‘She knew what so many of them thought. That she was too late in her pregnancy to be effective. That she was a liability rather than an asset.’
In nort‘She knew what so many of them thought. That she was too late in her pregnancy to be effective. That she was a liability rather than an asset.’
In northern New South Wales and awaiting the birth of her second child, Detective Sergeant Kate Miles is one week away from starting maternity leave. She may be exhausted and counting down the days, but she is determined to continue. Thankfully, she has the support of her husband Geoff. DS Miles is called to the scene of a robbery at a local fast-food restaurant. A teenage girl has been injured when three intruders, wearing masks, robbed the restaurant. Similar masks were worn by two intruders in the recent robbery of a bakery. The injured girl’s father is a local councillor, happy to throw his weight around as investigations proceed.
A second case is given to DS Miles: the review of a closed case in which a man drowned during floods in the previous summer. The man’s mother is convinced her daughter-in-law was somehow involved and the death was not accidental. DS Miles is under pressure to sign off on the closed case, but she wants to investigate thoroughly.
Both cases involve twists, and crucial information has been withheld. In this small community there are few secrets and (of course) everyone has an opinion. There are some personal issues to be negotiated as well, and DS Miles is running out of time.
This was Ms McKenzie’s debut novel, and I liked it. I have lined up the next two novels in the series because I am interested in seeing what is next for DS Kate Miles. She is an intriguing character, and I enjoyed learning more about her.
‘As is every parent’s nightmare, Henry Clark had seemingly been abducted from his toddler bed while his mother was asleep in the next room and his fat‘As is every parent’s nightmare, Henry Clark had seemingly been abducted from his toddler bed while his mother was asleep in the next room and his father was away on a business trip to New York.’
Moxie Castin is defending Colleen Parker, the Maine mother accused of the abduction and possible murder of her son, Henry. The police arrested Colleen Parker when a heavily blood-stained blanket was found in the boot of her car. In the court of public opinion, most judge Colleen as guilty. Castin employs private investigator Charlie Parker to investigate. Colleen’s husband, Stephen, believes his wife is guilty but agrees to speak with Parker. Their meeting raises more questions than answers. Did Colleen abduct and murder Henry? Was Stephen involved?
Hang onto those questions. Meanwhile, deep in the woods of Maine a group of fascists preparing for war are curious about a decrepit looking house on a neighbouring property. And a woman, claiming to hear Henry crying, contacts Charlie.
This dark story contains some truly awful characters (both people and place). Charlie’s investigations lead him into challenging territory. There is nothing straightforward about this case. I quickly became caught up in the story and, while I recognised certain supernatural elements (which generally jerk me right out of a story) Mr Connolly brought the various elements together in a way which held my attention.
This is the 21st novel in the Charlie Parker series. I have read a couple of others, but by no means the majority. This novel works well as a standalone, and I am sure that fans of this series will love it.
I read this book in 2003, the year after it was first published.
While I read some of the same books as Francis Spufford, my real interest in this bookI read this book in 2003, the year after it was first published.
While I read some of the same books as Francis Spufford, my real interest in this book was in discovering someone else for whom reading was such an important part of growing up.
Reading can be such a solitary pursuit, especially where it is an escape route, that why we read what we read is sometimes not much discussed. The adult level analysis that Francis Spufford applies to his childhood reading will appeal to some more than others. I enjoyed it because I like the idea of revisiting some of the journeys of childhood and trying to identify some of the influences on the adult I now am.
I bought this book in hardcover because I know it is a book I want to keep, to refer back to, and perhaps to share.
Yes, humiliating a guy on a girl’s night out was a mistake. Kate Delaney finds herself kidnapped, brutalised‘And that was Kate Delaney’s Big Mistake.’
Yes, humiliating a guy on a girl’s night out was a mistake. Kate Delaney finds herself kidnapped, brutalised and bound in the back of a car. Kate is terrified. She has no idea where she’s headed, no idea what the man’s name is. As a journalist who has reported on crime, Kate is well aware of the statistics about women who go missing. Can she survive?
Meanwhile, Kate’s boyfriend Liam Carroll and friend Sylvia are concerned. Kate was expected home and when she doesn’t return, Liam approaches the police.
