A Matter of Trust by Robin Pilcher

31 January 2011 23:35

A Matter of Trust cover

Pilcher is quite an unusual surname so I wasn’t surprised when I discovered that Robin Pilcher is a son of Rosamunde Pilcher. I’ve been enjoying some of her books recently so I thought I would see what his are like. As he was born and brought up in Dundee he definitely comes under the category of Scottish author.

I really enjoyed this book which was published in 2010 and is set in West Sussex, Alloa and Manhattan. At times his writing reminded me of his mother’s, although it took him far fewer words to tell a good story, Rosamunde’s books tend to be chunky.

It’s an easy, smooth and quick read at 294 pages long and although the chapters jump around a lot going backwards and forwards in time and place it didn’t make it difficult to keep track of the story. I found it to be one that kept me guessing to the end which I was thankful for because I’ve found a few books that I’ve read recently to be amazingly predictable.

The main character is Claire whose father died when she was very young and when her mother eventually re-marries she finds herself transplanted from West Sussex to Alloa in Scotland. Claire’s step-siblings are less than chuffed about their home being ‘invaded’ by Claire and her mother. Jonas, a young neighbour, becomes her friend, but things don’t go to plan.

I’ll be looking out for some more of his books in the future.

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Library Loot (and mobile phones)

31 January 2011 00:06

I had a phone call from my local library the other day letting me know that a book which I had requested was ready to be picked up so I strolled along there and had a look around to see if there was anything else worth taking out. It’s often quite slim pickings but this time as you will see I ended up borrowing quite a few.

1. The Brandons by Angela Thirkell (Joan Kyler mentioned this author and I thought I’d give her a go.) This is the one I requested.

2. A Matter of Trust by Robin Pilcher. I’ve enjoyed quite a few of his mother Rosamunde’s now so I thought it would be interesting to see what he is like.

3. Still Midnight by Denise Mina. I’ve been meaning to read something by her for ages because she’s from Glasgow and sometimes appears on the Friday Newsnight review.

4. An Expert in Murder by Nicola Upson. Jo at The Book Jotter is reading this author so I thought I’d give her a go.

5. News From Nowhere by William Morris. This one was on a prominent stand shouting ‘borrow me’. I knew that Morris wrote poetry but this is ‘Chapters from a Utopian Romance’ – could be interesting.

6. Secret Gardens (the Golden Age of Children’s Literature) by Humphrey Carpenter. He wrote the Mister Majeika books which were so popular when our sons were wee. I keep having to get this book out to check information, I think I’ll end up buying it.

So, as you can see, quite a haul. Now I just have to read them all.

Making my way to the crime section I had to go past a chap who was just beginning a call on his mobile/cell phone, a bit strange I thought because I assumed that people wouldn’t use them in the library. Silly me! I actually turned away from him and walked to another area because I didn’t want him to think I was listening in!

However he proceeded to yell into his phone whilst walking all around the library. The first thing he said was ‘Hello, it’s about consolidating a loan!!’ I was flabbergasted, he continued to answer all the personal questions that were obviously being put to him – the upshot of which is that and I everybody else within the library couldn’t help hearing it all. Name, address, employment details, personal numbers, how much debt he had – the lot.

Talk about being cavalier with your own security! I couldn’t believe it. I’m not a great one for speaking on the phone much and to me a mobile phone is for emergency use only. It’s beyond me why people use them for such inane conversations, like the people who block up the aisles in supermarkets while they phone someone to ask what sort of frozen peas they should buy. Birds Eye or Tesco’s own brand? they yell. Make a bloody decision, I scream. In my head.

For some reason a lot of people who have their phones clamped to their heads most of the time seem to think that nobody can hear what they’re saying and so they’re completely unaware that they are invading other peoples’ space.

I think it’s similar to people who think that nothing bad can happen to them because they have a camera in front of them, or they think that they can’t get in the way of people, like that idiot photographer who jumped in front of a marathon runner to get a photo of him and tripped the poor runner up.

Heigh-ho! I just felt the need to share that and have a bit of a rant. Now I’m off to get some reading done.

