I've been a reader my whole life. Given that I'm well into my fifth decade, it's been a while. I grew up in a house full of books, thanks to my dad, so I've always had them around me.
Like all readers, I have my preferences, genres and writers that I love, can tolerate, and cannot stand. I have my quirks and my pet peeves, but mostly I love all things bookish.
That is what this blog is about, my life as a reader, my thoughts on all things books and reading, reviews of books, profiles of authors, and random literary trivia that I want to write about.
This is an important book. It's the story of one truly remarkable woman, but it's also the story of the womenās movement, and the fight for gender equality both in the field of sport, and in the world at large. It's an account of an athlete coming to terms with her sexuality, in a very public way, at a time when honesty on this issue, was a hard road to walk.
Billie Jean King was a brilliant tennis player. She won thirty-nine major titles in her career, twenty of them at Wimbledon. She competed and won in the doubles and mixed doubles along with the singles tournaments. She's considered by many to be the greatest doubles player in the history of tennis. She was the first female athlete to earn more than $100,000 in prize money in a single season. She was also the first woman to be chosen to be Sports Illustratedās Sportsperson of the Year. Her accomplishments on the tennis court alone make her a historic figure, but thereās a lot more to Billie Jean King than her tennis, as this book makes clear.
She was an activist, fighting for and championing womenās rights, and (later in life) LGBTQ rights. She helped to form a separate womenās tour, when the Lawn Tennis Association refused to pay female tennis players on par with their male counterparts. In 1969, most tournaments paid the men five times as much as the women. The low point in women's pay inequality came in 1970 when the Pacific Southwest Championships directed by Jack Kramer announced prize money which had a 12 to 1 differential between what the male and female tennis players could win.
This provoked the top nine female tennis players to take a stand. They boycotted that tournament and went on to create their own tennis tour which was, at the time, sponsored by Virginia Slims. Billie Jean was one of the founders, and the first president of the Womenās Tennis Association which was formed in 1974.
In 1973 she was challenged to what was dubbed the Battle of the Sexes match against fifty-five-year-old former tennis champion Bobby Riggs. He was a self-proclaimed male chauvinist who went on TV making outrageous and insulting comments about the inferiority of womenās tennis. That match drew a great deal of publicity, and a world-wide television audience of around fifty million people. Bille Jean went out on court knowing how vitally important this match was for the future of womenās tennis. She beat Bobby Riggs in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4, 6-3.
While her life on court and her fight for equality forms the crux of this book, she addresses other issues as well, like her sexuality, the difficulties she had to face when she was outed against her will, her relationship with her then husband, Larry King, her current partner, Ilana Kloss whoās been with her for the last forty-two years, her struggles with her weight when she stopped playing competitively, and more.
She brings such a palpable honesty to her account of all these aspects of her life, that it feels like she really is telling it like it was, though she might have been kinder in writing about some of the people in her life than they really deserved.
She begins the book by recounting her childhood, and she sets the scene not just of her home life, but of what the world was like for female athletes, and by extension women, back in the fifties and sixties. I know the history of the womenās movement, but reading this book, I was reminded once again, just how hard won our rights and freedoms are, and how recently they were won.
Just fifty years ago the world was a very different place for women. This is not to say that the battle is over. Womenās rights are being rolled back as we speak, so the fight continues. And that makes this book all the more timely and relevant.
The narrative is engaging, and the book is mostly well-written. It feels a bit rushed towards the end, but thatās a minor quibble. I listened to the audio version of this book, narrated by Billie Jean, herself, and that made it extra special. Sheās not a trained audio book reader, and sheās not performing, so you can hear her pause at the difficult moments, and you can hear her feelings in her voice as she shares this honest account of her life, and youāre right there with this amazing woman.
Book Recommendation: The History Boys by Alan Bennett
This is a play, and I donāt usually read those, but I saw The History Boys, the movie and I liked it so much, that I wanted to read the play that it was based on. This play got under my skin in a way that little else has done in all my years of reading. It made me smile and it made me laugh, but it also broke my heart a little.
Itās a fairly light-hearted story on the surface. It raises important questions about education and what itās for and so on, but it has lots of layers and characters who are charming while being all too human. The characters are flawed and they feel very real. You read the play and you canāt help but feel that yes, this could very well have happened somewhere, sometime.
The story is set in 1983 in a state school called Cuttlerās in Yorkshire. Itās a story about eight boys whoāve just got their A level exam results. Theyāve all done well and theyāre getting ready to take their university entrance examinations. The headmaster is keen that they try to get into Oxford or Cambridge. They have one term left before they have to take the exams and they are all going in for history.
Their teachers are teaching them the way they always have. Mrs Lintott teaches History, and Mr Hector teaches Literature and Language, or General Studies as the headmaster calls it. These teachers donāt see the point of these kids trying for Oxford and Cambridge. They studied at Durham and Sheffield, universities that are less esteemed, but they got a good education nonetheless.
