All over for another year, phew

So Wimbledon is finished. Bit of a relief as have been glued to the TV half the fortnight and was lucky enough to have tickets one day. Wasn't it a fantastic men's final?
Our day out at the tournament was atmospheric and fun, though very hot. Saw people quaffing huge glasses of Pimm's and tiny pots of expensive icecream, and in the cafe they ate lobster with champagne, so not much credit crunch in evidence in London SW19. I chose the cheapest things on the self-service menu (with water and coffee - too hot for alcohol, imo) and the bill came to £31. Well, I know we could have had a picnic in the carpark, but it was a special day out.

Reading: just finished a v. old Claire Francis, Red Crystal, good stuff if you like thrillers. Also enjoying a biography, A Circle of Sisters by Judith Flanders. This recounts the lives of four beautiful sisters from an ordinary background: Alice Kipling, Georgie Burne-Jones, Agnes Poynter and Lousa Baldwin, who married or mothered famous Victorians - i.e. Rudyard Kipling; the pre-Raphaelite painter Burne-Jones; Edward Poynter, Presient of the Royal Academy; and the Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin. If you're interested in Victorian social history, do read it.

Watched yet another re-run of the Moon landings - nostalgia again. Fascinating stuff about the Russian space dogs too, poor things.

Not just Jane Austen

Above - my roses again. Below, Gilbert White's house.

Steeped in culture in this part of Hampshire, we are. Not only do we live in Jane Austen country, but nearby is Gilbert White's House which I've finally got around to visiting again after a gap of about 25 years. He is credited with being the first naturalist to observe birds and animals rather than shoot or dissect them. He was also fascinated by botany and re-designing the large garden he inherited. The house is large and higgledy-piggledy in architecture as you see from the various roof styles above, and the garden, too, looks wild and overgrown in parts, but that's deliberate as White believed certain plants should be left to themselves. His book The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne is apparently the fourth most published book (well, something like that.)

In the 1950s the house was up for sale and in need of restoration. Not enough money could be raised by the National Trust but fortunately a member of the Oates family needed a space to display family material and bought the property. Nowadays the two mini-museums live side by side in curious harmony, one about an 18C Hampshire naturalist and one about the 1911 Antarctic. I'm talking about the famously brave Captain Oates, member of the doomed Scott expedition, who left the tent to die, saying 'I'm just going outside. I may be some time.'

Reading -

now finished another Kate Atkinson crime novel, One Good Turn - another cracking read. You have to keep your wits about you to remember who was who and what has happened. The characters aren't quite as sympathetic as those in When Will There be Good News, but I really enjoyed it. KA is so clever the way she twists the clichés of detective fiction.

June morning and reading

Much enjoyed Mr Toppit, by Charles Elton. Well, maybe enjoyed wasn't the right word - it's a dark book with black humour, original and interesting. Do read it. Here's a Guardian review. Currently am deep in another Kate Atkinson I bought when helping on the book stall at the village fete. Inevitably I came home with about ten books.

Too busy with Wimbledon and other important matters to blog for long today. Might even branch out and buy a new tv. The one we have is at least 12 years old and was donated to us by the last of our tenants. Washing machine 20 years old too - this is an old-machines home.
Trouble is, every time I look on line or go out to buy something new am so confused by all the choices that I buy nothing.

Don't plant that yellow stuff (garden loosestrife) above unless your desperate to fill a space. It is a massive invader, but at least the rabbits don't eat it.

Roses and recent reading

Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh impressed me - I much look forward to the next volume in the trilogy. Set in the 1830s before the first Opium War (where the British East India Company fought to be allowed to continue to export opium from India to China, I'm afraid), it's a wonderful ambitious long rollicking read about the voyage of the Ibis and her passengers. One complication is that some of the initial dialogue is in a weird form of English spoken by the Brits in Calcutta and in a pidgin spoken by the lascar sailors. This, along with the Indian words, makes for slow reading but I soon became accustomed to it. I thought of downloading the glossary from the website but rebelled when I found it was 20 pages long.

The characterisation is excellent. You root for Deeti, the opium-growing Indian widow rescued from committing suti by a lower-caste man. You root for Zachary, the upwardly mobile young American seaman, whose mother was a freed slave, and you root for the girl he loves, Paulette. And you care for Neel, the rajah sent to prison. All these people find themselves on board the Ibis, way out of their normal social milieu, and in grave danger from tropical storms and the malevolent 1st Mate. I can't wait to see what happens next.

