We Shall Remember Them

'Jack fell as he'd have wished,' the mother said,
And folded up the letter that she'd read.
'The Colonel writes so nicely.' Something broke
In the tired voice that quavered to a choke.
She half looked up. 'We mothers are so proud
Of our dead soldiers.' Then her face was bowed. 

Quietly the Brother Officer went out.
He'd told the poor old dear some gallant lies
That she would nourish all her days, no doubt
For while he coughed and mumbled, her weak eyes
Had shone with gentle triumph, brimmed with joy,
Because he'd been so brave, her glorious boy. 

He thought how 'Jack', cold-footed, useless swine,
Had panicked down the trench that night the mine
Went up at Wicked Corner; how he'd tried
To get sent home, and how, at last, he died,
Blown to small bits. And no one seemed to care
Except that lonely woman with white hair.


Siegfried Sassoon 

Faceless Killers

 I have just finished  reading Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell, the first in the Kurt Wallander series.

 I am a latecomer to the series as this book was written 20 years ago. Mankell has a huge fan base from all over the world and in fact the Wallander novels have been translated into 45 languages and have sold over 30 million copies.
There have also been several screen adaptations of Wallander, both Swedish and British (with Kenneth Branagh in the British version.)

I don't normally read crime fiction as it doesn't generally appeal to me but I was tempted by this after having recently watched the excellent The Killing on BBC 4 and The Millennium Trilogy on DVD.
Scandinavia is somewhere I would love to visit and so anything set here is immediately more appealing to me. There seems to be a huge surge in interest in the Scandinavian crime fiction genre and I am not ashamed to admit I have jumped on to the bandwagon.


From the start of Faceless Killers,  it is obvious that Wallander is going to be a complex character. He is going through a lot of turmoil in his private life- the recent breakdown of his marriage, his father's ill health and a troubled relationship with his daughter.
He also has an alcohol problem,  lives off a diet of junk food and is a workaholic. His marriage breakdown has affected him deeply and in desperation he tries unsuccessfully to begin a relationship with the attractive and more importantly, married, acting public prosecutor Anette Brolin.

The main plot of the story is the brutal murder of an elderly farmer and his wife at an isolated farmhouse in the Swedish countryside. When the couple are discovered, the man is already dead but his wife is still alive and manages to utter the word 'foreign' before she dies.

This one word leads to the conclusion that the awful deed has been committed by an immigrant and there is a public backlash against a nearby refugee centre.
Wallander and his team of colleagues not only have to solve the murder, but also have to protect the refugees from attacks of a racist nature.

Manning's writing is fast paced and engrossing. He explains the investigation process in a logical precise manner and it is easy to follow what is happening. There are poignant scenes, such as the one where Wallander's senile father thinks he is leaving home to travel to Italy to paint, dressed in a big hat and pyjamas.
Manning handles this scene beautifully, showing a softer caring side to Wallander.

I was very interested to listen to Henning Mankell talk about this book on the World Book Club broadcast in July of this year. In the interview, he says that he didn't create Kurt Wallander and then write stories around the character but rather that the story came first and that he felt he needed a policeman in his story.

The interview is well worth a listen, whether you are a Henning Mankell fan or like me, totally new to his work. He comes across as a genuinely very nice man with a superb sense of humour and total humility.
I shall certainly be reading more of his novels, both the Wallander series and his other general fiction.

I would rate this book as 8 out of 10. The storyline is a good one and keeps you guessing until the end although it does finish a little abruptly. Worth a read.

Back to school

October is nearly here and I am really looking forward to it for a number of reasons.The main one is that it heralds the official start date for my OU course- AA100 The arts past and present

I am doing this course as the first step towards the BA in English Literature that I hope to achieve. Doing a degree is an ambition that I have had for a long time but which has been on the back-burner due to time restraints.

However, now I am not working and my daughters are teenagers, there are a few spare hours in the day in which I can study.

Having received the course materials a few weeks ago, I have made a start already so that I can get ahead.

From what I have read so far, AA100 promises to be both a challenging and enjoyable experience.The subjects covered are extremely diverse and include chapters on Cleopatra, Stalin and The Dalai Lama. 

There is also a strong focus on analysing art, which is something that I have no knowledge of and of which I am a bit apprehensive.

