What are we reading? 29 May 2023

[AB76]

MK wrote: "A book title as 'click bait'. I've just finished Samuel Pepys and the Strange Wrecking of the Gloucester: The Shipwreck that Shocked Restoration Britain. While Pepys kinda runs thro..."

there was a good review of this in the LRB or NYRB

the 1660-1715 era is my favourite part of british history, where James, Duke of York, performs many roles until his eventual exiting stage right in the marshes of kent..with his remarkable older brother managing to keep england on the straight and narrow(while paying much coin to The Sun King...)

For anyone thinking of reading Pepys, i have always enjoyed the diaries of his contemporary John Eveleyn more, including the very amusing stay of the 6ft8 future Russian tsar Peter the Great and his entourage at Eveleyns house when he was a young Prince on a jaunt round Europa. Lets just say, they trashed the place completely...

[Andy]

I’ve read quite a bit recently that hasn’t stimulated me to report on.
But I do want to rave about two newbie’s from the tremendous Charco Press in Edinburgh.

Two Sherpas by Sebastián Martínez Daniell translated from the Spanish (Argentina) by Jennifer Croft .

The 30th May (this last week) marked the 70th anniversary of Edmund Hilary and Tenzing Norgay reaching the summit of Mount Everest, the first to do so successfully (and return).
I can think of few better ways to mark the occasion than to read this book.

The story is set on the mountain, near the summit, where an Englishman being guided by two sherpas has fallen, and lies on a ledge a few metres below. As the sherpas cling to the rock, contemplating an unlikely rescue, many things pass through their minds.

The sherpas are of markedly different ages. The older man has spent his lifetime on or around the mountain, but still he dreams of a different life, on the oceans maybe, or studying at a university far away. The younger man is still at school, preparing for a school production of Julius Caesar.

With the beauty of the mountain always there, Daniell adapts his writing to match the moment, the fall of a rock, a change in the weather, the fading of the light.

The Englishman lies helpless, dead maybe, and yet seems by Daniell's descriptions to be out of place, alien to the landscape, and from a life far away. He is barely refered to. He stands though as a metaphor for imperialism, amd its lingering after effects. The focus is on the Sherpas as an ethnic group, and how their history on the mountain. Particularly, Daneill comes back to April 18th, 2014, when 16 Nepali mountaineering guides, most of them ethnic Sherpas, were killed by an avalanche on the mountain, a fact often overlooked that it was the single deadliest accident in the history of the Himalayan peak.

[Andy]

and the wonderful Of Cattle and Men by Ana Paula Maia translated from the Portuguese (Brazil) by Zoë Perry .

In this brilliantly inventive short novel, strange events upset routine at a slaughterhouse.

It’s a grim set up at the Touro de Milo, where the cattle arrive, ‘tapdancing in their own faeces and urine’, are duly dispatched and, almost in no time, are passed to the burger factory next-door. There’s a dystopian feel to affairs, with people clothed in rags living in the scrub outside the abattoir fence begging for scraps, and the dead fish spewed by the adjacent river which is filled with offal and salty with animal blood.

The protagonist is Edgar Wilson, a stun operator who blesses the cows with a sign of the cross before exterminating them.
The characters around him are just as compelling; Bronco Gil, an indigenous security man who lost an eye to a vulture and looks out for jaguars or other beasts or raiders that may dare to come close to the perimeter fence, Milo the boss who works long hours battling with numbers in his office, and Helmuth, the splitter, who chain-saws the dead cows in half.

At no stage does Maia rant about the meat business; she doesn’t need to, her story condemns it in itself.

I’ve read reviews that call the book an ‘anti-meat’ noir, in the style of Cormac McCarthy. It’s certainly noir-ish, and with those sharp and biting sentences that are often so powerful they bare reading twice. But there’s humour as well, incredibly dry - just shards of light in the darkness she has created - a sort of Magnus Mills sense of absurdity to it.

It reminds me of a David Byrne lyric that comes into my mind more and more these days..

..and as things fell apart, nobody paid much attention.

Here’s a couple of favourite clips..