I've just finished an earlier book by Amitav Ghosh, The Hungry Tide. Again this is a worthy book and focuses on desperately poor Bengalis living on reclaimed islands on the edge of the Ganges delta. Though it's most thoroughly researched and the end is dramatic, it didn't grip me nearly as much. Maybe I found the main female character just a little dull. She's an American scientist (of Calcutta origins) who is really only interested in river dolphins. She is a conservationist, of course, and the impoverished local people can't understand why she and the Westerners think that tigers and trees are more important than children.

Moving from the heat of India to north of Aberdeen, as you do....On holiday I read Sophia's Secret by Susanna Kearsley. (blurb: A sympathetic modern writer finds herself remembering events in the early eighteenth century and fears she is going mad.) I don't usually read historical novels, unless they are set in India or some other country that interests me, but I did enjoy this one. Again there's plenty of thorough research - this time into the failed Scottish rebellion of 1708. As an Englishwoman, I can't quite agree with the politics of the historic hero and heroine, but it's all good stuff and well written. The cover is girly and misleading, and would have put me off, but luckily the book was recommended by several friends, and I didn't find the lost-memories plot too far fetched.

More Andalucia

I loved Andalucia, well worth the visit. This time we stayed the week in Antequera and toured each day, avoiding moving hotels all the time. Incidentally, the roads were excellent and weirdly empty of traffic. I rather like being a package tourist nowadays, no responsibility for a whole week, delicious food, lovely views, good guides, though it can be exhausting imbibing all that info in the heat.
I was bowled over by the mosque at Cordova (above) and, of course, by the star of the whole trip, the Alhambra palace, see my blog below. It's impossible to photograph the scale of the Cordova mosque, so you will just have to go and see for yourself. Fortunately, during the Christian reconquest of Spain in the 13th century, they couldn't afford to pull the enormous building down so they just created a cathedral in the middle. Here's a good description.

On the last evening of the hols I had one photo left on my card and I saw these chaps in the hotel - actors, I thought vaguely. Can I please take their photo, I said to a young man in jeans who seemed to be in charge. OK, he said. 'The signora wants to take your picture.' They didn't look too cheerful but they posed politely. 'Who are those blokes in matador costumes,' I asked the Irish waiter as I passed the swimming pool. Oh, they're just off to the bullfight, he said, and when they come back they look pretty messy.

Blimey, the real thing. Of course, I loathe bull-fighting but it's a way of life in Spain obviously. Sorry if this upsets sensitive readers of this blog.

See the bull ring in Malaga above.

Bougainvillea

Windblown rock formations at El Torqual.

Hibiscus. To my delight, I also saw pomegranates flowering and the last purple blossoms of the jacaranda trees.

Seville & summer wine

Pilatus House in Seville - above.

Bull and car-body dragon in Seville Amazing modern sculptures.

Too hot to appreciate the city really, 37 degrees. Anything over 30 is too hot for me, but if it's in the brochure we have to do it, said the guide with a heroic smile.

A good drink to sustain you in the heat: Tinto de Verano. Red wine, sparkling water, a slice of orange and some ice. Whatever proportions you fancy, lighter than Sangria - you could add some lemonade but I find that too sweet and not as slimming.

The Alhambra, Granada, Spain

The Alhambra Palace in Granada doesn't seem to be on any seven-wonders-of-the-world list but it should be - I'm thrilled to have seen it. More about Andalucia later this week. Hasta la vista.

Later: admission to the Alhambra is by timed ticket. Quite a lot of walking involved. Here is the website.

Tropical Connections, garden, reading

Tropical Connections is now available (USA September). Click the top-right link 'about Susie Vereker's books' if you would like more details.

This yellow shrub rose has been magnificent this year. I haven't done it justice in this photo.

Last of the spring flowers.

Reading: finally finished The Return by Victoria Hislop. A worthy book, well researched. After the success of The Island (thanks to R&J's list) she has again chosen the formula of modern woman investigates historical events. Long, long-winded even, and not a beach read, this book is about the horrors of the Spanish Civil War as seen through the eyes of one family. The war stories seemed all too real, but I couldn't quite believe the various unlikely plot twists and felt distanced from both the family and the modern heroine with her sketched-in disintegrating marriage. Nevertheless this an admirable book in that it should encourage us to read more about what has passed in modern European history. I think I'll go for non-fiction next time. Here's a brief outline via Eleanor Roosevelt.