Part of my first assignment involves analyzing this painting by Paul Cezanne, called (uninventively) Jug and Fruit.

  I think I am going to find this quite difficult as my first impression of the painting is sheer dislike. It is not something that I would choose to hang on my wall, no matter how renowned an artist Cezanne is.

Currently I am reading the play Doctor Faustus written by Christopher Marlowe.

 Marlowe was a contemporary of Shakespeare and there is a somewhat controversial theory that some of The Great Bard's plays were written by other authors of the time, Marlowe amongst them.

Having only studied Hamlet and Macbeth at school many years ago, I thought I would struggle to read the Renaissance language. However, by using the study notes and by also listening along to the play on CD whilst reading , I haven't found it difficult at all. In fact it has been a very enjoyable experience.

Without giving too much away, the play tells the story of Doctor Faustus, an extremely intelligent but greedy man who sells his soul to Lucifer in exchange for 24 years of service from the demon, Mephistopheles.

The play, which was written around 1592 is based on the German legend Faust. It wasn't published until 1604, 11 years after Marlowe's death.

The story of Christopher Marlowe's life would make a fascinating book in its own right. He was born in the same year as William Shakespeare and studied at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. While there, it is believed that he was recruited as a spy for the Government and disappeared for a while, later returning to obtain his MA.

In 1587, he went to London to become a playwright and wrote several plays including The Jew of Malta, Edward II and The Massacre at Paris.

What is more fascinating for me though is his life outside writing. He was frequently in trouble with the police for brawling and was charged with murder in 1589 when a man died during a street fight. Marlowe was sent to Newgate Gaol where he spent two weeks. He was later acquitted of the charge. It was apparent that Marlowe had "friends in high places" who saved him from getting into serious trouble.

 Marlowe is possibly more famous for his death than anything else. In 1593 at a house in Deptford belonging to a Mrs Eliza Bull,  Marlowe was eating supper with three other men- Ingram Frizer, Nicholas Skeres and Robert Poley. An argument broke out over who was to pay the bill and Marlowe is said to have grabbed Frizer's dagger and hit him over the head with it. A fight broke out which resulted in Marlowe being stabbed through the right eye by Frizer. He died instantly.

The coroner found that Frizer was acting in self-defence and received a royal pardon for the charges against him. However, Frizer, Skeres and Poley were all three quite shady characters and it is now believed in some quarters, that he was assassinated for his heretical beliefs or his involvement in the secret service. Very James Bond!

I find the whole story quite fascinating and  think it would make a brilliant topic for a novel and or a film. Quite surprised that it hasn't been done before.

Anyway that's today's history lesson over with- I have more study to do

Catch you all later

Tracey

  

Back to normal, riots and book burning.

 I realise that it has been almost two months since my last post and for that I can only apologise. I have not been feeling too well of late but it seems like I might now be turning a corner as my enthusiasm for reading and blogging is returning.

                                                     


However, as I haven't been in a reading frame of mind recently, I was wondering what I could write about to get back into the swing of things- after all this is a reading blog. 

Obviously, the topic on everyone's minds at the moment is the riots that have been taking place across the country. As I  followed the events unfolding via Twitter on Monday evening , there were many tweets and retweets from all over the country. A vast number of them were expressing concern for areas where they lived or for people they knew and the amount of tweets coming through became almost too overwhelming to keep up with.
  There were however, other more upbeat tweets and whilst I do not wish to make light of the riots and their effects in any way I couldn't resist a small chuckle at those referring to comments made by a Waterstone employee. He/ she is reported as saying that Waterstones would remain open despite the disturbances as "if they stole some books they might learn something."

Unsurprisingly it does seem that very few if any books appear to have been looted, the rioters preferring instead to take plasma tv's, watches and designer label clothing- a very strong reflection of our materialistic society.
This led me to wonder what part books have played in the history of rioting ( if any) and what I have found is very interesting.

The practice of book burning (aka libricide or biblioclasm)  is something that has occurred throughout the ages. It is a symbolic act, usually performed in public and generally motivated by moral, political or religious reasons.

During my research , I came across this  blog post written by Prospero on The Economist.
In it he states that

rioting and books share a stormy history 

and refers to the Bonfire of the Vanities which took place in 1497 when

Girolamo Savonarola and his band of religious followers roundly collected and set fire to mounds of “pagan” literature.