‘In Melbourne, Liam Carroll looks at his phone and wonders what the hell is going on. Where is she?’
The story unfolds from several points of view: Kate’s fear, Liam’s anxiety and the procedures followed by the police. Initially Liam is a suspect but is quickly excluded. Kate’s abductor leaves a trail, and the search shifts from Victoria to New South Wales.
This novel held my attention, in part because I am fairly familiar with the area around Pheasants Nest and wondered how it would be worked into the story. I was distracted at times by the number of different perspectives, which (for me, at least) served to reduce the tension. Sometimes, too much detail in fiction can be distracting.
Did I enjoy the novel? Yes, mostly. I needed to keep reading to know how it would end.
‘It is by our tasks that we come to know our powers.’
The central character of this novel, set in the middle of the 4th century CE, is Drusus. Drusus i‘It is by our tasks that we come to know our powers.’
The central character of this novel, set in the middle of the 4th century CE, is Drusus. Drusus is a young British nobleman of Roman birth whose mother died when he was born. As the novel opens, Drusus is fourteen years old, and his father, Appius, has been summoned to the emperor’s court at Trier ‘to answer certain … questions.’ Drusus is sent to his great uncle in London, Lucius Balbus. He will never see his father again.
By this period, Britain and the Roman Empire have been ruled by Christian emperors for a generation. The Christian church continues to grow in strength and has suppressed most of its opposition. And, while much of the population in Britain worships the old gods, the Christian church, with the support of the emperor, is now attempting to destroy the old beliefs by force. As the story unfolds, Drusus finds himself involved in both religious and civil conflict. He becomes a soldier, finds love, and comes under suspicion.
The Western Roman Empire is beginning to crumble. There is civil war within the empire after the death of Constantine in 337 CE and Drusus and his lover Marcellus become caught up in the political intrigue and the fighting.
I enjoyed this novel. I do not know much of the history of this period, and Mr Waters has me wanting to know more about the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Drusus himself is an interesting character, as is Marcellus’s grandfather Aquinus.
And now I need to read the second novel in the duology to see how it ends.
‘In the beginning there was a river. The river became a road and the road branched out to the whole world. And because the road was once a river it wa‘In the beginning there was a river. The river became a road and the road branched out to the whole world. And because the road was once a river it was always hungry.’
Remember these words as you read this book—this is the world you have entered. Reality has a different dimension, even when some of the parameters are recognisable. This is Azaro’s story.
Azaro is a spirit child, born to live for a short time in the world of the living before returning to the world of his spirit companions. Azaro has been reborn many times. But this time, despite being pursued by his spirit companions, Azaro chooses to remain in the world of the living. And so, here he is. A boy who can see spirits around him while existing in a slum with his hard-working mother and hard-drinking father. Mr Okri brings both these worlds to life. Through Azaro’s eyes we see the grinding poverty of the slum. An election is coming, and promises are made by politicians from ‘The Party of the Rich’ and ‘The Party of the Poor’. Azaro’s father, working in ever degrading jobs makes a series of poor choices which increase the family’s hardship. Azaro’s mother works hard to keep food on the table and to pay the rent. And Azaro chooses to stay here, to experience this life, instead of returning to the fluid world of spirits.
Corruption and poverty, violence and hardship overwhelm the physical world Azaro is in, and the spirit world of dreams offers an escape. Or does it? And what about Azaro’s mother? How does she reconcile her dreams (mostly of Azaro’s future beyond school) with reality? There are other characters as well, including the opportunistic Madame Koto, and a photographer who has challenges of his own.
This novel is the first of a trilogy. I am tempted to keep reading, but I need a period of reflection before continuing. While I found this book rewarding, I found it challenging to shift between worlds.
Back when I first read ‘Animal Farm’, in the late 1960s, criticism (allegorical or otherwise) of Stalin’s USSR seemed entirely Another layer of irony.
Back when I first read ‘Animal Farm’, in the late 1960s, criticism (allegorical or otherwise) of Stalin’s USSR seemed entirely justified. And using animals to convey the message somehow seemed entirely appropriate. My young self could entirely accept a group of animals rebelling against Mr Jones. I was fairly young and was absolutely devastated by what happened to Boxer. If only, I thought, the pigs had retained their original ideals. If only.