To cheer myself up, I then read some scenes from Laurence Durrell's diplomatic comedies and laughed out loud (Esprit de Corps)

Earlier I read a Barbara Pym and enjoyed her subtleties. (Quartet in Autumn. All her characters were oldish and odd.)

Cooking. Nan's rhubarb & fruit crunch was delicious. See Letters from a Hill Farm, 15 May. I used a small teacup to measure (a whole cup of sugar seemed a bit wicked), but I must buy some American measuring cups. Perhaps an excuse to peruse the thrilling Lakeland catalogue! When first married I bought an American measuring jug abroad, and consequently half the recipes I tried didn't work properly because I didn't realise a US pint was different from a UK one.

Film - the Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Wonderful movie at the film club last week. If you haven't seen it, do please rent the DVD (French with subtitles), or read the book which somehow passed me by, though I heard about it.
Editor of Elle magazine and Lothario about town, Jean-Dominique Bauby, has a major stroke at the age of 43. Though his brain is fine, he is totally paralysed except for the use of one eye. He's taught to communicate by a series of patient women who read aloud the alphabet and when the desired letter is reached, Bauby blinks. In this tortuous manner, letter by letter, he writes a book about his past high-rolling life in Paris and his present locked-in condition in a bleak but clearly excellent hospital near Calais. He's visited regularly by the beautiful mother of his children (all the nurses, speech therapists and editors are beautiful) but never by his lost lover Ines who he longs to see. It's a tribute to the human spirit that there's nothing sentimental or mawkish about this ultimately uplifting film. He died just after the book was published in France where it became a best-seller.
Here's a trailer.

RNA party, buns, books, cooking, and lawn shock

Up to London on Thursday for the RNA Summer party, all good fun as usual. Liz Fenwick and Janet Gover have blogged some good pictures - I was going to post a not too scary one of self from another member's site but it has gone amok this morning - the site not me, I mean. (top photo by Chloe Vereker, taken from the London Eye)

Currently have a convalescing house guest who was presented with this huge basket of buns from a smart bakery in Primrose Hill. Delicious or what, but v. bad for what's left of my waistline.

Recent reading. Much enjoyed Zoe Heller's The Believers. She's an original writer - this time her subject is a leftist US family, and a pretty dysfunctional family they are.

I also raced through one of the Shopaholic books which I found in a charity shop. Made me laugh aloud, even though I'm a reluctant shopper these days. The best kind of chick lit.

Cooking. Delicious lunch in John Lewis the other day - tagliatelli with rosemary oil, butternut squash, and fetta. Using fresh pasta plus some cooked chicken, I reproduced this dish at home and it went down a storm. My local Tesco's didn't run to rosemary oil so I just chopped up some fresh rosemary.

Last night I roasted a pork loin on a bed of roasted veg - red onions, butternut squash again and courgettes. Plus, towards the end of the cooking time, I quartered a couple of apples and stuck them into the roasting dish. All turned out pretty well. Glad I still have the odd domesticated moment.

Garden. Shock horror, the best back lawn has been attacked by animals (foxes?) who've dug about thirty small shallow holes. Not a pretty sight. Any ideas? The holes are too big to have been made by birds and don't look like rabbit scuffs - as for squirrels surely they only bury nuts in autumn.

Found the party pic(credit Nina Harrington). L to r, Liz Fenwick, self, Fiona Harper.

May Garden and Pantsman

Lovely wisteria again.

I like the dark red geranium I planted this time last year to fill this gap. If you look hard you can also see the sweet cecily, posh cow parsley, but fear it does look very similar in this rather wild garden to its cousins in my hedges. I've seen a clump of the sweet cecily in a friend's formal garden where it appears intended rather than accidental like here.

Aquilegia has come round again.

Above new beech leaves. Below, the tree peony.

Ms Mac has posted a great YouTube version of The Apprentice with Play People (Pantsman)

Do watch it, but it's probably only funny if you have seen the original on British TV, I admit.

Garden tree and Tropical Connections

Here is my old tree that may or may not be Exochorda serratifolia (exochorda is neighbour's suggestion). In my garden book, most of the other exochordas look like Spirea Bridal Wreath and the only tree-variety I can find on the net is serratifolia. It does have a tan-coloured bark - I mean, the part that's not covered in lichen is light brown and smooth. What do you think? The hardly-serrated leaves look rather small for a prunus and it has no fruit. The flowers are prunus style, though.

