Tag Archives: The Guardian

Five Children on the Western Front by Kate Saunders – 20 Books of Summer

Posted on by
Reply

Five Children on the Western Front by Kate Saunders is a continuation of E. Nesbit’s book Five Children and It.  This book was first published in 2014.

It begins with a prologue set in London in 1905.  Cyril, Anthea, Jane, Robert and the Lamb had found the Psammead, a sand fairy, a desert god from the times before the ancient Egyptians. He’s a  cantankerous brown furry grump with a small stout body, eyes on stalks and long arms and legs, he usually lives in hot sand and any hint of dampness near him causes him terrible pain. He had been sleeping for years but the children decide to wake him up, the Psammead has the power to grant wishes. They ask him to take them to the future, somwehere quite near, and they end up in 1930, in the home of their old friend the Professor where they see some photos of themselves as they will be as adults, but they aren’t all in the photos, it’s a bit of a puzzle. Of course the older children are just the correct age to be involved in the First World War, and the Psammead whisks some of them to the Western Front.

I’m usually not all that mad keen on continuations written by a different author, but I think this idea really works, inevitably it is a bit sad, but realistic.

At one point (chapter 10) the children and the Psammead go to see the play Peter Pan. The Psammead is thrilled by it, especially when the audience is asked to clap if they believe in fairies. I was almost as thrilled as the Psammead. J.M. Barrie is a much underrated author nowadays.

You can read  Linda Buckley-Archer’s review of the book in The Guardian here.

Human Croquet by Kate Atkinson

Posted on by
Reply

Human Croquet by Kate Atkinson is the second novel by the author and it was published in 1997.  I must admit that it’s a while since I read this one, I’ve put off reviewing it as although I like her writing I find it very difficult to write about. I now realise of course that I should have done it while it was clearer in my mind. As often happens in Atkinson’s books the action slips between different times, so this is a bit of a conglomeration of historical fiction, mystery, time travel and also has a 1960s setting in the village of Lythe which is very ancient.

Isobel is the narrator, she’s 16 and has a brother Charles. They have been abandoned by both their parents. Their mother apparently ran off with her boyfriend and their father couldn’t cope and left them, supposedly looking for their mother, but when he comes back seven years later he has brought a new wife with him.

It was their mother’s sister who looked after them, she had given up her home and moved in with them, and was a bit surplus to requirements when an actual step-mother arrived. Their grandmother is also part of the household. From time to time Isobel slips back to the Lythe of Shakespeare’s time.

The book is ful of Scottishisms, you would never know that Atkinson wasn’t born and brought up in Scotland. I believe she went to Edinburgh to study when she was 18 – and stayed, but according to an interview which appeared in the Guardian she regards herself as Yorkshire through and through!

Now 72, and having lived in Scotland for many years, she’s clear that this vision of Englishness – still cleaved to by nationalist politicians – is very much a south-of-the-border issue. Her own identity, she insists, lies in neither country: “I’m not English. I’m from Yorkshire. It’s different.” She left after she wrote Behind the Scenes at the Museum, “but when I die, open me up and Yorkshire will be carved on my heart”.

You can read the full interview with Alex Clark  here.

Night Fires by Joan Lingard – 20 Books of Summer 2024

Posted on by
2

 

Night Fires by the Scottish author Joan Lingard was first published by Hamish Hamilton in 1993. It was obviously influenced by the political unrest and revolutions which were going on around the late 1980s, particularly the fall of the Romanian Ceausescu regime.  It’s one of my 20 Books of Summer.

Lara and Nik are teenagers who live in an orphanage on the outskirts of town. The orphanage is run by an evil man and woman that they nickname Dracula and The Crow. When Nik and Lara see that they are loading up their vehicle with as much stuff as they can it’s obvious that Dracula and The Crow intend to leave the orphanage, fearing for their lives. They can see and smell that mobs have set the city on fire, the people have had enough, they’ve snapped and they’re fighting back, hoping to rid themselves of the brutal and suffocating dictatorship that they’ve been living under.

Lara and Nik decide to see what’s going on for themselves and Bibi, a woman who works in the orphanage  gives them the address of her sister in the city, they can go to her if they find themselves in trouble – which they do.

This is a good read, aimed at young teenagers I think.

 

 

 

Lynne Reid Banks 1929 – 2024

Posted on by
2

It’s not all that long ago that I  was surprised to discover that the author Lynne Reid Banks was still alive, but news of her death was printed in today’s Guardian.  You can read her obituary here.

The first book by her that I read was The L-Shaped Room which was the first book in a trilogy.  It’s a great read and although it’s getting on for 50 years since I read it there are still parts of that book which are very vivid in my mind. I passed my copy of the book on to Jack who at that time read mainly Science Fiction, then my mother read it, she read mainly books of the family saga type, particularly Catherine Cookson who was hugely popular at that time. Both Jack and my mother really enjoyed The L-Shaped Room too, it was made into a film starring Leslie Caron. She later went on to write books for children, the most well known one being The Indian in the Cupboard.

Since then I’ve enjoyed several more books by her, but I still have a few to read. She was a fair old age though, 94 so she might have been ready to go, unlike some authors recently who popped off far too early.