Old Major, the prize Middle White boar, spoke to the animals of the Manor Farm. He speaks of the need for rebellion and teaches the animals a revolutionary song ‘Beasts of England’.
‘Why do we continue in this miserable condition? Because nearly the whole of the produce of our labour is stolen from us by human beings. There, comrades, is the answer to all our problems. It is summed up in a single world – Man. Man is the only real enemy we have. Remove Man from the scene, and the root cause of hunger and overwork is abolished for ever.
Man is the only creature that consumes without producing.’
After Old Major dies, two young pigs, Napoleon and Snowball stage a revolt, driving Mr Jones and his wife off the farm, which is renamed ‘Animal Farm’.
Seven Commandments are adopted, and for a while all runs smoothly.
‘The Commandments were written on the tarred wall in great white letters that could be read thirty yards away. They ran thus: 1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy. 2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.’ 3. No animal shall wear clothes. 4. No animal shall sleep in a bed. 5. No animal shall drink alcohol. 6. No animal shall kill any other animal. 7. All animals are equal.’
But this happy state of affairs will not last for long. Napoleon assumes absolute control. Snowball is banished, commandments are amended, changed and deleted until, by the end of the story there is only a single commandment:
‘It ran: ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL, BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS.’
Communism, we were mostly taught in our representative democracy, is not good. And, surely, ‘Animal Farm’ demonstrates why. Too simple. Authoritarian states have multiplied since 1945, when ‘Animal Farm’ was published, and not all authoritarian states are communist (or socialist, for those who view the two as interchangeable).
Rereading ‘Animal Farm’ last week (towards the end of 2023) has me recognising more widespread abuses of power, a proliferation of more corrosive ideologies, backed by invasion and terrorism. Do we ever learn?
In the words of George Santanya: ‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.’
If I am still here in 2045, I’ll reread ‘Animal Farm’ again.
‘After twenty-five years of 'sex, drugs, bad behaviour and haute cuisine', chef and novelist Anthony Bourd‘Things are different now.’
Here’s the blurb:
‘After twenty-five years of 'sex, drugs, bad behaviour and haute cuisine', chef and novelist Anthony Bourdain decided to tell all. From his first oyster in the Gironde to his lowly position as a dishwasher in a honky-tonk fish restaurant in Provincetown; from the kitchen of the Rainbow Room atop the Rockefeller Center to drug dealers in the East Village, from Tokyo to Paris and back to New York again, Bourdain's tales of the kitchen are as passionate as they are unpredictable, as shocking as they are funny. With handwritten footnotes and afterthoughts.’
Okay. I read this book because it was the starting point for the December 2023 iteration of the #6 Degrees of Separation book meme I participate in. I can honestly say that I did not know who Anthony Bourdain was (he died in 2018) and have zero interest in the culinary underbelly occupied by him or any other celebrity chef.
While parts of the book held my attention, I struggled to finish it. Once I did, I washed and dried my hands and looked for something nourishing to pick up. I chose ‘Plenty’ by Yotam Ottolenghi.
‘On Friday noon, July the twentieth, 1714, the finest bridge in all Peru broke and precipitated five travellers into the gulf below.’
Who were these fi‘On Friday noon, July the twentieth, 1714, the finest bridge in all Peru broke and precipitated five travellers into the gulf below.’
Who were these five people? Why were they on the bridge? A witness to the accident, Brother Juniper wonders why this happened to those five and resolves to inquire into their secret lives. Because, surely ‘… this collapse of the bridge of San Luis Rey was a sheer Act of God.’
This is the first part of the story; the next three parts of the story introduce the characters whose lives ended when the bridge collapsed. There are connections between the individuals: the Marquesa de Montemayor, estranged from her daughter, and her servant Pepita are the first mentioned. Pepita and Esteban, who also died in the collapse, were orphans raised by the Abbess Madre María del Pilar. Esteban’s identical twin brother Manuel, whose death has driven Esteban to grief, had written letters for Camila Perichole, a brilliant Peruvian actress. And it is Camila Perichole’s son Don Jaime and her mentor Uncle Pio who are the fourth and fifth victims.