Just checked Amazon, the way you do, and see that Tropical Connections is for sale already though not due to be published until 1 June. So that's exciting. It's cheaper at the Book Depository, by the way. Click on the right if you fancy knowing more.

Blossom in my garden

Top: ornamental cherry (planted by us in the early 80s, now dying off in parts). Middle: ornamental apple - the blossom is almost purple, as is the small inedible fruit. Below: daphne, smells sweet and lovely. It's too near other shrubs, really. You never quite believe things will grow as large as it says on the tin but they do. That's one thing I've learnt about gardening.

I've just realise that my garden will be 50 years old next year as the house was built in 1960, though it looks older. Mrs H, the first owner, was a brilliant gardener, but she too planted some shrubs/trees far too close together. There's one in particular that ought to be cut down but every spring it produces such lovely delicate white flowers from its long lanky horizontal boughs that I don't have a heart to do so.

Re-reading A. Trollope at the moment and enjoying his humour. Finished Barchester Towers and now on Framley Parsonage which has a gripping story line. The young vicar has signed a bill (or promissory note?) for a dodgy friend which is bound to bounce!

Egypt

Photo-credit Chloe Vereker

Spring, two lazy recipes and Mama Mia

Sorry to have neglected this blog but have been busy with family and guests recently. Writing too.

Domesticity

Just discovered another good easy fish recipe from Mary Berry - one cod loin portion per person, smear on a tablespoon of sundried tomato paste, a slice of goats cheese, some fresh breadcrumbs (she says, but I cheated and used Bart crispy crumbs) and then top with grated cheddar. Put on baking tray and cook at 200 deg for 12-15 minutes. With the crisped topping it was different and delicious.

Here is my own recipe for cheat's chicken casserole - 1 tin Eazy ready onions (an excellent ingredient), 1 tin chopped tomatoes, chicken thighs (according to no of guests), plenty of red wine, Swiss Bouillon, celery, courgettes, mushrooms, fennel or any other veg you fancy. Season to taste and bung 'em all in together, as Jamie would say, and cook in the oven until chicken is done. Add crushed garlic too if you want. I don't even pre-fry the chicken and it tastes fine. Serve with Basmati rice - OK, I am a rice snob, I admit.

Reading

Been re-reading Division of the Spoils by Paul Scott, about the last days of the Raj in India. Very long and heavy going in parts. It strikes me that the characters are good, but that they make speeches to each other. Despite the fact that most of the dramatic scenes are told in retrospect, it works pretty well. Interesting.

Family matters

Recent guests made me laugh - the seven-year-old was playing Club Penguin on my computer at 7am stark naked yesterday, meanwhile the five-year-old watching the DVD of Mama Mia for the tenth time.

'Did you know,' she said confidingly, 'that Donna has been in another film.' I confirmed that I had indeed seen Meryl Streep in one or two different roles over the years.

Return of the Prodigal Kitten

Amazingly the kitten turned up again after two and a half weeks on the loose. Somebody had changed his collar but, thanks to the kink in his tail and the white star on his chest, and of course the micro-chip, he was recognisable. We are all delighted but don't entirely trust his wanderlust tendencies.

Am still trawling the bookshelves here for classics. Have just read Fair Stood the Wind for France by HE Bates, about a pilot who crashes in France and is rescued by a French family. He falls in love with the brave young daughter of the house, gripping stuff and movingly written.

By the way, two men have recently made a point of saying how much they enjoyed my books, so that's cheering. I'm very happy to be termed a women's fiction writer - these genres are inevitable - but it's nice to have chappish appeal too.