As far as they are concerned, which university the kids go to, has nothing to do with how well they learn or where they end up, in the future. But the headmaster is keen on Oxford and Cambridge, so he hires a new teacher, a Mr Irwin who is young and who, unlike the other teachers did actually study at Oxford.
His brief is to get these kids into Oxford or Cambridge by whatever means he can. He meets the boys and he realises that he doesnāt actually have to teach them anything. They know everything they need to know and more. Both Hector and Mrs Lintott have made sure of that.
But their approach, particularly Hectorās is the kind that believes in knowledge for knowledgeās sake or as he says in the beginning of the play,Ā "All knowledge is preciousĀ whether or not it serves the slightest human use.āĀ Heās quoting A E houseman here. Hectorās mission in life is to give the boys a love of literature and reading.
He makes them learn poems and songs by heart. There is a very interesting exchange about poetry in the play (between Hector and one of his students) that I will quote here:
Timms: Sir, I donāt always understand poetry.
Hector: You donāt always understand it? Timms, I never understand it. But learn it now, know it now and youāll understand it whenever.
Timms: I donāt see how we can understand it, sir. Most of the stuff that poetryās about hasnāt happened to us yet.
Hector: But it will, Timms. It will. And when it does, youāll have the antidote ready! Grief, Happiness. Even when youāre dying. Weāre making your deathbeds here, boys.
He doesnāt care for exams, seeing them as the arbitrary things they are. Heās trying to equip his students for life, or so he believes anyway. Irwin, on the other hand is all about the exams. He goes about teaching the students short cuts and tricks to get the examinerās attention.
He talks about Stalin in one scene and he says that everyone knows that Stalin was a monster, but if you want to stand out from the crowd then find something to say in his defenceā¦dissent for dissentās sake, not because you truly believe in it, but because taking a position that is different from the rest means that you will stand out, you will get noticed.
So, the book is basically about these two teachers and their approach to teaching. Everybody wants a teacher like Hector, but Hector will not help you pass exams and you do need to pass exams. Examiners are not going to care how much literature, poetry and history you know. They care about the questions and the answers, do you have them or not?
The play doesnāt attempt to answer this question, it just puts it out there. Itās something for the audience to think about and mull over. If this was all, the play would be good. What makes it great is all the sub plotsā¦the stories of the students and the teachers:
A Jewish boy who is small and who never feels like he quite fits in with the others because he matured late and because heās gay. And heās in love with another of the boys who of course, doesnāt care for him.
Another boy who is a devout Christian and holds fast to his faith while missing out on a lot of stuff that is normal for boys his age.
And another, who is straight and has a girlfriend, but doesnāt let that stop him from hitting on Irwin who happens to be gay.
And of course, Hector, who though a brilliant teacher, is a bit of a creep. He gives the boys rides on his motorcycle while reaching back every now and then to lay a hand on their knee or to grope them even. He never takes it any further and the boys just groan or roll their eyes at him. They are all eighteen years old and they are well able to take care of themselves, so heās not a real threat to them and he knows it.
The crux of the play, though, is that question about education, what it is and what itās for.Ā The final scene is a round-up of all the boys and what theyāve done with their lives. One of the boys gets into Cambridge, but it doesnāt work out for him because he put so much into getting there, that once he was there, he had nothing left.
They all went to Oxford or Cambridge, something that no one from their school had ever done before. They were all smart and full of life when they were at school, they were special, but none of them ended up doing anything extraordinary with their lives. So, what was all that effort for really?
Like I said, the play raises a lot of interesting questions. It has a wonderful set of characters that you canāt help but love. It is funny, sarcastic, witty and poignant. It will stay with you long after youāve read it because it is full of insights into life and literature, learning and being. It is full of quotations, songs, poems, dialogues from movies and other plays evenā¦all of them interesting and all of them special.
But the words that will stay with me the longest are Bennettās own. Here is my favourite dialogue in the play:
The best moments in reading are when you come across something - a thought, a feeling a way of looking at things - which you had thought special and peculiar to you. Now here it is, set down by someone else, a person youāve never met, someone even who is long dead. and it is as if a hand has come out and taken yoursā¦
Book Recommendation: French Windows by Antoine Laurain
Antoine Laurain is one of my favourite writers. I pick up every one of his books expecting to love it, and he almost never disappoints. French Windows has all the elements that I associate with his writing. It's charming, quirky, and interesting.
But this book has the added element of murder and mystery. You never quite know where it is going, but the writing keeps you hooked until the big reveal at the end which is most unexpected.
The two main characters in the story are Dr Faber, a psychoanalyst, and Nathalia Guitry, who is one of his patients. Sheās a young woman, in her early thirties, who has just started coming to him for therapy. We meet both characters in their first therapy session.
Dr Faber asks her why sheās come to him, and she replies that sheās there because sheās screwed up her life. This is something that patients tell him all the time. He asks more questions. She tells him that sheās a photographer whoās unable to take pictures any more, and she feels stuck because sheās no longer able to do something that she loves.