Round and seasoned like that, they don’t even look like they had ever been a cow. Not one glimpse of the unbridled horror behind something so tender and delicious.

and

‘Some of the cows are facing west instead of north. That’s no good.’
‘But why, Edgar? What does it matter which way they graze?’
‘They only graze to the north, and some of them have been facing west for days.’
‘And what does that mean?’
‘That there’s something very wrong going on.’
‘What do you think it is?’
‘I don’t know… I’ve never seen this happen… they’ve lost their way. Thats no good.’

and

When night falls, the residents of Ruminant Valley tend to shut their doors and windows tight. They believe that everything that seems improbable during the day can overcome the darkness. It’s when thoughts that were once impossible become possible; when hushed whispers swell, and above all, when that layer of darkness cloaks anything suspicious. The figures, the voids, long shadows, all of it brought on by the night, which is immense, and its reaches infinite.

and

..(Edgar) that his mind goes astray and questions who is man, and who is ruminant.

[Gpfr]

scarletnoir wrote: "...Leonardo Padura's Heretics. One strand of the story is about a young Jew wanting to become an artist who is an apprentice in Rembrandt's studio — he has to keep it secret."

I must plead not guilty - I have never read anything by Padura, so can't have "not liked it"! ..."

I was so sure we'd had that exchange that I had to do a search in my comments to find it! It was more recent than I remembered, in March last year in WWR. It came about because of talk of Rembrandt, you'd written how much you liked his paintings and in response I wrote about Heretics. You responded:

Thanks for that - I'm in two minds, because although the background subjects interest me, I read the first in the series - 'Havana Red' - in 2019, and found it slow going, so I'm not sure I'd want to commit to another one.

(17 March 2022)

[Gpfr]

Came back from Amsterdam last night, had a great time, did a lot of walking!
The Vermeer exhibition was of course wonderful. The usual exhibition problems of having to wait one's turn to get close enough to the paintings to see them, plus the people who are totally unaware of anyone else around them. I found the compulsive photographers particularly irritating this time because the Rijksmusem sent out an email beforehand with all the paintings + the explanatory texts. The exhibtion was well-hung, the paintings spaced out, so there was plenty of room around each one.
Anyway, it was worth it! The Girl with a Pearl Earring had gone back to The Hague, but I have seen it there in the past.

Amsterdam seemed very expensive this time. A word of warning for anyone planning a trip there in the future, visits to certain things can only be booked online, eg the Van Gogh museum, Anne Frank's house ...

One place we went to was the Begijnhof, which I'd visited before, but I have since read Bernard MacLaverty's Midwinter Break. For those who don't know it, it's an old béguinage, that is a community of religious women who were not nuns. Houses surround a lawn with trees and it includes the oldest house in the city, dating from around 1420. It's a lovely peaceful place, but I feel rather sorry for the inhabitants (still only women), as it's open until 5 or 6 o'clock every day. You can't walk round the green, just keep to one side of it and to the chapel, but even so it must be intrusive. It's free, so the visitors aren't even helping to pay for upkeep ...

[AB76]

Gpfr wrote: "Came back from Amsterdam last night, had a great time, did a lot of walking!
The Vermeer exhibition was of course wonderful. The usual exhibition problems of having to wait one's turn to get close ..."

did you look round the church in the middle of the Berginhof, its the english reformed church with some artwork by Mondrian within

[Gpfr]

AB76 wrote: "did you look round the church ..."

For some reason one can't visit it at the moment. The chapel is also closed, having work done.

[AB76]

Gpfr wrote: "AB76 wrote: "did you look round the church ..."

For some reason one can't visit it at the moment. The chapel is also closed, having work done."

oh dear, its a wonderful little church and i was suprised to find Mondrian had done some artwork in there, wood carvings, will attach some photos to photo section. i hadnt known Mondrian did any art work like that, was for the 1898 accession of Queen Wilhelmina

my profile photo is another mondrian work in the church

[scarletnoir]

Gpfr wrote: "I wrote about Heretics. You responded:
Thanks for that - I'm in two minds, because although the background subjects interest me, I read the first in the series - 'Havana Red' - in 2019, and found it slow going, so I'm not sure I'd want to commit to another one."

So you were right after all!

I excuse myself thus: the book was so boring and made so little impression on me that I had forgotten the author's name.