Stourhead and books

We actually visited Stourhead about a month ago. I can't think why I haven't been there before since it's only about an hour and a half away, not far off the A303 in Wiltshire. The structure of the garden is so lovely that it doesn't really matter what time of year you go, but I imagine it looks even more glorious now the rhododendrons and azaleas must be blooming. The Palladian house was closed for the winter season when we went, but the garden is the main attraction. It's a wonder they created this stunning landscape in the 18th century without modern earth moving equipment. Photo credit, Rory. The BBC has some more pix here

Misc quick reading notes: My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult, dramatic but not my cup of tea. Am trying to finish Julia Gregson's long book, The Water Horse, very well researched but I can't empathise with the 20 year old heroine. Dipped into A Pattern of Islands by Arthur Grimble, charming. (He was a colonial officer in the early 1900s.) Much enjoyed Anne Tyler's Earthly Possessions, thanks to Monix for sending it to me. I love AT's dead pan humour. Finally I re-read the evocative On the Black Hill by Bruce Chatwin, set on the Welsh Borders before and after the war (a masterpiece, said Auberon Waugh at the time.)

I also dipped into a self-help book about not being distracted and hopping from one task to another like a grasshopper as I do most of the time. Apparently you have to tell your creative right brain to stop interrupting your sensible systematic left brain. Hmm.

First blogging anniversary

Just realised I've now been blogging for a year and it's been much more fun than I ever imagined - I've made some new bookish cyber-friends and they've given me numerous reading ideas. I've also 'met' people in countries where we used to live - so interesting to hear about their lives, and to know how young expat women feel nowadays (much the same as I did). I've seen some wonderful gardens, and great views of Switzerland, France, Dubai, Africa, the US, and GB, especially the Muddy Island. Most of the blogs I've enjoyed are listed on the right, but there are others I haven't got round to adding. Thank you all for an interesting year. (Above - my garden today)

Random Links about books (plus extra sheep)

Added later: do watch this amusing film on YouTube - it's called Extreme Sheep. Found via Claude (Blogging in Paris - see my France blog links)

Here's a link about amazing bookshops - with glorious photos.

"The 2009-2014 World Outlook for 60-milligram Containers of Fromage Frais" by Professor Philip M Parker scooped The Diagram Prize for oddest book title of the year.

Shortlists for the Galaxy Book Awards. Lots of reading ideas.

Forgive trumpet blowing but this made my day - the illustrious Cornflower, who I've never met and not even paid, mailed to say she loved Paris Imperfect. Click on link About Susie Vereker's books on the top right of this blog if you would like to see her review. She wrote, "...add that to (Susie's) good mix of characters and her sure way with the story and you have a book which is light and crisp and very enjoyable."

Hampton Court and lost kitten

Above views of our visit to Hampton Court taken by Rory.

Very sadly Son 1's family kitten (neutered male, micro-chipped, with collar, aged about seven months) has disappeared. Perhaps he has found another home, we don't know. We were all so fond of him but I guess that is the way of cats.

Cultural stuff - Part 2

Invited to a book launch near Oxford last week for Green Flowers by Alison Hoblyn, published by Timber Press both here and in the USA. Beautifully produced, wonderful photography by Marie O’Hara, clear layout and writing, an ideal present. You wouldn’t think there were over 170 green flowers, would you? Do look out for this lovely book. At the launch copies were being sold by Alison’s friend Hilary Kay from the Antiques Road Show - nobody could resist her charm even if they wanted to. I’m a great fan of AR so was intrigued to meet her. I asked her all sorts of inane questions and thought of much more intelligent things on the way home
Alison and her family live in a large converted chapel – tall ceilings, modern, minimalist but comfortable and highly* imaginative, the sort of house that should feature in an interior design mag. I realise that even if I chuck out all my clutter, I’ll never achieve that look. Still, it has inspired me to attempt a bit of a spring clean-out. (Hope springs eternal..) Photo - self in pink in crowd, clutching book.
*pun unintended

All Creatures Great and Small

Cornflower has been discussing comfort reads and asked for suggestions. Recently I've been listening to audio tapes of James Herriot's All Creatures Great and Small, read by Christopher Timothy who played Jim in the original TV series. It's absolutely wonderful and very funny, if you don't mind a bit of graphic veterinary description. Life was hard work, but simpler and gentler with straight forward values in those days, it seems.

To make you laugh, here's a story of modern Yorkshire animal life -
My friend Antonia has a keen hunting cat called Monty. Early one morning Monty arrives in her bedroom to present her with a live fieldmouse just as she's leaving for the station. ‘No thanks, kind thought,' says Antonia. Monty drops the mouse, loses it, prowls around, then pats insistently at Antonia’s trousers, unwilling to leave her alone. Short of time, she ignores him, drives to the station, parks her car and gets on the small local train, waiting for it to depart from the terminus.
But sitting in the carriage she’s uneasy. There’s a strange tickly scrabble around her legs in their thick tights. Slowly an unpleasant truth dawns on her. Monty’s mouse must have hidden in her trousers and - horror - it’s still there! Antonia leaps out on to the platform and jumps wildly around. Fortunately the mouse drops out and disappears. Presumably it didn’t want to go to Leeds after all.

