the knife that was used to cut the umbilical cord.

[Tam]

CCCubbon wrote: "Shadowlands3

I read the chapter about the Outer Hebridean island of St Kilda, remote and rocky place probably inhabited by prehistoric people and then right up to 75 years ago when all left. It’s ..."

This was an example of, I think the commonality of whoever the medical practitioners were, of those times, who attended ill patients, or those in childbirth, did so in old and stained clothing. There was no point in ruining a good suit when it was likely to become saturated with bodily fluids from ones patients, so the incentive is there, for the doctors or midwives, to always use the same old clothing when attending to patients.

This was before the nature of bacteriological infections were known, it set up a means of a vast reservoir of possible infections across the whole community being there in the wings, just waiting to happen, given the opportunity. It didn't help that the traditional way of dealing with childbirth was to wrap everyone up, in swaddling clothes, and also deny the mother and baby access to fresh air, for the 'laying in'.

The stuff I have read about life on St Kilda, was that large, surviving, (those that hadn't actually died that is), families were all in the same room, in a very harsh climate, so doors and windows would be closed against the elements, but fires would be be going constantly, to keep people warm. And so any bacteria or viruses would be almost automatically, passed on in such humid and constrained conditions. It is not at all surprising that the attrition rate, of deaths in the community, was so high to me...

[AB76]

CCCubbon wrote: "Shadowlands3

I read the chapter about the Outer Hebridean island of St Kilda, remote and rocky place probably inhabited by prehistoric people and then right up to 75 years ago when all left. It’s ..."

i visited st kilda in 1999, mid june, it was wet and chilly, i toured the remains of many houses left from the crofters of 70-80 years earlier and wondered at how they survived in such a wild place

[AB76]

Have just ordered The Last Rhodesians: Society Adrift, i first heard of it in the Booklaunch magazine and decided that such a comprehensive work dedicated to Rhodesia(now Zimbabwe) was essential reading for me, as i research and read about the dominions that the British Empire spawned (including Australia, NZ, S Africa, Canada etc)

[Andy]

CCCubbon wrote: "Shadowlands3

I read the chapter about the Outer Hebridean island of St Kilda, remote and rocky place probably inhabited by prehistoric people and then right up to 75 years ago when all left. It’s ..."

I’ve read a bit about St Kilda, and it’s all fascinating.
Originally it was the odd chapter, which led me to a novel by Elisabeth Gifford called The Lost Lights of St Kilda, which was okay..
I have a recently bought second hand copy of Tom Steel’s book, The Life and Death of St Kilda, in my bookcase at home, which is a history, published in 1975.

But.. I’m really looking forward to this book CCC, sounds wonderful.

[Andy]

AB76 wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "Shadowlands3

I read the chapter about the Outer Hebridean island of St Kilda, remote and rocky place probably inhabited by prehistoric people and then right up to 75 years ago whe..."

By boat AB? You must have a solid constitution..

[AB76]

Andy wrote: "AB76 wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "Shadowlands3

I read the chapter about the Outer Hebridean island of St Kilda, remote and rocky place probably inhabited by prehistoric people and then right up to 75 ..."

yes, by boat and it was a wild 15 days, out from aberdeen and then round to Oban , got stranded on fair isle for hours in sweeping rain, (sheltered by the conservatory there that sadly burned down a few years back, great shepherds pie). the weather leaving aberdeen, midsummer, was appalling but if i remember the stretch to st kilda wasnt too bad

and yes, very solid constitution, i've been sailing since i was 4, i dont get seasick. as a kid in '84 i remember being in the isles of scilly on a ferry, the seas like mountains, most of the 30 passengers gone green and vomiting, including some of my family and i was cheerily chatting to the bearded skipper about the LA Olympics...i think my lack of seasickness is just a freak of nature, not really linked to sailing mind you..

[AB76]

Spring is starting to find strength in the shires....my rowan is leafing (always the earliest to leaf), horse chestnuts too, though sycamore, ash,poplar and of course the might oak remain bare, creating my favourite skyline, bare tree branches on the ridges and hangars.

Wassermans traditional and clear style in My Marriage is a mix of wry humour and observation, in his autobiographical novel of Imperial Vienna. He died in 1934, this was published posthumously.

Hennessy in Winds of Change fits a lot into each chapter, mixing popular and serious commentary and cultural markers. The ageing "Supermac" aka PM Harold Macmillan is gently lampooned, Hennessy observes an island nation in thrall to its vanished empire and remarks correctly that its still a problem in 2019 when he wrote the book. Still in 2022 as well....

[CCCubbon]

@Andy

I think that I am enjoying it because each place’s decline has a different reason lurking behind and each chapter has sent me scurrying to find out more. The present area commandeered by the military in Breckland - has taken me off to look at maps and goes some way to explaining the Suffolk/Norfolk land. There’s a lady named Lucille Reeve, eccentric maybe but there’s a story there to investigate.
I am most envious of your trip.

@AB
I was thinking that the trip to St Mary’s on the Isles of Scilly can be awful before you mentioned it. Oddly, as I am usually seasick I wasn’t but everyone else was. I determined to stay on deck and that helped. Loved the Scillies. Next time we went over by helicopter.

[Georg]

AB76 wrote: "Spring is starting to find strength in the shires....my rowan is leafing (always the earliest to leaf), horse chestnuts too, though sycamore, ash,poplar and of course the might oak remain bare, cre..."