They talk a little more, and then he asks her about the last thing that sheād photographed. She tells him that it was a murder scene. That feels designed to throw him, so he ignores it, the session ends, and heās not sure heāll ever see her again. But she shows up the next week. He tries to get her to talk, but sheās not very communicative. She says sheās not doing anything much these days. She stays home, watches her neighbours come and go and thatās it.
Dr Faber realises that Nathalia has something on her mind, something that's bothering her so much that sheās unable to go on with her life. She did mention witnessing and photographing a murder, but heās doesn't give that statement any credence. He assumes that she said that to try to shock him.
She has a problem, but sheās unwilling or uncomfortable talking about it. So he devises an exercise for her, one that he hopes will make her open up a little. When she mentioned that she watches her neighbours, she said that her apartment faces the north-wing of the building she lives in, and that there five floors on that wing with one apartment on each floor.
So he tells her to write something about these neighbours of hers, real or imagined, one piece of writing per floor, per week. He will read what sheās written and then theyāll talk. He hopes that she will slowly reveal something of herself as she writes about her neighbours week after week. He thinks that writing in this way might get her past the creative block that sheās experiencing.
What follows is a series of stories about her neighbours. Nathalia writes well, with lots of description and detail. It feels as if sheās writing about real people, but even if she knew their names, and what they do, she couldnāt know all those intimate and personal details, could she?
Dr Faber looks up each person that Nathalia writes about and finds that they are all real people and that a lot of what Nathalia has written about them is true. None of the stories give him any clue as to what is happening with his patient and he starts to wonder if this exercise is doing any good at all. But he decides to stick with it.
The bulk of the novel is made up of the stories that Nathalia writes. They are all fascinating and so worth reading. Theyāre unrelated stories, each independent of the other, but in the context of the book, they make an interesting whole.
Nathalia does reveal something important by the time she gets to the end of this writing exercise, but in the interest of not giving out any spoilers, I will not say what that it is. This is a short novel at 175 pages, but Laurain packs a lot into them. This is a very good read.
āI have advice for people who want to write. I don't care whether they're 5 or 500. There are three things that are important: First, if you want to write, you need to keep an honest, unpublishable journal that nobody reads, nobody but you. Where you just put down what you think about life, what you think about things, what you think is fair and what you think is unfair. And second, you need to read. You can't be a writer if you're not a reader. It's the great writers who teach us how to write. The third thing is to write. Just write a little bit every day. Even if it's for only half an hour ā write, write, write.ā
ā Madeleine L'Engle
Book Recommendation: Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett
Terry Pratchett is one of my favourite writers. I have loved every book of his that I've read so far. They are all brilliant, and Unseen Academicals is right up there with the best of them.
This is book 37 in the Discworld series and the seventh and final book that features characters from the Unseen University which is a wizarding university in Ankh Morpork. While it helps to have read the earlier books featuring the same characters, it is not necessary to do so. This book can be read as a standalone.
Unseen Academicals has a mix of familiar characters and new ones who only appear in this book. Of the familiar characters, is the first among equals, as he refers to himself, Arch Chancellor, Mustrum Ridcully. There's the former dean of Unseen University who has, at the beginning of the book, left to join a rival university, Ponder Stibbons, the youngest and most productive member of the staff, and Lord Vetinari, the ruler and tyrant of Ankh Morpork.
The story begins when Ponder Stibbons, who has recently taken over yet another role as the keeper of traditions, discovers that a generous grant from a former Arch Chancellor that the university depends on, is not going to be available to them any more, because one of the conditions of the bequest is that the University will raise a team that will participate in a game of football from time to time.
The staff have been ignoring this condition for the last twenty years. Most of them want to go on ignoring it, but when Stibbons points out that losing the grant will mean that they will have to restrict themselves to three meals a day, instead of the usual nine, they change their tune.
Lord Vetinari, in the meantime, wants to reform the game of football, bring in rules and codes of conduct. He's ignored it for years, but the rivalries are getting more heated, and the fighting in the streets, every time there's a game, is getting out of hand. Elsewhere in the city there are dwarves who are engaged in bringing fashion to Ankh Morpork, who find the perfect female model in the most unlikely place.
Some of the most important characters in this book are the ones who work below the stairs at the University. There's Glenda, who runs the night kitchen and makes the best pies in all of Ankh Morpork, Juliet, who is her friend and fellow cook, Trevor Likely, son of a legendary footballer who works in the candle vats and loves football and Mr Nutt, who works with him.
Mr Nutt is a goblin, or so everyone thinks. He's small and quiet, and mild-mannered, so people don't think much of him when they first see him, but that changes once he starts talking. He's fiercely intelligent, a polyglot and a polymath, he reads widely and thinks deeply. He has charming manners and is one of the nicest and kindest people around. He develops an unlikely friendship with Glenda who is a straight-talking, intelligent young woman who does more than her share of helping and taking care of people. The two of them are the heart of this book.
This is a fabulous story with a brilliant plot, well-crafted characters, excellent dialogue and fantastic story telling. It's about football and fashion, but it is also about inclusivity and openness to people who are not like us, and the truth that intelligence, skill and competence are not the purview of the few. They can be found anywhere if we will but look.