Misc recent cultural stuff Part I

Hampton Court
Strongly recommend a visit to Hampton Court Palace on the River Thames. Even at this early stage of the year the gardens are stunning, so stunning that we didn’t spend much time inside, but we saw the King’s Apartments, with excellent audio guide. The interior of the palace is more complicated than the famous maze, but we did find the Tudor kitchens too, with real log fire and turnspit. The gardens are free at the moment but I believe you have to pay to see the formal sections in summer. Well worth the trip. (Photos to follow next week - currently on son's camera. I thought of buying an extra lead to download them here but was too mean to spend £13)

Jindabyne
The local film club had mixed views about this critically admired sombre film. Having lived in Australia, I more or less enjoyed it, but some Hampshire gents were heard to mutter ‘liked the fishing scenes but not much else.’ The plot is that four ordinary guys go fishing in the remote Snowy Mountains in summer. After walking for miles, they find a body of an Aboriginal girl in a stream but don’t bother reporting it until they have finished their weekend trip. Their friends and families are not impressed by this casual behaviour, particularly Laura Linney who plays the tricky role of a nervous depressive wife. I kept hoping they’d catch the girl’s killer, a sinister electrician, but it isn’t that sort of film – it’s more about sad, murky, mysterious moods and beautiful scenery.
The Guardian buff and others thought highly of it, but I wouldn’t call it a must-see.

Paris Imperfect review
Many thanks to Ex Libris blogger in the US for her encouraging review of Paris Impefect. She found it 'an entertaining romance that has realistic characters with whom readers can relate'. She added 'While reading I found myself becoming irritated with Clio and her tendency to procrastinate. Then I realized that if it were me, I would probably react the same way.'

Tropical Connections

Here is the cover for Tropical Connections (June 09) - fun and tones tastefully with Paris Imperfect! Am delighted with it.
(Later - Currently the Book Depository are offering a good pre-pub price - click on cover in right-hand column.)

Mr Whicher and the Yellow Book

Kate Summerscale's The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, meticulously researched, very well written, deserves all the praises heaped upon it. Moreover, not only is it a true who-and-why-dunnit, but it also sheds light on Victorian middle-class values and customs, and on police work in the 1800s. However, I don't much like books which dwell on the gruesome murder of a small child and the character of the murderer, so I didn't especially enjoy it.

To more cheerful matters, I have now received my copy of the National Gardens Scheme Yellow Book for 2009, see one of their photos above. I love visiting and nosing around other people's back gardens, large and small. It's so interesting what amateur gardeners achieve in the tiniest gardens - sometimes it seems to me they do just as well or better than the pros.

You can buy the Yellow Book for your county if you don't want to splash out for the whole of England and Wales.

Alps and Kate Atkinson

When Will There Be Good News by Kate Atkinson gripped me from start to finish. There are two heroines to care about: the tough young orphan Reggie and her boss the charming ladylike Doctor Jo Hunter. Very hard to talk about this book without giving away the plot – and there is a lot of plot - but it is a crime novel enhanced by Kate Atkinson’s quirky humour and original writing. Her jaded ex-detective Jackson Brodie does feature, along with the angry chippy DCI Louise – it seems they are still in love though married to other people.
I found the book hard to put down. Even the minor characters are brilliantly drawn like the badly named receptionist ‘Joy’ and the sister-in-law who wore an expensive dress that looked as if it had been made from flags of obscure countries cut up and sewn together by a blind pigeon.

As I said, there is a lot of plot, some of it pretty unlikely, but the book is written with such energy and flair that one is swept along with the flow. Do read it.

Here is a Times interview with KA.

(Book is set mainly in Edinburgh or Yorkshire but am posting irrelevant photo of Mt. Vallon, Mottaret, because I miss skiing.)