Sorry!

[Gpfr]

scarletnoir wrote: "the book was so boring and made so little impression on me that I had forgotten the author's name..."

😉

[scarletnoir]

Gpfr wrote: "Came back from Amsterdam last night, had a great time, did a lot of walking!
The Vermeer exhibition was of course wonderful. The usual exhibition problems of having to wait one's turn to get close ..."

As I said before, I really envy you - though some of these very popular exhibitions can be a trial if too many people are allowed in at the same time. It's unfortunate, but in addition to those of us who really long to see the paintings, there must be an equal number (at least) of people who seem intent on ticking things off on some 'must do' list - and who, in addition, feel the need to provide photographic evidence that they have 'been there and done that'.

Just about the worst effect of COVID (for us) has been the restriction on travel, perhaps especially wrt visiting art galleries and exhibitions.

Amsterdam is a fascinating city and I like it a lot, having first visited in 1971 and returned several times since - but as you say, it's got very expensive. I've been to both the van Gogh museum and the Anne Frank house more than once, so if I go again I may decide to stay elsewhere (the Hague, perhaps?) and commute.

I'd recommend a read of the MacLaverty and a visit to the Begijnhof to anyone.

[Bill]

Reading a review of The Index of Prohibited Books: Four Centuries of Struggle over Word and Image for the Greater Glory of God in the latest NYRB (8 June), I came across this item, relevant to some recent discussions here:

The history of the Index is barely even history. The Congregation of the Index was suppressed only in 1966. Catholic censors were central to the formulation of the Hays Code, which strictly regulated Hollywood films from 1934 until its influence waned in the late 1950s. (Point 10 of the code forbade “ridicule of the clergy.”) One Catholic apologist tried to make the case for the Index as late as 1943 with a pamphlet called The Index: Candle-Snuffer or Beacon? That was after modern censors had added Stendhal, Balzac, Flaubert, and Gide to the Index. Graham Greene, who had converted to Catholicism, was privately chastised by the Holy Office in 1953 for depicting a drunken priest in The Power and the Glory. He promised never to do it again. Our ability to write a history of Catholic censorship was, until very recently, censored by the church: the archive of the Congregation of the Index was not open to most researchers until 1998.

[[deleted user]]

Bill wrote: "...This week I started on a long-delayed reading of The Faerie Queene."

Any chance you might post a brief report at the end of each Book? I might be tempted.

[MK]

AB76 wrote: "MK wrote: "A book title as 'click bait'. I've just finished Samuel Pepys and the Strange Wrecking of the Gloucester: The Shipwreck that Shocked Restoration Britain. While Pepys kind..."

I see that there was a recent review in NYRB. I may go to the library and see if the issue (non-subscriber here) is available. Meanwhile, here's a clip from a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) review earlier this year by Henry Hitchings -

For Nigel Pickford, a British historian and salvage expert, the site of the wreck is "a place of immense national importance." The artifacts preserved on it represent "the most extraordinarily diverse cross section of late Stuart society." Among the examples he cites is a long-necked wine bottle emblazoned with a sun -- it's surely no coincidence that the individual then responsible for victualling the British navy was Sir Anthony Deane, owner of the Sun Tavern near London Bridge. Another find is a silver teaspoon, with an engraving that suggests it belonged to one of James's huntsmen, Thomas Jory, a "saucy fellow" who hid under a seat on a rescue boat as the Gloucester went down.

The stories of such objects animate the past. But they are not Mr. Pickford's focus in "Samuel Pepys and the Strange Wrecking of the Gloucester." He begins with an atmospheric description of cockle pickers observing sumptuously dressed corpses washed up on the Norfolk sands -- "the cheeks and the lips . . . eaten away by lampreys and hag fish." What follows is an account of how they got there, lively and redolent of conspiracy. Did the Gloucester sink because of incompetence, or might someone have planned it?