Book Recommendation: The Clothes They Stood Up In by Alan Bennett
This is the story of a couple, a Mr and Mrs Ransome, who find their sedate and predictable lives disrupted by a completely unexpected event. They go to the opera one evening and they come back home to find that they have been robbed, or so Mrs Ransome says.
"Burgled," Mr Ransome says, because people are robbed and homes are burgled, and being a lawyer, he likes to be precise.
But neither of them is quite right, because burglars pick and choose, they don't take everything. And whoever it was, took every last thing, including the drapes and the carpets. They took the casserole that was being kept warm in the oven...they even took the toilet paper rolls from the bathrooms.
At one go, the Ransomes lose everything. How does one cope with a situation like that?
The Ransomes are a wealthy, middle-aged couple who are set in their ways, and are perhaps a little bored of each other, and the endless routine of their lives. The burglary (for lack of a better word) shakes them up. All of their stuff is insured, so it's not the shock of financial loss, it is the shock of losing all the things that they've built their lives around, even the things that they've never really used.
They begin to shop for a few necessary items while waiting for the insurance money, and Mrs Ransome finds herself shopping in the local Indian store instead of the high street and discovering a lot of interesting things at her doorstep that she'd never thought to explore before. As the days go on, she begins to find the loss of all her possessions strangely freeing.
Mr Ransome has one great love in his life and that is Mozart. He likes to listen to Mozart every evening. He bemoans the loss of his sound system until he realises that he can now buy a new, more state-of-the-art system. So, in their own way, they both come to terms with this extraordinary situation.
But losing all their stuff makes them rethink their lives a little bit, particularly Mrs Ransome who begins to realise that she's been living in a box all these years, confined by stuff. She finds herself wanting to change her life, do something different with it.
As the novel goes on, Bennett explores the relationship between the couple and the rut that it's stuck in, and he brings to light all the little lies that they've been telling themselves and each other for years.
This book tackles a bunch of important themes, like our unfortunate tendency to define ourselves by the things we own, keeping up appearances, doing and saying things that are expected of us, and settling for a life that weāre only vaguely content to exist in, because itās too much trouble to rock the boat.
The writing is funny, and itās thoughtful and poignant. Alan Bennett brings to this book the unique blend of gentleness and irony that is so characteristic of him. This is a novella, running into just over a hundred pages. It packs a lot into those pages. This is a good read.
The Encyclopaedia Britannica has stood as a towering monument to human knowledge for over two hundred and fifty years. First published in Edinburgh in 1768, it grew from a modest three volumes to a vast compendium spanning dozens of volumes at its peak in the 20th century.
The Britannica's origins were humble. It was conceived by two men, Colin Macfarquhar, a printer, and Andrew Bell, an engraver, who envisioned a comprehensive resource, compiled by a group of gentlemen scholars.
It was to be an European take on the great Arabic encyclopaedias of the Middle Ages. Its founders, sought to compile a "dictionary of arts and sciences" that would serve as a comprehensive reference work. Little did they know their efforts would produce what many consider the greatest English language encyclopaedia ever created.
The Britannica has expanded its scope and reputation with every successive edition. By the nineteenth century, it was a cornerstone of scholarship, attracting prominent figures to contribute articles. The ninth and eleventh editions are considered landmarks, praised for their scholarly depth and engaging writing style.
Since its founding, the EncyclopƦdia Britannica has relied upon both outside experts and its own editors with various subject-area proficiencies to write its entries. Those entries are then fact-checked, edited, and copy-edited by Britannicaās editors, a process intended to ensure that the articles meet their long-held standards for readability and accuracy. The same team of editors regularly revise and update existing articles to reflect new developments in those realms of knowledge.
Over successive printed editions, the Britannica has chronicled the exponential growth of human learning and inquiry through the Age of Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, and the modern era. Its pages boast of contributions from eminent thinkers across every field ā Einstein, Freud, Marie Curie, and more.
By the mid-twentieth century, the Britannica had become a household name and status symbol, adorning the bookshelves of families, libraries, and institutions worldwide.
Then came the digital revolution and the rise of the internet. Suddenly, the Encyclopaedia Britannicaās curated, meticulously edited knowledge had immense competition from websites, databases, and online communities with far lower barriers to publishing. In the late 1990s and 2000s, the once-mighty print set looked increasingly like a throwback to a bygone era.
But the Britannica persisted through the digital transition, adapting its timeless mission to a new medium. Today it exists as a cutting-edge online reference source unbounded by the limitations of print, while upholding its honoured traditions of academic excellence. While the format may have changed, and the competitors multiplied, the Encyclopaedia Britannica endures as an irreplaceable cultural icon ā a vital link connecting past and present human knowledge. Its legacy will continue to inspire truth-seekers for generations to come.