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Categories: Books, Rant

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Protagoras and Meno by Plato

29 January 2011 00:56

Protagoras and Meno cover

I first read these dialogues a few years ago, not long before I started blogging. My son was sent Protagoras and Meno when Penguin did a pot luck book giveaway. When I saw what he got I thought, How unfortunate – or words to that effect! I thought it would be dry and dusty but I was completely wrong. This translation by Adam Beresford is a really enjoyable, smooth read and it even has humour.

So I was happy when I realised that The Classics Circuit was having an ancient Greek Tour because it gives me the opportunity to spread the word to anyone else who hasn’t read it.

The dialogue begins with Socrates speaking about Protagoras the famous sophist to a friend and gives him the news that Hippocrates had woken him, wildly excited because he had heard that Protagoras was in Athens. The young Hippocrates wants to pay to become a pupil of Protagoras but Socrates isn’t so sure that he should do so.

What does Hippocrates hope to gain from it and doesn’t he realise that he’ll be handing over his soul not knowing whether it is to something good or bad? Hippocrates thinks he knows what a sophist is – it’s someone who has sophisticated knowledge and is a master at making people skilled at speaking.

Socrates points out to Hippocrates that he wouldn’t hand over his body to someone if he didn’t know whether it was going to end up in good or bad shape. So why would he be less careful with his soul?

Socrates and Hippocrates end up going round to Callias’ house where Protagoras is and continue the philosophical conversations with more sophists. I found it very interesting anyway.

Meno is a dialogue mainly between Socrates and Meno but also involving a slave and Antyus a politician. It’s about virtue, and Meno asks if goodness can be taught, or is it natural to some people?

Great stuff! I recommend it to anyone who is a wee bit wary of Greek philosophy, as I was.

Thank you Rebecca for organising the tour.

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An Awfully Big Adventure by Beryl Bainbridge

28 January 2011 00:32

School for Love cover

This is one of the books which I pulled out from that scary mountain of books on the left-hand side of the door at Voltaire and Rousseau, it was absolutely pristine (still is) and cost me all of £1. I bought it because of the Peter Pan connotations and Beryl Bainbridge had just been in the news because of her recent death, I hadn’t read anything by her for years. It was first published in 1989.

It’s set in Liverpool in 1950 and Stella has decided not to stay on at school. Her Uncle Vernon manages to get her a job as assistant stage manager at a local theatre. This involves being a general dogs-body to the company of actors and eventually getting small acting parts herself.

Stella’s character is an unusual combination of naivety and cheek, she gets on well in the theatre but has a crush on Meredith, the director who has converted to Catholicism, apparently because he’s after redemption. Which is just what we all said when Tony Blair did the same thing!

During rehearsals for Peter Pan disaster strikes and Meredith has to find someone else to play the dual part of Mr Darling and Captain Hook. The well known actor P.L.O’Hara rides to the rescue on his motorbike.

There’s quite a lot of tragedy one way or another in this book but it’s never depressing, partly I think because Beryl Bainbridge is so matter of fact about it.

Whilst reading it I thought to myself that it was quite similar to J.B. Priestley’s The Good Companions and I had planned to say that if you enjoyed that one you would probably like this. Then I read the back blurbs and The Sunday Times said:

Imagine Priestley’s The Good Companions as written by Gogol and you will have some idea of the mixture of waggish humour and sordid pathos in Bainbridge’s novel.

The book was made into a film starring Alan Rickman.

So there you have it, if you haven’t read anything by Bainbridge before, you might want to check her out to see if she’s your cup of tea.

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Edinburgh

26 January 2011 23:36

The weekend turned out to be very busy for us and we even ended up having to go to Edinburgh on Sunday to take a coat back to a shop there. I’d left it too long to stick it in the post after ordering it on-line, I’ve never bought clothes that way before. Remind me not to do it again because it turned out to be nothing like I had expected it to look. Why are they so sparse with the descriptions?