If you haven’t read anything by Lynne Reid Banks you should give her a go.

K.M. Peyton – obituary

Posted on by
6

I have to admit that I was surprised when I saw the author  K.M. Peyton’s obituary in The Guardian this morning, mainly because I had just assumed that she had died years ago, she was 94 years old.  I loved her Flambards books and the 1979 TV series which was based on them.  I must admit that I hadn’t realised that she wrote a lot more books than those ones over the years. I don’t recall seeing any others on my trawls around second-hand bookshops.

To another subject  –  last week.

I suppose it had to happen, but after managing to dodge COVID for four years it caught up with us last week, after what had been the quietest week we had had for about a month. We only went to the library and the supermarket, both of which were really quite empty. Anyway, we survived and after three really horrible days of constant headache, coughing and exhaustion the symptoms eased off and we’re just about back to normal now.

The variant that we got obviously managed to dodge the vaccination as Jack had only got his booster last month, I wasn’t eligible, but he was just as ill as I was. I’ve been told that it is people who had managed to stay COVID free who are getting it now, apparently it was inevitable. It wasn’t a great start to the new year but I suppose it could have been worse! In one way it’s really good as with the imminent arrival of our second grandchild at least it menas that we don’t have to worry about passing it on to the new baby when it arrives as we should be immune for a while now.

 

My 2022 in Goodreads

Posted on by
4

At the beginning of 2022 I signed up on Goodreads to read 100 books within the year, but I actually managed to read 115. I signed up to read 100 books again in 2023. I find it’s a good way of keeping track of my reading, mind you I still jot them down in an old school jotter too, very old!

Anyway, if you’re interested you can have a look back at everything I read over the last year here.

At the moment I’m re-reading Wolf Hall this is a complete indulgence for me, I rarely re-read anything, but I loved that series so much I just had to visit it again. It’s also sort of in memory of Hilary Mantel who died so unexpectedly (for me anyway) last year.

Some Guardian links

Posted on by
2

It’s ages since I’ve linked to any Guardian articles that I’ve enjoyed, but this Saturday’s edition has some particularly interesting pieces, so here goes.

I was on my way to Edinburgh on Friday when Hilary Mantel’s death was announced on the car radio. It’s such a shame, especially as I’m sure she had several more books in her. You can read her obituary here. And Lucy Knight has written an article about her here. I’ve read most of Mantel’s books but I was just thinking that it’s about time I re-read her Cromwell trilogy.

There’s another article about her here, by Charlotte Higgins, the Guardian’s chief culture writer.

Elsewhere in the newspaper there are extracts from the actor Alan Rickman’s secret showbiz diaries, from the year 2000 to 2011. They’re from his book Madly, Deeply:The Alan Rickman Diaries. He’s another sadly missed person.

I don’t often descend into politics but the mini budget which we’ve just suffered is so depressing, especially if you have already lived through the Thatcher years and know the outcome.

Marina Hyde’s Opinion piece on the madness is well worth reading. “If you are poor, ask yourself now: why not be rich instead?”

The Guardian – some links

Posted on by
6

It’s absolutely ages since I linked to some Guardian articles, so here goes!

I was sad to see Joan Lingard’s obituary in The Guardian last week, mind you she was 90. You can read it here. I don’t know if it can be said to be apt that she actually died on July the 12th, but it’s certainly quite spooky as she wrote a book with the title The Twelth Day of July, which is of course the anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne. Joan Lingard was born in a taxi in Edinburgh’s Royal Mile/High Street!

With all that’s going on in America at the moment re Roe v Wade and abortion rights/women’s rights, I thought you might be interested in reading a very informative article on how things were done in the past. I often wondered how so many families in the past managed to be so small with no real contraception available! You can read about it here. Abortion in the 19th-century US was widely accepted as a means of avoiding the risks of pregnancy, and many women routinely got rid of the problem, it was acceptable right up until ‘quickening’ when you can first feel movement, usually around the fourth month. The idea of banning or punishing it came later. The article is written by Tamara Dean.

There’s a book review: Scotland The Global History – 1603 to the Present by Murray Pittock which you can read here. I think I’ll probably try to get a copy of the book, or borrow it. There’s no doubt that Scotland and Scots have contributed a lot to the world over the centuries, especially considering we’re such a wee country. But it’s time to look to the future and not dwell on the past glories!

from The Guardian Books section and Visit Scotland

Posted on by
Reply

It’s absolutely yonks since I shared a Guardian books link. I was particularly interested in The Books of My Life bit as this week it featured Penelope Lively, a writer I’ve really enjoyed in the past. You can read it here. I was interested to read that she too has been disappointed when re-reading what had been favourite books in the past, but sometimes she falls back in love with them again. I don’t know if I could be bothered with having another go though – considering how many books I still want to read for the first time.

There’s also a section on some of the books due to be published this coming year which you can read here if you’re interested.

If you happen to be more interested in what’s going on in Scotland you might enjoy looking at the Visit Scotland site. Even if you can’t travel here you can enjoy seeing what’s going on and maybe plan a trip for the future.