āBecause for some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth. What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet or excite you. Books help us understand who we are and how we are to behave. They show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and die. They are full of all the things that you don't get in real life-wonderful, lyrical language, for instance, right off the bat. And quality of attention: we may notice amazing details during the course of a day but we rarely let ourselves stop and really pay attention. An author makes you notice, makes you pay attention, and this is a great gift. My gratitude for good writing is unbounded; I'm grateful for it the way I'm grateful for the ocean. Aren't you?ā
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā ā Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird
Book Recommendation: Behold Here's Poison by Georgette Heyer
A few years ago, I discovered that Georgette Heyer, who I had long associated with regency romance, wrote murder mysteries as well. I came across a few of her books in the crime section of my local bookshop. I picked one up, read it and loved it. Sheās an excellent writer. Iāve read a few of her crime novels and a couple of her romance novels since then, and I must say that I love what she can do with character and dialogue.
She writes interesting, well-defined characters, and her dialogue is clever and witty. While plot is the most important part of a good murder mystery, the characters and the dialogue are important too. Georgette Heyer has the ability to create well rounded, engaging characters, that you canāt help but care about. Thereās a certain liveliness to her dialogue that draws you in, and makes you want to keep reading.
Behold, hereās Poison is a thoroughly enjoyable read. At the centre of it, is the Matthews family, which is a bit dysfunctional, with the sort of family dynamics that one tends to see when the head of the family controls all the money, and everyone else is trying to curry favour with him, even though he can be selfish and thoroughly unpleasant.
The book begins with said head of the family, Gregory Matthews, being found dead. Everyone assumes that heās had a stroke, even the doctor thinks so, but Mrs Lupton, one of Gregoryās sisters, insists that thereās something fishy about it. So, the coroner is called in, and it turns out that Gregory Matthews was poisoned.
The police are called in, and the investigation begins. Itās obvious to them that the dead man was an unpleasant character, and that most of his family members had a motive to murder him. But the more they investigate, the more confusing it all becomes, and try as they might, they canāt figure out how the poison was administered. They chase down every lead, and find that most of them don't lead anywhere.
The family, in the meantime, is living under a cloud of suspicion. Theyāre tense and worried, and their already dysfunctional dynamics get worse. Heyer brings real skill to detailing the characters and motivations of each of the family members, and while it is easy to see that any of them could have done it, you find yourself sympathising with them as well. The narrative keeps you hooked, and it keeps you guessing. Itās an engrossing read. So much so, that at the end of the novel, I found myself wishing that there was more.
Book Recommendation: Mr Gandy's Grand Tour by Alan Titchmarsh
This is an unassuming, but charming book. Itās about a middle-aged man, Tim Gandy, with grown children whoās just retired and is finding life rather flat. He and his wife have grown apart over the years. He finds that he has somehow, become a spectator in his own life and now that he no longer has a job, his wife has taken to directing his days. Heās dissatisfied with the shape his life has taken, but he doesnāt quite know what to do about it.
His wife dies unexpectedly, and while thereās grief, he has a sense of relief as well. He feels like heās finally free to make his own choices and maybe live out a few of his dreams.
One of his dreams was to take a grand tour of Europe, the way aristocrats of the eighteenth century used to do. So, he makes his plans and decides to set off. The book is an account of his experiences on this journey. He goes to Paris, to Monaco, and then on to Italy. Itās when heās walking around Paris that he rediscovers his love of art and starts painting again.
He goes to all these great places and he meets a lot of interesting and quirky people. Heās on an adventure and heās open to everything so he tries things he hasnāt tried before, he lets himself go with the flow and makes unexpected friendships, finds a bit of romance, and has a delightful time on the whole. He also learns a few things about himself. His journey is as much about self-discovery as it is about the people and the places that he encounters.
The writing is good, though not exceptional. The real strength of the book lies in the character of the protagonist who you canāt help but like, and the descriptions of all these beautiful places, seen through the eyes of Tim Gandy who seems to have retained the openness to life and the sense of wonder that we often associate with the young.
Some parts of the book may seem a bit improbable, but that doesnāt take away from the experience of it. Itās a sweet book and an easy read, but it is not predictable. There are a few surprises and unexpected events, so the book keeps your attention to the end.
"The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possible can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.ā
ā Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without a Country
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishment the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
This inspiring poem was written by William Ernest Henley who was born in Gloucester, England, in 1849. He was a poet, critic, and editor who introduced the early work of many of the great English writers of the 1890's. He was the son of a Gloucester bookseller and a pupil of the poet T.E. Brown.
Henley contracted a tubercular disease in his youth that later necessitated the amputation of one foot. Forced to stay in an infirmary in Edinburgh for twenty long months, he began writing impressionistic poems (some in free verse) about hospital life that established his poetic reputation.
Some of these were published in The Cornhill Magazine in 1875. The editor of the magazine liked the poems, and he went to visit Henley in the hospital. He brought along with him, another contributor to the magazine, Robert Louis Stevenson. The two writers became good friends. Stevenson later modelled his character, Long John Silver inĀ Treasure Island,Ā on his crippled, hearty friend.
Henley kept writing poetry, but he wrote that he "found himself about 1877 so utterly unmarketable that he had to own himself beaten in art and to addict himself to journalism for the next ten years." He became the editor of The Magazine of Art where he stayed from 1882 to 1886. During this time, he championed the artists James McNeill Whistler and Auguste Rodin. He also worked on the ninth edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica. This particular edition has been called the scholarās encyclopaedia.