February flowers and Friday Nights

Friday Nights by Joanna Trollope.I like JT but this book didn’t entirely grab me. Perhaps there were too many characters, too many viewpoints: Paula – too impulsively selfish, Lindsay - too anxiously unselfish, her DJ sister – too punk, Blaise and Karen - too work-absorbed, and Eleanor the older single woman, kind but dry. Trouble is, though they were interesting at first, I didn’t really mind what happened to any of them. Not a lot did actually happen, but then theme rather than plot is the point of a JT novel, and she is a writer who likes to explore different aspects of modern life. She has researched the disco scene pretty well, as far as I could tell, and dipped her toes into spectator football - though I skipped some of this - and, of course, the children were charming and well drawn. As usual, there are insightful gems, but maybe there was too much unlikely self-analysis in the dialogue. Surely most working women don't have time for psychobabble.

What was the book about? Female friendship, and the fact that men can disturb the balance. But it strikes me that most of the characters in this book didn’t have a huge amount in common with each other in the first place. Here is a Times review.

Unearthed classics

As I said in my last reading post, I’ve been hunting around the house for unread books, mainly Virago classics. I don’t even remember how I acquired some of them.

Letters from Constance by Mary Hocking (1992). As you may guess, this is a novel told in letters from Constance to Sheila from 1939-1986. As they leave school, the friends vow to keep in touch. Constance, who considers herself dull and plodding, marries a gregarious Irishman and has seven children, while Sheila marries the brilliant but unhappy Miles. One reads the story of their lives between the lines of Constance’s letters – not a page turner but a gentle and interesting portrait of developing lives and times, at first amusing but eventually sad.

Rising Tide by Molly Keane. Another story of lost times, this is the book I liked best of all the MK’s I’ve read. A tale of upper class Anglo-Irish life - 'one glorious gothic mansion and two rather different women who would be Queen. Lady Charlotte French-McGrath has successfully ruled over her family with an iron will, until the arrival of Cynthia engaged to her son Desmond. Cynthia is a denizen of the Jazz Age and, on the surface, her life passes in a whirl of hunting, drinking, and romance. But the ghosts of Garonlea are only biding their time. '

I enjoyed re-reading part of Bitter Lemons (1957) by Lawrence Durrell. Loved the description of buying the house on Cyprus, but I’ve laid it aside for the time being. Perhaps I’m depressed by the thought of the political conflict ahead. There’s so much war in the world that I want to escape when I read. I also enjoyed another dip into The Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux (1975) While I greatly admire his intrepid journey and efforts to understand the wider world, I dislike his boastful drinking and talk of brothels.

Today I gave way to temptation and bought J.Trollope and Kate Atkinson in Tesco’s. (Above is my new amaryllis, nice and red, isn't it?)

US Journal Review - Paris Imperfect

An encouraging review from the US journal Booklist: "Twice-married Englishwoman Clio Forrester is living what she thinks is the perfect life in Paris, working as a private tour guide. She and her son Alex..live with her boyfriend Philippe in his pristine flat. Philippe is everything a woman wants in a man—cultured, handsome, well-off. So what if he constantly wants her to lose weight or if his mother does not bother to hide her disdain? Everything starts to change, however, after she conducts one of many tours of the French battlefields. She is escorting an American couple, who gives her grief, and a handsome Canadian, who gives her goose bumps...Vereker delivers a triumphant tale of a modern Englishwoman living abroad that will appeal to American readers looking for a sophisticated romance."

Good news: have just discovered that Paris Imperfect will be out in trade paperback (the large kind of pb) in September at £10.99.

Romantic Lunch

Great fun, excitement and buzz on Tuesday at the Romantic Novel of the Year Lunch. This year the major award was won by East of the Sun by Julia Gregson and has already been sold as a TV series apparently. Here is a BBC report. I reviewed it last year.

The prize for shorter category romances went to India Grey (left) for her novel: Mistress: Hired for the Billionaire's Pleasure(!) By the way, I gather that the M&B authors don't get to choose the titles.

The RNA also presented Judy Piatkus (right) a Lifetime Award for her verve and flair as a publisher. She told us that when she first met her husband-to-be she didn't like to admit she was a successful businesswoman so she merely informed him she read romantic fiction for a living. When he took this in his stride, she realised he was the man for her.

The food was as good as the company: here is the elegant starter. Good effort by the Royal Garden Hotel, Kensington.

Guest blogger

Currently re-reading A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley. Excellent, but I fear it will end in tears.
I'm even dreaming about it.
Weather vile. Hope I will make it to the RNA lunch tomorrow.