James was certainly a divisive figure -- energetic but vain, capricious and utterly convinced of divine providence. Although there was a strong case for him to succeed his elder brother, King Charles II, his Roman Catholic faith troubled a mainly Protestant country, and many wished the throne to pass to Charles's illegitimate and firmly Protestant son, the Duke of Monmouth. In May 1682, it was only two months since James had returned to England from exile (first in Brussels, more recently in Edinburgh). But with Charles's health fading, opportunity beckoned. When James boarded the Gloucester in Portsmouth, the plan was to sail to Scotland for a reunion with his pregnant wife, Mary of Modena, whom he would then escort to his new power base in London.

[MK]

Gpfr wrote: "Came back from Amsterdam last night, had a great time, did a lot of walking!
The Vermeer exhibition was of course wonderful. The usual exhibition problems of having to wait one's turn to get close ..."

Here's a plug for - Vermeer's Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World

The cover is much better than Amazon's picture here . But beware, the book is about trade and uses Vermeer's hat (beaver) to begin his story. I really liked it and still have a copy on my shelves.

Note that I see this book as a digression for the author, Timothy Brook, whose focus (Professor at University of British Columbia) is usually China.

[MK]

The more things change . . . Who knew? a serialized novel?

Here's a clip from my inbox today - Backstory Serial
How three friends came together to write a romance novel
By Mary L Trump

E. Jean Carroll, Jen Taub, and Mary Trump announced that they were writing a romance novel called the Italian Story. This week, they launched it on a Substack called Backstory Serial, with more of the story coming every week. Gentle reader: it’s a romance movie in the form of a serial novel on Substack. It’s set in Italy. It’s full of cliffhangers and fun (there’s a pet cow), and there are details tucked in to make the little band of writers friends happy (there’s a knitting shop!)

I'm trying to decide whether to subscribe ($$$ involved).

[MK]

From Daunt Books - Five Favorites This Week email -The Man in the Corduroy Suit by James Wolff

If you are stuck waiting for the new Jackson Lamb, help is at hand in the shape of James Wolff's gruff, straight-talking spy hunter Leonard Flood. When geriatric ex MI5 agent Willa Karlsson is found dead and Russian poisoning is suspected, he must probe the cracks in a panic-stricken British intelligence and hunt out a double agent. Smart, funny and ingeniously plotted, The Man in the Corduroy Suit is thoroughly enjoyable.

Just the mention of Jackson Lamb was sufficient to put this 'on order' book on hold at the library.

[MK]

The Hugh de Singleton mysteries are rather 'hit or miss' to find on this side of the water. However, he often mentions Parsley Butter as a food accompaniment which was a new one on me. Now I've found a recipe (google tells me there are lots), and because my leftover meat loaf needs a jolt, I'm going to try one that includes white wine!

On today's list along with grass to mow and world's to conquer.

[scarletnoir]

Bill wrote: "Reading a review of The Index of Prohibited Books: Four Centuries of Struggle over Word and Image for the Greater Glory of God in the latest NYRB (8 June), I came across this item, ..."

With respect to this discussion, I was amused to read this week that the Bible has been banned in Utah's primary schools for " "vulgarity and violence".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-c...

[Bill]

scarletnoir wrote: "With respect to this discussion, I was amused to read this week that the Bible has been banned in Utah's primary schools for " "vulgarity and violence"."

The NYRB review notes that the Bible was frequently featured on the Catholic church's list of prohibited books:

Ordinary Europeans cared less about Copernican astronomy than about the Word of God. Widespread access to Scripture, through translations of the Bible, was perhaps the most dangerous legacy of the early modern reformers. From the Catholic Church’s perspective, translations of the Latin Vulgate into vernacular European languages posed an enormous threat to the susceptible and unsuspecting layperson. Who had translated it, and what was their theological agenda?

[Bill]

Russell wrote: "Bill wrote: "...This week I started on a long-delayed reading of The Faerie Queene."

Any chance you might post a brief report at the end of each Book? I might be tempted."

I finished Book 1 yesterday, averaging 2 to 3 Cantos a day - I'll write something up to post later today or tomorrow.

[MK]

Bill wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "With respect to this discussion, I was amused to read this week that the Bible has been banned in Utah's primary schools for " "vulgarity and violence"."

The NYRB review notes ..."

That makes such sense. I'm sure the 'people' were not thought to be capable of interpretation. I expect you can support any side you want if you have a thorough (not me) knowledge of the Bible.