Henley became editor of the Scots Observer of Edinburgh in 1889. The journal was transferred to London in 1891 and became known as the National Observer. This was a literary newspaper, which, according to Henley, had almost as many writers as it had readers. But it was an important publication in literary circles. Though conservative in its political outlook, the paper was liberal in its literary taste and published the work of Thomas Hardy, George Bernard Shaw, H.G. Wells, James Barrie, William Butler Yeats, and Rudyard Kipling.
As an editor and critic, Henley was remembered by young writers as a benevolent bully, generous in his promotion and encouragement of unknown talents and fierce in his attacks on unmerited reputations. Henley published two volumes of his poetry,Ā A Book of VerseĀ in 1888 andĀ The Song of the Sword in 1892.
Invictus, quoted above, is a testament to his irrepressible spirit.
The full title of this book is The Way home: Tales from a Life Without Technology, and that is essentially what it is, the record of a year of the writerās life that he lived without any of the conveniences of modern life; no electricity, no running water, no plumbing, no computer, internet, smart phone or any other kind of phone. Boyle decided to do this because he wanted to explore an alternate way of living and being in the world, an old way, the way our ancestors lived, in harmony with nature and not at odds with it. He decided to give up his reliance on technology because he felt like it was keeping him from experiencing life in its essential, elemental sense.
While the narrative of this book takes place over one year, Boyle did not return to using technology after this year, because this was not a lifestyle experiment that he went on, just so he could write about it. It is clear that heās sincere in his wish to live differently, to reduce his personal impact on the environment and to engage as directly as possible with nature and the essential demands of human life.
He began by acquiring a bit of land in rural Ireland. He built a wooden cabin, planted lots of vegetables, kept chickens, took up hunting and fishing and tried to create a life that had meaning for him.
This could be seen as one of the many hundred āback to the landā books that have been published over the years, but it is markedly different because it isnāt just about leaving the city, moving to the country and growing at least some of your own food. The primary point of the book, as it says in the title, is the fact that heās doing it all without the aid of any technology. That makes everything somewhat complicated. The smallest of things requires a lot of work.
He cycles or walks everywhere he goes, often travelling miles to get to the post office so he can send a letter to his parents. And when he wants to go see them, he does so by hitching rides. He grows his own vegetables which takes no small amount of work because everything has to be done by hand. He keeps chickens, but his only source of protein other than the eggs is the meat and fish which he canāt have unless he goes fishing or hunts deer. Buying anything from a store is not a part of his life.
Thereās plenty of cycling involved to get to the river so he can fish. The fish is eaten quickly, but the deer presents a problem. Even sharing with his neighbours, thereās plenty left over which needs to be preserved without the aid of a refrigerator, so he decides to build a smoke house. Thereās no gas, so he and his partner cook on a rocket stove which only has one burner, so cooking takes time, and putting a simple meal together involves a lot of work. But thereās no arguing with the fact that heās self-sufficient.
He and his partner make their own candles using beeswax, they dry herbs so they can make their own tea. Thereās no running water or plumbing, so they cannot just flush and forget. And they canāt just take a shower. They have to wash up in a basin until heās able to install a heated bath, something that takes a fair bit of work. Everything takes a fair bit of work in his life, but he insists that it is worth it and I believe him, I admire him, even.
But thereās no getting away from the fact that heās chosen a difficult way of life. While this may have been the way everyone lived in past, this is not a life that many people will want to emulate. Even his neighbours who were born on the land and have lived off it all their lives donāt try to do it without electricity or plumbing and they wouldnāt want to. Farming is a hard enough life without adding difficulties to it. This isnāt a criticism of Boyleās choices. If heās found a way of life that works for him, then more power to him, but the fact remains that this is not an alternative lifestyle thatās about to take off.
But thatās not the point of the book. Boyle is not trying to get anyone to emulate him. What heās doing is exploring an alternative life style that works for him, and heās reporting on it. Weāre at an inflection point in the world right now, with many of us examining our lives and our choices and wondering what we could do differently so weād have better work-life balance, better and more fulfilling relationships and if we could find ways to reduce our impact on the environment. So all explorations of alternative lifestyles are valuable.
Reading this book, I did not at any time, feel the inclination to give up technology, but it did make me think about my choices and it gave me an interesting perspective on the form that the environmental movement has taken today. When the movement began, the primary focus was on protecting the wild places of this world, preserving habitats, preventing species extinctionā¦but that focus has shifted almost entirely to reducing carbon emissions and moving from fossil fuels to clean energy.
This is no doubt important, but all this talk of sustainability is us saying that we want to continue our technology and energy heavy lifestyles, but that we want to find a cleaner source of energy to fuel them. Weāre not thinking in terms of reducing our consumption of energy, taking less from the world, needing lessā¦That is an important point.