AB, just in case you got your biog info on Wassermann from en.wiki:

There it says: In 1901 he married Julie Speyer, whom he divorced in 1915. Three years later he was married again to Marta Karlweis.

I was really a bit shocked by that blunder.

Only the first marriage date, 1901, is correct.
He left his wife in 1919 for Marta. They had a child in 1924.
The divorce proceedings were drawn out over 7 years by Julie Allegedly with the help of 40 lawyers altogether (Jarndyce vs. Jarndyce revisited).
She "gave" him the divorce, eventually, in 1926, (allegedly)as a birthday present. He married Marta in the same year.

[AB76]

CCCubbon wrote: "@Andy

I think that I am enjoying it because each place’s decline has a different reason lurking behind and each chapter has sent me scurrying to find out more. The present area commandeered by the..."

it was a childhood trip i remember fondly, we hired bikes and cycled everywhere, i watched the LA Olympic highlights at breakfast with a slightly mad canadian lady and then a day cycling followed with family. my mother remembers the rain being an issue but in typical fashion, i seem to remember sunny days all the time, except for that trip on the ferry

[AB76]

Georg wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Spring is starting to find strength in the shires....my rowan is leafing (always the earliest to leaf), horse chestnuts too, though sycamore, ash,poplar and of course the might oak rem..."

thanks georg

[giveusaclue]

I finished the second of Neil Lancaster's Tom Novak series



Yes, you have to suspend disbelief but don't you have to do that with many spy/undercover/thriller books? Looking forward to the third in the series in due course.

I have now moved onto the (last?) of the Stella Rimington Liz Carlyle series



Dodgy school set up near Southwold only pupils being highly intelligent refugees, Russian spies, and a bit of romance.

[Georg]

CCCubbon wrote: "Shadowlands3

I read the chapter about the Outer Hebridean island of St Kilda, remote and rocky place probably inhabited by prehistoric people and then right up to 75 years ago when all left. It’s ..."

Thank you so much for these interesing posts on Shadowland.
The St. Kilda story is really fascinating. I've read the (long) wiki article.
One of the things that struck me most was this Rev. John Mackay. Who made the inhabitants prepare for church on Saturday and suffer 3! services on Sundays, each lasting 2-3 hours. Attending was a duty. Which says a lot about his power in a rural community where your work is dictated by the weather, not by the day of the week.
And children were not allowed to play and had to carry a bible with them all the time. His tyranny, as I would call it, started in 1865 and lasted for 24 years.

The (excellent) article from the RCSE mentioned a professional nurse who was, around 1877, employed and paid for by a female relative of the owner of St. Kilda. No newborn died while she was there, but she left after some (unspecified) time because of "unpleasant experiences". Pure speculation, but I imagine the good Reverend had something to do with that.

Improved midwifery skills, denied to the island by John Mackay, reduced the problems of childhood tetanus. (wiki)

Sadly too vague to infer anything at all, but in the five years period after Mackay had left the mortality from tetanus dropped from 52% to 24%.

@Tam: you are quite right about the filthy clothes worn by health "professionals". They must have often been so stiff they could have stood up (?) by themselves.
And the swaddling up of infants in dirty cloth. The RCPE article also hints at that in St. Kilda the mothers did not bond with their babies for the first five days (who could blame them, if the collective knowledge was that 1:2 would not survive anyway). So they left them unchanged.

[Tam]

Georg wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "Shadowlands3

I read the chapter about the Outer Hebridean island of St Kilda, remote and rocky place probably inhabited by prehistoric people and then right up to 75 years ago whe..."

Yes I read the account of the midwife and the Rev a few years ago, I cant remember where alas. It must have been a terribly hard life on St Kilda. I wonder how the community came to live on St Kilda in the first place, and when? Does anyone know?

[AB76]

Tam wrote: "Georg wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "Shadowlands3

I read the chapter about the Outer Hebridean island of St Kilda, remote and rocky place probably inhabited by prehistoric people and then right up to 75..."

i should remember from 1999 about how they came to be there but i dont, though i think settlers go back to the 15thc-ish

its a beautiful and rather forbidding place, even in midsummer, with a large peak above the sparse lowlands where the crofters lived. When i was there the MoD had a base or one dept of the military and a rather tacky pub, the rest of the island is tussocky grass slanting into valleys and craggy rocks. it was cold and damp for midsummer, maybe 12c and drizzling for 80% of the visit...weather i love.

however that climate 365 days a year would be enervating in the extreme, constant damp and from memory i dont think it was much of a fishing community, which suprised me at the time.

Just ordered this:


The Truth About St Kilda

[Georg]

Tam wrote: "Georg wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "Shadowlands3

I read the chapter about the Outer Hebridean island of St Kilda, remote and rocky place probably inhabited by prehistoric people and then right up to 75..."

Another thing I found fascinating: apparently they did know that incest was something that should be avoided. But how do you do that in such a small enclosed community?

I was born in a very small village that was founded by disparate soldiers/mercenaries after the 30 year war. They kept themselves to themselves for time immemorial. My parents only lived there for 5 years, but my godmother was a "native". About 40 years ago half of the inhabitants shared one surname, about 90% of the other half shared two more. Inbreeding was the norm, outsiders were shunned. They (there were two villages) still have a reputation: "the dog- and cat eaters". Probably more to do with abject poverty than cruelty towards domesticated animals.

An island without a sea surrounding it.