[MK]

Here's a cute book piece from the NYT - https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/03/bo...

[Bill]

MK wrote: "E. Jean Carroll, Jen Taub, and Mary Trump announced that they were writing a romance novel called the Italian Story. This week, they launched it on a Substack called Backstory Serial, with more of the story coming every week. Gentle reader: it’s a romance movie in the form of a serial novel on Substack. It’s set in Italy. It’s full of cliffhangers and fun (there’s a pet cow), and there are details tucked in to make the little band of writers friends happy (there’s a knitting shop!)"

For me there's far more fiction by real writers than I'd ever want to read without political and politics-adjacent figures getting in on the grift.

I suppose you know that James Comey has written a thriller. I don't think it's a must-read, but Ron Charles' review probably is (gift link):
https://wapo.st/3CbsbEQ

For generations of readers raised on the wizardry of James Bond and Jason Bourne, the crime-fighting gizmos that Comey reveals are as impressive as a ballpoint pen. Of course, a great legal thriller doesn’t need any special technology at all, but presumably the former director of the FBI knows about the most advanced surveillance equipment in the world. Yet here he sounds particularly excited to reveal to us that our cellphones generate location data — which will be shocking news to anyone listening to the audiobook version of this novel on a Victrola.

I thought the FBI had equipment to see through walls, and computers to identify faces on surveillance video, but the most cutting-edge technique Comey is willing to demonstrate in these chapters is how a Starbucks card helps pin down a killer. Now, if they could just get my Frappuccino order right.

[AB76]

MK wrote: "AB76 wrote: "MK wrote: "A book title as 'click bait'. I've just finished Samuel Pepys and the Strange Wrecking of the Gloucester: The Shipwreck that Shocked Restoration Britain. Whi..."

For me Charles managed what his younger brother failed to do, being privately a lot more Catholic than he was publicly and making sure he rebuilt the country after all the division from 1640-1660. James never managed to achieve this and when he became King, his overt favouritism towards catholics was unwise and led to the slow burn of his un-doing, starting with the Monmouth Rebellion.

Charles managed to keep all the plates spinning, whatever his private faith. Though his persecution of protestant dissenters frim the established church was a problem and remains a black mark for me.

[Bill]

I’ve finished the first Book of The Faerie Queene – my Penguin edition modernizes the spelling only to the extent of eliminating archaic letters like the “long s” but otherwise keeps Spenser’s Elizabethan spellings as printed. I have to admit that I do not find this as much of obstacle as I had first feared late last year when I read Shakespeare Apocrypha, which takes a similar editorial approach.

Book 1 tells the story of the Knight of the Red Cross (Holiness) who travels from the court of Gloriana, the Fairy Queen, with Princess Una, on a mission to free her parents’ Kingdom of Eden from a ravaging dragon. The fulfillment of this mission doesn’t occur until the final two Cantos, 11 and 12, and most of the Book concerns various side adventures as the knight (who is revealed to be St. George in Canto 12) and, to a lesser extent, Una, are led astray by a wizard, Archimago, and witch, Duessa. At one point the knight is captured by a giant, from whose dungeon he needs to be rescued by Prince (not yet King) Arthur, whose story Spencer modifies considerably from earlier sources.

I found Spenser’s poem fairly absorbing – especially the various scenes of combat, with the climactic duel with the dragon as good as anything similar I’ve read in more modern fantasy literature. Spenser intended much the action to be allegorical, and, though it can be read purely as a Romance, I think most readers who endeavor to undertake a reading will want to have at least a cursory understanding of the allegory, in which, for instance, Archimago is Hypocrisy and Duessa, as her name implies, is Duplicity.

The poem also undertakes to present Anglican religious doctrine on a basic level, especially in Canto 10, where the knight undergoes a physical and spiritual rehabilitation before his climactic battle. Though the spiritual lessons in that section would be embraced by most Christian sects, elsewhere the theology is sometimes anti-Catholic in a fairly explicit manner. Archimago’s shows of piety when he is first introduced are Catholic in nature (rosary, monastic robe) and at one point Duessa is portrayed as the Whore of Babylon with symbolism that seems taken from Protestant woodcuts which identified the figure with the Catholic church.