This book is not presented as a continuous narrative. It is written as a series of anecdotes and thoughts, often jumping in time from the writerās present life, to his past, his childhood, his days at the university, his time working as the manager of an organic food storeā¦ He uses these glimpses into the past as a means to lay out the evolution in his thinking about money, technology, the environment and the direction of the world in general.
This moving back and forth is easy enough to follow and it adds nuance to the narrative. Thereās nothing exceptional about the writing. His love of wilderness aside, heās no Henry David Thoreau and he doesnāt try to be. He quotes Thoreau, Wendell Berry, Aldo Leopold, Edward Abbey, Paul Kingsnorth and several others and examines some of their ideas in the context of his own experience. His writing is honest and engaging. It's fairly easy reading, but it is not light by any measure.
Most āback to the landā books are deliberately, often self-consciously funny with the writers detailing their mistakes and their inexperience and taking a light-hearted view of it all. Boyleās book is anything but light-hearted. Heās earnest and matter of fact in the way he writes about his life. His tone could come across as a bit self-righteous and that is a comment that some readers have made, but it didnāt strike me that way.
Another feature of āback to the landā books is that theyāre a bit aspirational. They make life on a farm seem at least somewhat idyllic. Reading them, you canāt help wishing that you could up sticks and go live in the countryside. Iām not saying that these books pretend that life on a farm is easy. Itās not. Itās hard, grinding, physical work, day after day and most of these books tell you so, but they tend to do it while keeping the narrative light and and the descriptions a bit soft focus. It is my guess that this is a style that editors and publishers prefer and perhaps push.
Thereās nothing idyllic or soft focus about Boyleās narrative. It is real and hard-edged and it feels all the more important as a result. There are several insightful passages that made me stop and think. And as good books often do, this one led me to several others.
Some readers have accused him of privilege and hypocrisy. He lives on a farm and does everything by hand, ostensibly eschewing both money and technology, but unlike a lot of this neighbours, heās a writer and he makes money from books and lectures, so heās not exactly living off the land.
He acknowledges this and says that he considered not publishing this book, but that in the end, he decided to be a hypocrite (his words). He may not want to live as a part of a society that is thoroughly dependent on technology, but heās willing to engage with it enough to question it because it needs to be questioned. Besides, I think his goal is not so much to live off the land as it is to reduce this impact on the environment and heās certainly doing that.
This book is worth reading because it will make you think about a few things, your work, your life, your choices, how you want to live in this world and what your idea of a good and meaningful life is. Iāll conclude with Boyleās words about what this way of life has brought him.
āā¦there is a timeless simplicity about my life. I have found that, when you peel off the plastic that industrial society vacuum-packs around you, what remains ā your real needs ā could not be simpler. Fresh air. Clean water. Real food. Companionship. Warmth, earned from wood chopped with your own hands using a convivial tool whose only input is care. Thereās no extravagance, no clutter, no unnecessary complications. Nothing to buy, nothing to be. No frills, no bills. Only the raw ingredients of life, to be dealt with immediately and directly, with no middlemen to complicate and confuse the matter.ā
Food writing is one of my favourite genres, and few writers today, are as good at it, as Michael Pollan. Heās written several books about the production of food and the eating of it, but like he says in the introduction to Cooked, he hadnāt thought much about the middle part of this chain, the cooking of the food, the everyday process that happens in the kitchen.
He knew his way around the kitchen, but he hadnāt ventured beyond his small repertoire of recipes, and hadnāt thought in any real depth about the business of cooking, what it is exactly, and how it happens. That is what he does in this book. He examines the act of cooking, something that humanity has been doing for a million years, and something that a lot of people have stopped doing now, believing that it is too complicated, that they donāt have time for it, and that, like so many other things, cooking is best left to the professionals.
He points out that unlike other jobs that weāve outsourced, cooking has an emotional and psychological power over us that we havenāt quite been able to shake. Because the act of cooking is so fundamental to who we are as a species, when we give it up, we lose something important. And this is perhaps why, even as more and more people choose not to cook, the number and variety of television shows about food and cooking have gone up, and so has their viewership.
This book is an argument in favour of cooking, the difference it can make to our lives as individuals and families, and the difference it can make to society. This couldāve all turned out to be very preachy, but it isnāt at all. What it is, is a delightful exploration of the immense pleasure that can be found in making the time to gather a bunch of good ingredients, preparing them with a bit of skill, and cooking, grilling, baking, and fermenting them to produce something delicious and nourishing.
This book is part memoir, part science, part social and cultural history, all tied together with the journalistic curiosity that drives all of Pollanās work. He begins by dividing the processes involved in cooking into grilling, pot cooking, baking and fermentation. Each of these correspond to the four primary elements - fire, water, air, and earth - which become the basis on which the book is organised.
It's divided into four parts, each devoted to one element and one style of cooking, which Pollan explores in terms of its role in human history and the way these cooking methods have shaped us and our cultures.
In each of these sections he writes about his experience apprenticing himself to an expert, (a barbecue pit master, a chef, a baker, a fermento, a cheese-maker, and a brewer) working with them and learning from them, as he tries to develop his skills and his understanding of how they do what they do. The point of this is to understand the process so that he can get beyond recipes, whether heās grilling, making a stew, baking bread, making sauerkraut, or trying his hand at brewing.