We have just been watching the news from Australia in horror. So, so awful. I'm sorry to comment about this crisis in the same breath as the above frivolity, but I would just like to extend deepest sympathy if there are any Australians reading this.

At last!

I know you've all been waiting. Here it is, the wonder amaryllis.

A couple of days ago I tested my blog's personality on one of these weird on-line questionnaires and discovered it is one of "The Performers - The entertaining and friendly type. They are especially attuned to pleasure and beauty and like to fill their surroundings with soft fabrics, bright colors and sweet smells. They live in the present moment and don´t like to plan ahead - they are always in risk of exhausting themselves. The enjoy work that makes them able to help other people in a concrete and visible way. They tend to avoid conflicts and rarely initiate confrontation - qualities that can make it hard for them in management positions." Hm. My blog is not trying to manage anybody! I can't remember where I found this quiz, but the link is this, I think.

Another entertainment and time-waster: Do listen to the Mom song. Quite funny in parts.

Personal Book news: Paris Imperfect is currently £5 cheaper at The Book Depository. Tropical Connections should be out in June.

BBC WW2 Memoirs

Well, of course, I was born long after 1940 but can identify with some of the following:

"We were born before TV, penicillin, polio shots, frozen foods, Xerox, contact lenses, videos and the pill. We were before radar, credit cards, split atoms, laser beams and ballpoint pens, before dishwashers, tumble driers, electric blankets, air conditioners, drip-dry clothes…and before man walked on the moon.
"We got married first and then lived together (how quaint can you be?) We thought fast food was what you ate in Lent, a Big Mac was an oversized raincoat. We were before disposable nappies. We had never heard of FM radio, artificial hearts, word processors, or young men wearing earrings. For us time sharing meant togetherness, a chip was a piece of wood or fried potato, hardware meant nuts and bolts, and software wasn’t a word.
"In our day, cigarette smoking was fashionable, grass was mown, coke was kept in the coalhouse, a joint was a piece of meat you ate on Sundays and pot was something you cooked it in.

Those born before 1940 must be a hardy bunch when you think of the way in which the world has changed and the adjustments we have had to make. No wonder there is a generation gap today — but, by the Grace of God, we have survived!"
(Abridged from Mr. Bridge’s Tea Towel)

'WW2 People's War is an online archive of wartime memories contributed by members of the public and gathered by the BBC. The above is accredited to Joyce Gibson.

I didn't realise that penicillin wasn't in use before the war. I hadn't really given much thought as to when radar was invented either. But yes, in my youth smoking cigarettes was deeply fashionable, oh dear.

Orchids, reading and domesticity

Orchids and willows.

Recent reading
The Flame Trees of Thika. Some of us may remember the television series. I much enjoyed the book about Elspeth Huxley’s wild African childhood before WWI. With her valiant mother and her gullible, kindly father, she trekked out to make a home in the Kenya wilderness. They built a grass house, they ate off packing cases spread with damask table cloths, they learnt how to train oxen, grow coffee and understand something of their African neighbours.

Who’s That Girl? by Alexandra Potter. I grabbed this in the supermarket by mistake, thinking it was by a different author. Fun chick lit but not my kind of thing. More suitable for the under 30s.

Domesticity
Use clothes pegs to seal opened items in the larder like bags of flour, loaves of bread, cereal bags. Much easier than twists of wire and seals that come unstuck.

The other night I cooked one of Jamie Oliver’s tasty chicken-breasts-in-the-bag recipes, though life is too short to grate parsnip. Instead of peeling and chopping ginger root I used crystallised stem ginger left over from cake-making – OK, more calories but quicker, and equally delicious.

Suspense

The suspense is killing me. This is last year's amaryllis and it has been growing taller and taller and taller every day. Will it flower or not? I didn't feed the hibernating bulb, so I hope all this waiting will be worth while.

There's been nothing on tv lately, so when not involved in domesticity or re-writing latest novel, I've been reading the wonderful Anne Tyler. We've been talking about her Breathing Lessons in the Cornflower Book Group, see link. I think she's a brilliant writer though I wouldn't want to spend a day with her tiresomely innocent and interfering middle-aged heroine, Maggie. I enjoyed A Patchwork Planet more. Do read it. Barnaby, the young hero, was a difficult teenager who doesn't get on with his rich family. He now works for Rent A Back, helping old people move their furniture etc. Touching, full of wisdom and funny.