Girolamo Savonarola was an Italian Dominican Priest  who destroyed all types of art, including books, that he deemed as immoral in a fire on the Piazza della Signoria in Florence. Unfortunately, his moral stance and actions did him little good and he was executed in 1498.
If you are interested in reading a fictional portrayal of Savonarola, the Victorian novelist, George Eliot wrote a book called Romola where he is one of the main characters.

I also looked at  the portrayal of rioting in literature and came across a very appropriate book to read in the context of the last few days- Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.

I had heard of this novel but until today, I was unaware of its story. However, on reading the blurb (courtesy of Bianca's Book Blog) I have immediately added it to my TBR pile. The blurb says;

In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury's classic, frightening vision of the future, firemen don't put out fires--they start them in order to burn books. Bradbury's vividly painted society holds up the appearance of happiness as the highest goal--a place where trivial information is good, and knowledge and ideas are bad. Fire Captain Beatty explains it this way, "Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more popular songs.... Don't give them slippery stuff like philosophy or sociology to tie things up with. That way lies melancholy."
Guy Montag is a book-burning fireman undergoing a crisis of faith. His wife spends all day with her television "family", imploring Montag to work harder so that they can afford a fourth TV wall. Their dull, empty life sharply contrasts with that of his next-door neighbour Clarisse, a young girl thrilled by the ideas in books, and more interested in what she can see in the world around her than in the mindless chatter of the tube. When Clarisse disappears mysteriously, Montag is moved to make some changes, and starts hiding books in his home. Eventually, his wife turns him in, and he must answer the call to burn his secret cache of books. After fleeing to avoid arrest, Montag winds up joining an outlaw band of scholars who keep the contents of books in their heads, waiting for the time society will once again need the wisdom of literature."

 Ray Bradbury was apparently inspired to write this novel by the Nazi Book Burnings of the 1930's. The story which was published  in 1953 is set in an America of the future. Reading and books are banned and anyone caught  with them is at best sent to a mental institution. Lawlessness is rife-there are teenagers crashing cars into people, and hedonism is the way of life. Firemen are employed to set fire to books which are the source of knowledge and knowledge leads to unhappiness.

I doubt it is going to be a comfortable book to read, especially as it seems to have parallels to the events of the last few days. However, I believe we should all occasionally read texts that make us uncomfortable if only to feel glad for the lives that we have.

 I hope that all of my followers are safe following the unrest of the last few days. I feel it is important to remember that although there were a great number of rioters, they are in a minority and the rest of us law abiding citizens should hang on to what we believe is right and not be intimidated by these mindless individuals.

 See you soon

Friday Challenge

Ok so as it's Friday I thought I would do something different and  have posed a fun challenge for anyone to take part in. It's nothing too taxing- I am just interested to find out about my fellow readers and blog followers and  have composed a few questions for you to answer!

So that it isn't a one sided exercise, I have posted my answers underneath each question to help you get started.

So here goes;


Name....

A book that disappointed you

The Other Hand by Chris Cleave- this book was really hyped up at its release in 2008 but it left me cold.                                    



A book that surprised you

                         

Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier- This book was recommended to me by my Grandmother who is also an avid reader and it is amongst my all time favourites.

A book that frightened you

                          
The Fog by James Herbert. I never finished it because it scared me so much and have been unable to read any more James Herbert since!



A book that shocked you 
 

                                                     
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini - There are some very upsetting scenes in this book but it an excellent read and I recommend it highly.



A book that made you laugh out loud 

 

       
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 3/4- I read this first as a teenager but have been back to it since as an adult and still love it.



A book you didn't expect to enjoy

             
Star of the sea by Joseph O'Connor (Brother of Singer Sinead!) A surprisingly good read.



The book you have re-read the most

         

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte- This is the first book I fell in love with as a teenager. I have lost count of just how many times I have read it.

Your favourite genre

                                                                  
I like books from all genres but if I had to choose I would say historical fiction.



And finally......

Name a book that will always live on your bookshelf and why
 

                                                                   
  
Eckhart Tolle A New Earth (see my previous blog post)  

                                                                     
I am really looking forward to reading your answers and I hope you all enjoy taking part.