One point relating to religion particularly struck me while reading Canto 4, which contains personified portrayals of the Seven Deadly Sins. The 7 sins are headed by Pride, which is embodied in a vainglorious Queen who lives in a shabby palace that nevertheless displays an outward splendor, and the six subsidiary sins are shown as her counselors. Later, the giant that captures St. George is named Orgoglio, associating his monstrosity with Pride as well.

Even as I was reading this, I was also reading and hearing about June being “Pride Month” and that caused me to reflect on other recent positive uses of the word. A group of right-wing thugs who were instrumental in the Jan 6, 2021 storming of the US Capitol call themselves “The Proud Boys”. Two local elementary schools display signs that encourage their students to identify with the school mascot and feel “Cougar Pride” or “Panther Pride”. While the other Deadly Sins have their occasional modern advocates in particular cases, they generally retain a negative connotation; Pride, however, seems to have pretty much lost any taint of iniquity, at least in the secular world.

[[deleted user]]

Bill wrote: "I’ve finished the first Book of The Faerie Queene...

Thanks, Bill. Very interesting.

[giveusaclue]

Bill wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "With respect to this discussion, I was amused to read this week that the Bible has been banned in Utah's primary schools for " "vulgarity and violence"."

The NYRB review notes ..."

I think the Church didn't want reading of the Bible in English to be available to the layperson because it would weaken their omnipotence?

[giveusaclue]

AB76 wrote: "For me Charles managed what his younger brother failed to do, being privately a lot more Catholic than he was publicly and making sure he rebuilt the country after all the division from 1640-1660. James never managed to achieve this and when he became King, his overt favouritism towards catholics was unwise and led to the slow burn of his un-doing, starting with the Monmouth Rebellion.

Charles managed to keep all the plates spinning, whatever his private faith. Though his persecution of protestant dissenters frim the established church was a problem and remains a black mark for me."

Pity he didn't feel the need to pay all his debts, and he was very extravagant. I remember reading/watching a programme where it said that he didn't repay one debt to and the creditor went bankrupt. I think it was after the Great Fire.

[AB76]

giveusaclue wrote: "AB76 wrote: "For me Charles managed what his younger brother failed to do, being privately a lot more Catholic than he was publicly and making sure he rebuilt the country after all the division fro..."

his was possibly the most indulgent court in history at the time and since. i find him the most fascinating character of the era, where interesting characters were not thin on the ground.

[AB76]

Thanks to the excellent GPFR post on the G, i have a lot more of the context of Muriel Sparks time in the Holy Land and about the ambition of her novel The Mandelbaum Gate

The Mandelbaum Gate

Regarding the novel it has suprised on many levels, i love the wit and chatty nature of her novels and The Girls of Slender Means is my favourite, however with this novel there is a harder edge and a real sense of intrigue and mystery. Spark uses time shifts in the narration that are quite subtle but contribute towards a slight unreliability in the story being told from page one and make you think hard about events that occurred.

I wouldnt call it modernist, though written in 1965, its a late modernist novel if so. The setting, the locations are also vividly drawn, i did wonder if Jerusalem(West and East) would become a character and like in all the best novels, place has become well defined.

Knowledge of pre 1967 Israel is needed for the novel or modern readers may become puzzled why Jordan is mentioned so often and that the Old City is not in Israel. I found the 1961 Jordan census useful in re-creating the religious world of East Jerusalem, all the Jewish population of the Old City had been expelled in 1948, after the Siege of Jerusalem, though some sources include about 200 in the East. The addition of the West Bank and East Jerusalem to Jordan had doubled the population in 1948 but by 1961, the Jordanian East Bank was matching the Palestinian areas for population. Amman was the largest city, followed by Zarqa and then East Jerusalem which had about 61,000 inhabitants, of which 18% were Christian.

[[deleted user]]

Tono-Bungay – HG Wells (1909)

The first half is told at walking pace and resembles HG’s own life – the failure of his father’s shop, the hours reading Swift and Paine in the library of a country house where his mother is housekeeper, the deadly dull apprenticeship from age 14, science studies in Kensington, first love, socialism, divorce. It kept me reading, even though I found the writing utilitarian rather than buoyant.