Anyway, Sunday turned out to be a good day to go to the shops in Edinburgh because it wasn’t very busy at all and we were able to have a bit of a wander and take a lot of photographs. The street above is Cockburn Street (it’s pronounced Co-burn) which is usually very crowded with students and youngsters, but they were obviously all still in bed at this time. The photo doesn’t really give you the idea of how steep it is. It’s mentioned quite a lot in Ian Rankin’s books.

These ones are of The Royal Mile (High Street) – up and down, bin bags and all.

I like the fairy-tale quality of these very old buildings which are near the castle.

But if I won millions on the lottery I wouldn’t mind buying one of these Georgian ones in the New Town.

We had a look in the shops but didn’t buy anything, really if you’re looking for something in particular then you are unlikely to find it in Edinburgh. There are so few shops there because it’s tiny compared with Glasgow, which is the best place for shopping in Scotland.

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Categories: Towns

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Crossed Wires by Rosy Thornton

25 January 2011 23:15

School for Love cover

Published in 2008 this is the second book which I’ve read by Rosy Thornton. At first it seemed a bit strange to me and then I realised that it is the first contemporary book set in Britain which I’ve read for absolutely yonks. Tapestry of Love was set in France and I’ve been concentrating on vintage and classic books recently.

Anyway, I don’t make a habit of reading much in the way of romance, but I quite enjoyed this one even although it involves mundane aspects of family life and the soul destroying experience of call-centres. However I did find it to be very predictable, I wasn’t far into it when I thought to myself this is going to be ….. – I won’t say it because it turned out that what I thought were the very last words of the book! Possibly it was supposed to be so predictable as some people find that comforting.

Mina and Peter are both single parents of daughters but otherwise their family circumstances are quite different with Mina having a very bookish daughter and living in a down-at-heel housing estate, whilst Peter is living in the much more salubrious Cambridge with his twin daughters and just as much stress.

It’s another feel-good book, which is no disparagement because sometimes that’s just what you need and the characters are all fairly likeable and realistic. Mina’s daughter Sal will be especially recognisable to people who preferred to have their friends in book form when they were children. Her reading experiences certainly reminded me of myself as a youngster reading Jane Eyre and Romeo and Juliet when still at primary school.

As with Tapestry of Love I was happy that the storyline didn’t take the usual modern turn which seems always to be some tart running off with another woman’s husband, with no thought to the mayhem to other lives caused by it. That isn’t romance to my way of thinking anyway although it does seem to go by that name nowadays.

So if you’re looking for some light reading give Rosy Thornton a go.

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Robert Burns

25 January 2011 00:01

A new BBC Robert Burns website has just been put up and it includes videos of actors reciting the poems.

Although it’s a long time since I went out to a real Burns Supper we always have the traditional haggis, neeps and tatties on the 25th of January, the anniversary of Robert Burns‘s birth. We’re having vegetarian haggis this year as it’s my favourite. It really tastes very similar to the traditional kind because the same spices are used but instead of being made with a lot of unappetising bits of a sheep’s inside it’s made with pulses, oatmeal and kidney beans and such so there’s no danger of feeling squeamish.

Apart from writing poetry Robert Burns also collected a lot of traditional tunes and wrote words for them, saving lots of music which would otherwise have been lost in the mists of time. This is one of the tunes which he saved and wrote words for.

It’s sung here by Kenneth McKellar who died recently. There doesn’t seem to be a video of him singing it, it was his wife’s favourite song and after she died he didn’t sing it again. He had a lovely voice but he always looked like he came straight off a shortbread tin – kilt, velvet jacket, lacy stock (cravat) and all. He was a one man Scottish cliche and that wasn’t always too popular with fellow Scots. Anyway, it’s a lovely song, have a listen to it if you have time and you’re not averse to a bit of romance now and again!

A Red, Red Rose written in 1794

O, My luve’s like a red, red rose,
That’s newly sprung in June.
O, my luve’s like the melodie,
That’s sweetly played in tune.

As fair thou art, my bonnie lass,
So deep in luve am I,
And I will luve thee still, my Dear
Till a’ the seas gang dry.

Till a’ the seas gang dry, my Dear,
And the rocks melt wi’ the sun!
O, I will luve thee still, my Dear,
While the sands o’ life shall run.