He acknowledges that some of the more specialised forms of making food, like baking bread or cheese-making require the kind of time and commitment that is beyond most peoplesā ability to give. He didnāt think that he would be doing any of these things, other than everyday cooking, once he was done writing this book, but he surprised himself by developing the kind of passion for baking bread that heād never expected to feel. He admits that he hasnāt taken up cheese-making or making kimchi, but heās glad he learnt how to do these things - itās good to learn these skills even if we only use them occasionally, because it is always empowering to know how.
While much of the book is personal, Pollan takes a larger view as well, writing about the way cooking connects us to the natural world and to our communities. He argues that by outsourcing our meals to the food industry, we've lost touch with the essential act of cooking. Reclaiming this skill is not just about healthier eating, but about building a deeper relationship with the food we consume.
In an age where almost everyone is on a diet of some kind, and we talk about food in terms of clean eating and guilty pleasures, this is an unabashed celebration of good food and the joy that can be found both in the cooking and the eating of it.
"What an astonishing thing a book is. It's a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you're inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic."
As detectives in fiction go, Lord Peter Wimsey is unique. Heās an aristocrat, a gentleman-scholar, and a lover of rare books. Heās a literary expert who can quote at will from Catullus, Shakespeare, Donne, Dickens, Lewis Carroll, and a host of others. Heās a fine musician who plays Bach, Scarlatti, and the Beggarās Opera, among other things. Heās a linguist, who speaks fluent French and German, and a fair amount of Italian. Heās a connoisseur of food and wines, he wears perfectly tailored clothes, and he entertains with panache.
Lord Peter Wimsey is the second son of the Duke of Denver, an Oxford graduate, and a veteran of the first world war. When weāre introduced to him in the first book in which he appears, Whose Body? heās on his way to a sale of incunabulaā¦early printed books. This is no idle pursuit. Wimsey has a scholarly approach to the subject, and has an excellent reputation among book dealers.
Heās not conventionally attractive. In Whose Body? Sayers says of his appearance, āHis long, amiable face looked as if it had generated spontaneously from his top hat . . .āĀ He has a receding forehead, a long, narrow chin, grey eyes with drooping lids, and sleek, flat, straw-coloured hair.
To complete the picture of the typical aristocrat, he wears a monocle. Itās a powerful lens which not only corrects his sight but is also, as he says, ā. . . jolly useful when you want to take a good squint at somethinā and look like a bally fool all the time.ā He frequently plays up his silly-ass appearance to deflect suspicion of his true intentions.
Wimsey is supported in his investigations by his loyal manservant, Bunter, who is a knowledgeable bibliophile, an excellent photographer, and, according to Lord Peter, a superb brewer of coffee. Another key character who appears in several of the books, is Inspector Parker of Scotland Yard. Heās a friend who appreciates Wimseyās talent for investigation and works closely with him. He goes on to marry Lord Peterās sister, Lady Mary Wimsey.
Sayers introduces a love interest for Lord Peter in book five of the series, Strong Poison. Her name is Harriet Vane and she is a writer of detective fiction. When Lord Peter first meets her, sheās on trial for murdering a former lover. She is, of course, innocent, and he takes it upon himself to prove it. Harriet Vane is an independent young woman, who is witty, intelligent, and charming. She appears in four of the novels (not counting the ones written or finished by Jill Patton Walsh) and she helps Lord Peter solve the crime in three of them.
Peter Wimsey is a good detective in that he out-thinks both the police and the criminals. He has acute powers of observation, demonstrated most clearly at the scene of the crime. He does most of his own legwork, although he does leave some of it to his manservant Bunter and Inspector Parker.
He solves his cases by deduction, thought, and intuition, but is not above using his wealth and position to take shortcuts. He is able to consult directly with the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police and several Chief Constables, whom he knows personally. In Clouds of Witness, he even interrupts the King at dinner in order to speak to the American ambassador, and in The Nine Tailors, he makes a direct approach to the Archbishop of Canterbury.
He's a warm person who has a close relationship with his mother and an easy friendship with Parker. His most important relationship, however, is with Bunter, who was his batman during the war. They have a bond which goes far beyond the master/servant relationship. Wimsey trusts Bunter to go to sales of old books on his behalf, and he accepts Bunterās selection of reading material and book reviews.
Bunter looks out for Wimsey when he has the occasional bout of nerves or depression, a condition which was brought about by the war and asserts itself at crucial times. Bunter has saved Wimseyās life on more than one occasion, and he is always at his masterās side when heās needed.
Lord Peter Wimsey was first introduced to the reading public in 1923. He is still alive and well in the imaginations of his fans. To celebrate the 100th birthday of Lord Peter on November 24th, 1990, a portrait of a 21-year-old Wimsey was presented to Balliol College. On accepting it, the Master of Balliol congratulated the Dorothy L. Sayers Society on its celebration of āLord Peter Wimsey, a graduate of this college.ā
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