Then around page 200 the pace picks up as we enter the not-quite-criminal world of T-B, a quack medicine. The final quarter rattles along and indeed becomes impressively affecting as HG deals with the grand issues of love and death.

HG despises the English landed classes, and has little sympathy either for the world of business and finance, which in his book might as well be called swindling. The inventor of T-B, the narrator’s uncle, becomes a portly Napoleon of the City, two fingers between the buttons of his waistcoat. The narrator himself, an engineer, finds that under the impulsions of commerce he is capable of the worst of crimes. Science alone is the source of eternal truth. A peroration evokes the Old England that is still there, whatever the corruptions brought by Empire.

A historical comment caught my eye, The uncle thinks a bedroom in a medieval house might be the ghost room. The narrator doubts it. “Ghosts and witchcraft were a later innovation – that fashion came from Scotland with the Stuarts.” Is this HG being provocative, or is there some basis for it?

I’ve also finished the biography of HG by Michael Foot, which was what made me want to explore some of the novels in the first place. Is it unfair to suggest that MF’s admiration for a prominent early socialist led him rather to pull his punches? Here is an advocate of the rights of women whose actual behaviour towards young women in his orbit, according to a historian writing from a conservative perspective, was “monstrous”. In a dozen crisp pages in The Age of Decadence Simon Heffer minces no words.

In case this sounds too disparaging, there is a quote from one of those young women that captures HG’s standing for her generation. The incisive Rebecca West, who was never backward when she found fault with her lover’s work, said she had “the luck to be young just as the most bubbling creative mind that the sun and moon have shone upon since the days of Leonardo da Vinci, was showing its form… His company was like seeing Rudolf Nureyev dance or Tito Gobbi sing.”

Moving on to Ann Veronica, strongly recommended elsewhere by @lorantffy.

[MK]

giveusaclue wrote: "AB76 wrote: "For me Charles managed what his younger brother failed to do, being privately a lot more Catholic than he was publicly and making sure he rebuilt the country after all the division fro..."

No noblesse oblige? Also, read somewhere that those who were in a position to didn't want to invite Queen Mary to visit because she expected a souvenir (my word choice) which was something precious.

[MK]

Here's a clip from this week's email from the Mysterious Bookshop -
Was there ever a better writer of bibliomysteries than John Dunning? I’ll answer with an emphatic NO. Sadly, this wonderful bookman died last week—another old friend whose loss I lament. While all his books about Cliff Janeway, book scout extraordinaire (as John was) are outstanding, the first in the series, Murder By the Book, was about as perfect as it gets. John had suffered from dementia for some years, which is why the books stopped coming and why we didn’t get to see him and his huge smile out in the world for a while. — Otto

Yum - checked with one of my two libraries. It has a number of his mysteries available to download - hooray!

[Greenfairy]

James the 6th and 1st certainly believed in witchcraft, and my Scots relatives dearly love a good ghost story. So many wild moorlands and creepy auld castles perhaps?
"Frea ghosties an ghoulies an' things that gang bump in the nicht, the guid Lord defend us!":)

[Greenfairy]

A slight amendment to the above, The whole "prayer"
goes: Frae ghosties an ghoulies an' Lang leggedy beasties an' things that gang bump in the nicht, the guid Lord defend us"

[MK]

Someone here mentioned James Comey's new book. I imagine he can write, as he was always memorializing meetings! The clip below is from The Mysterious Bookshop which seems to be highlighting the book this week. (Always want to keep on the good side of the Feds - even retired ones.)

The gripping crime fiction debut from former FBI director James Comey takes readers deep inside the world of lawyers and investigators working to solve a murder while navigating the treacherous currents of modern politics and the mob.
Buy a Signed First Edition, $30.00
Listen to James Comey on the Armchair Expert podcast - https://armchairexpertpod.com/pods
----------
Check out the recording of his event at the Free Library of Philadelphia, in conversation with George Anastasia - http://libwww.freelibrary.org/podcast...