And fare thee weel, my only Luve,
And fare the weel a while!
And I will come again, my Luve,
Tho’ it were ten thousand mile!

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Categories: Scottish History, Scottish literature

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The Claverings by Anthony Trollope

23 January 2011 22:45

This book was first published in 1867.

At first I thought that The Claverings was going to be very similar to The Belton Estate which was the last book by Trollope which I read but it ended up being quite different. I did enjoy it although it took me longer to read than I had expected but that was really just down to me being a bit too busy.

Joan Kyler and I have been doing what I think is called a buddyread together and we plan to exchange our thoughts on the book, anybody else who has read it please feel free to add your comments.

I do think that Trollope was a master of observation, even today all of his characters are very recognisable in society. I suppose human nature never really changes from one generation to the next.

As Joan has already mentioned – the men in this book are all fairly unlikeable really. The best that can be said for most of the male Claverings is that they are a completely lazy and feckless bunch and if they hadn’t been born into comfortable circumstances there wouldn’t have been much hope for them being able to make their way in the world, and Sir Hugh is an absolute swine of a husband.

The book begins with the beautiful Julia Brabazon jilting Harry Clavering because although she loves him she can’t see him ever having much money and she wants wealth and a position in society, consequently she marries a rich young lord instead and her troubles begin.

I’ll leave it there to see if Joan wants to add her observations.

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Book haul

23 January 2011 00:53

You might know that I’ve been avoiding buying books recently, mainly because I’ve got so many unread books in my house. But last week I bought a few in Edinburgh and that sort of opened the floodgates.

As it was a lovely day today we took ourselves off to St Andrews and ended up (well actually we began) in the bookshops. This lot is the result.

Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher
Love by Elizabeth von Arnim
The Courts of the Morning by John Buchan
Look to the Lady by Margery Allingham
Hamlet, Revenge! by Michael Innes
Brat Farrar by Josephine Tey
The Singing Sands by Josephine Tey
Miss Pym Disposes by Josephine Tey
Thornyhold by Mary Stewart

The book gods must have been hovering above me today. Only one Virago mind you but what a one, I love Elizabeth von Arnim. There weren’t any books by the authors that I was actually looking for, except for The Braddons by Angela Thirkell but I requested that one from the library so there wasn’t any point in buying it.

It’s just as well that I’ve got more time for reading now that we don’t have a house full of boys any more.

On to Dundee to try out Duncan’s local fish and chip shop which was very good. Then we had coffee towers from Fisher and Donaldson – so bang went the healthy diet. And bang went another Saturday too.

Well, if you’re going to fall off the wagon you might as well do it in style.

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The Bells of Dumbarton by Lucy Lincoln Montgomery

21 January 2011 12:19

I bought the above book from a well known auction site the other day and it arrived this morning. It was published by (ahem) The Religious Tract Society and it says under the title – A New England Story. I think it was published around about 1890-1900. It also has the title Lee Chester.

I collect postcards and old prints of the town of Dumbarton because I was brought up there from the age of 5. The photograph on the left hand side (west) of my header is of Dumbarton Castle/Rock. So when I saw this book for sale I thought I might as well buy it, thinking that it would be something to do with Dumbarton Oaks in the US – but it isn’t.

Chapter II begins:
Dumbarton lay amid the hills, the principal part of the town nestling in a broad valley around which rose undulating slopes, growing still higher in the distance, till far away they rose to mountains, bounding the township with a granite barrier. It had taken its name from that old city on the Clyde, whence a large number had come in early colonial times to find in this new land ‘freedom to worship God,’ and had bestowed upon the little settlement they founded the name of their birthplace.

I haven’t been able to find any mention of a town in America with the name of Dumbarton, only Dumbarton House in Washington, so I’m wondering if it is purely fictional or if there is such a place in New England.

Has anybody heard of Lucy Lincoln Montgomery? Obviously it’s a Scottish name so maybe she or her family originally came from Dumbarton. I discovered that she wrote a few books and possibly a poem about a little quaker girl who sewed a tuck in her dress, but I can’t find out anything about LLM herself.

Can anybody help?

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Categories: Books, Dumbarton

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