Happy Friday everyone!!


Tracey
xx

Reading Challenge- 1st Book and Film completed

Well folks, I am pleased to say that I have just completed my first book and film  in the Two Bibiliomaniacs reading challenge.

First up is The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory. I love historical novels and have read many over the years, but for some reason I have shied away from books about The Tudors.This may be because so many people have written about them and I already know quite a lot about Henry VIII and his wives from history lessons at school.

However, I picked up a copy of the book in a local charity shop and after reading the blurb decided to include it in the challenge. 

What can I say but "Why oh Why haven't I read Philippa Gregory before?"  From the first page I was hooked and spent several nights reading until I could no longer keep my eyes open. At over 500 pages long, it is a meaty book, but at no stage was I bored nor did I feel that the story was too long. In fact, I slowed down my reading towards the end as I did not want to leave the world of Mary Boelyn and her outrageous family.

Ms Gregory's style of prose is, in my opinion similar to that of one of my favourite authors, Ken Follett. The story moves along at a good pace- it isn't bogged down by overly descriptive phrases or stilted dialogue. All of the main characters are brought vividly to life and I found myself still thinking about them several days after I had finished reading.


As if you haven't already guessed, I loved The Other Boleyn Girl and give it  10 out of 10. It is without doubt the most engrossing book I have read for a very long time. Highly recommended.

This now leads me on to a review of the film.

Having enjoyed the book so much, I was prepared for the fact that I may not like the film as much as if I hadn't known the story first.
However, when the DVD dropped through my letterbox this morning, I was still excited to see how the book had been interpreted and from what I knew of the cast, and the writer Peter Morgan (The Last King of Scotland) it sounded very promising indeed.

Sadly, I have to say that I was very disappointed. I understand that it must be a real challenge to condense a 500+ page book into an under 2 hour film, and that parts of the storyline will, inevitably be affected.
However, many of the important threads in the book had either been totally omitted or changed beyond recognition and this made the film seem disjointed and  hard to follow. I became increasingly annoyed by the bits that were left out and by other elements of the story, (such as Anne's trial and execution) being rushed through.
I feel that it would have been far better to dramatise the story on TV over several parts and am sure the BBC with its talent for dramatic productions would have done it far much justice.

I would score this film 5 out of 10. It is not a bad film and I am sure if I hadn't read the book first, I would have enjoyed it more.  But I don't think I will be rushing to watch it again.

Anyway, that's the whole point of this challenge so on to the next one!


Have a great weekend everyone!

Hello Blogland

Hi All


Apologies for my lack of posts lately but I have lots of interesting things going on at the moment and just haven't been able to sit for long enough to focus on my blog.

The thing I am most excited about is I am going to start an honours degree in English Literature with The Open University.
It is something that I have wanted to do for a very long time but until now haven't had the opportunity.

However the time is right and so in October I will be embarking on a course titled Arts Past and Present. The description says 

This broadly-focused course introduces you to university-level study in the arts across a range of subject areas, including history, art history, philosophy, classical studies, history of science, religious studies, music and English. It is structured around four themes, guiding you through some of the basic concerns of arts subjects: Reputations; Tradition and Dissent; Cultural Encounters; and Place and Leisure. Your studies will range from poetry to string quartets, and from sculpture to short stories – across a wide variety of cultures and historical periods. This key introductory Level 1 course is also a useful means of acquiring the key skills required for further study of arts subjects

It sounds very interesting as I know next to nothing about art or classical studies and have never studied philosophy.
As well as expanding my knowledge and passion for literature, I am also hoping that a degree will enable me to write in a more insightful way and help me in my journey to becoming a professional writer.

Probably the thing I am most looking forward to on the course is the essay writing. A few years ago I did another OU course , An introduction to the social sciences and whilst I really enjoyed the coursework and the lectures I attended at Bournemouth University, the essay writing gave me both the greatest challenge and the most pleasure. Not sure what that says about me!
 
I have already bought the set books from ebay, saving myself a considerable amount of money and so am ready to go. Roll on October! I can't wait.


The next thing I need to do is fit in a trip to the cinema to see Water For Elephants as part of my Reading Challenge-I have already finished the book so need to get moving. Hopefully will be reviewing both very shortly.

Have a great weekend all


Tracey