[Bill]

MK wrote: "The gripping crime fiction debut from former FBI director James Comey takes readers deep inside the world of lawyers and investigators working to solve a murder while navigating the treacherous currents of modern politics and the mob.
Buy a Signed First Edition, $30.00
Listen to James Comey on the Armchair Expert podcast -"

My opinion concurs with the majority of comments on the Ron Charles review, e. g.,

Hmmm, if I was given a copy, I could use it as TP because I sure have no desire to read or hear from this man. EVER!

[MK]

Bill wrote: "MK wrote: "The gripping crime fiction debut from former FBI director James Comey takes readers deep inside the world of lawyers and investigators working to solve a murder while navigating the trea..."


Talk about not mincing words!

I put Richard Coles in a similar grouping. I bought his first book and was underwhelmed. However, even Norwich Cathedral is rallying round for his second -

In Conversation with The Reverend Richard Coles, A Death in the Parish - Tuesday 20 June 2023, 6.45pm

Tickets:
After his debut with Murder Before Evensong, Canon Clement returns in this new novel where he tries to steady his flock a few months after murder tore the community of Champton apart.

In partnership with Norwich Cathedral, Jarrold brings you an evening where you can hear all about the novel from Sunday Times bestselling author as he discusses his novels and celebrates this next chapter for the inhabitants of Champton.

As well as hearing about this captivating book, we’ll be inviting the audience to put their own questions to this master of cosy crime in a Q&A at this very special event.

Tickets include a pre-signed copy of the book and a complimentary glass of wine. (For only £28.)

[Bill]

MK wrote: "In Conversation with The Reverend Richard Coles, A Death in the Parish - Tuesday 20 June 2023, 6.45pm"

A reading from Ecclesiastes 12:12, "And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many series mysteries there is no end;"

[Lljones]

Bill wrote: "I suppose you know that James Comey has written a thriller. I don't think it's a must-read, but Ron Charles' review probably is..."

;-)

[Robert]

Greenfairy wrote: "James the 6th and 1st certainly believed in witchcraft, and my Scots relatives dearly love a good ghost story. So many wild moorlands and creepy auld castles perhaps?
"Frea ghosties an ghoulies an'..."

There are a number of good Scots ghost stories: Sir Walter Scott's "Wandering Willie's Tale" (a chapter of Redgauntlet) is a tale told, appropriately, on a fog-swept moor; Robert L. Stephenson's "Thrawn Janet" and "The Body Snatchers" come to mind.

[Robert]

giveusaclue wrote: "AB76 wrote: "For me Charles managed what his younger brother failed to do, being privately a lot more Catholic than he was publicly and making sure he rebuilt the country after all the division fro..."

I fear that unpaid debts have an old history, whether we speak of the debts of young gents to their tailors, or the debts incurred by governments.

[AB76]

Robert wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "AB76 wrote: "For me Charles managed what his younger brother failed to do, being privately a lot more Catholic than he was publicly and making sure he rebuilt the country after ..."

i concur!

[AB76]

The Silence of the Wave by Gianrico Carafiglio is an impressive read so far, a rare modern novel not trying 50 things at once, quirky narratives or excessive wokery

Its a tale of a undercover cop in therapy and his memories and thoughts, interspersed with his appointments with his psychiatrist and has impressed me far more than other Carafiglio novels which seemed too ambitious and didnt focus enough on the basics

[CCCubbon]

@Andy
Shetland is one place that I really wish that I could have visited so will be very interested in your stay there.

[AB76]

CCCubbon wrote: "@Andy
Shetland is one place that I really wish that I could have visited so will be very interested in your stay there."

i passed through there in 1999, midsummer, it was 12c and wet but a really dramatic place and wonderfully serene. i recommend any of the scottish islands as places to visit

[giveusaclue]

Robert wrote: "There are a number of good Scots ghost stories: Sir Walter Scott's "Wandering Willie's Tale""

Didn't know he wrote porn! 😀

[giveusaclue]

Robert wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "AB76 wrote: "For me Charles managed what his younger brother failed to do, being privately a lot more Catholic than he was publicly and making sure he rebuilt the country after ..."

agreed

[[deleted user]]

Greenfairy wrote: "A slight amendment to the above, The whole "prayer" goes: Frae ghosties an ghoulies an' Lang leggedy beasties an' things that gang bump in the nicht, the guid Lord defend us""

Love it - and it sounds so much more spooky in Scots!