Part five of the story opens by telling us that a new stone bridge has been built, and that Brother Jupiter’s pursuit of detail caused his book to be judged heretical. Both are burned. But the story is noy yet finished. Sometime later Camila meets with Abbess Madre María del Pilar, as does the Condesa d’Abuirre (daughter of the Marquesa de Montemayor). The story ends with the Abbess’s conclusions.
Abbess Madre María del Pilar’s witnessing of Camila and Doña Clara’s spiritual awakening leads her to conclude: ‘Even now’, she thought, ‘almost no one remembers Esteban and Pepita, but myself. Camila alone remembers her Uncle Pio and her son; this woman her mother. But soon we shall die and all memory of those five will have left the earth, and we ourselves shall be loved for a while and forgotten. But the love will have been enough; all those impulses of love return to the love that made them. Even memory is not necessary for love. There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning.’
Mr Wilder used just one hundred pages to tell this story. Each of the adult characters is fully realised, while Don Jaime, a child, is frozen between actual and potential lives. And the deaths? Coincidence and chance, or fate? Poor Brother Juniper: his efforts proven nothing in relation to these deaths and resulted in his own.
This novella was the winner of the 1927 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.
‘It began with the death house on Regency Street.’
Nina, a tour guide for the Thrift House Museum and Hettie P. Clarke Overlooked Artists Gallery, tell‘It began with the death house on Regency Street.’
Nina, a tour guide for the Thrift House Museum and Hettie P. Clarke Overlooked Artists Gallery, tells us the story. The remains of Gertrude Thrift, an elderly woman, was found in her house years after she had died. This could have been yet another sad case of an isolated elderly person dying alone: raising community regret, and (briefly at least) raising consciousness to better manage contact with those living alone. But no, Gertrude is seized from obscurity when it is discovered that she was the sitter for a series of paintings from the 1950s by local artist Hettie P. Clarke entitled ‘Girl With Greyhound’.
Hettie P. Clarke’s diary gives us some details. We learn that Gertrude’s face was scarred after she was bitten by a dog when she was young, and that Hettie P. Clarke learned some of her artistic skills by learning to disguise Gertrude’s scarring. But the most notable thing about the paintings is that Gertrude is painted with giant elf ears.
‘The life story of Gertrude Thrift had already mutated. A constantly evolving, living, breathing entity. Fed by the desperate hopes and imagination of righteous defenders of her so-called legacy.’
And so, in a world where continuous updates, masquerading as information are available to almost everyone, the story of Gertrude and her elf ears goes viral. Some people are convinced that Gertrude had her ears surgically altered. There’s a line in Hettie P. Clarke’s journal:
‘Gertrude’s got her damned elf ears’ and a shadowy photograph of Gertrude wearing a headscarf that some are convinced show an ‘elf ear shape’.
‘Which, if you followed its logical conclusion, assumed that Gertrude, a working-class factory girl in early 1950s Sydney, successfully procured a surgeon not only willing but also skilled enough to carry out such a procedure. It did seem beyond ridiculous. But the idea had taken hold.’
And, once the idea took hold, people started having their ears altered. There are demonstrations outside the Thrift House Museum and Hettie P. Clarke Overlooked Artists Gallery. Some are convinced that the Museum is withholding the truth about Gertrude’s ears. Nina becomes caught up in a web of conspiracy theories where truth is not the only casualty.
‘If we worried about what normal people thought, Gerties wouldn’t exist.’
The story is set in the near future. While most of the focus is on the Gertie cult, there’s another element involving the impact of climate change, of dodgy recycling practices (which may well be the reason why Nina’s husband Benj is currently unable to work), and of growing socio-economic disparities.
This is a brilliant novella, illustrating just how easy it can be to become caught up by media frenzy, and how pervasive confirmation bias can be. At least in this case (unlike in real life), we can laugh. Possibly.
‘Before Mazer invented himself as Mazer, he was Samson Mazer, and before he was Samson Mazer, he was Samson Masur—a change of two letters that transfo‘Before Mazer invented himself as Mazer, he was Samson Mazer, and before he was Samson Mazer, he was Samson Masur—a change of two letters that transformed him from a nice, ostensibly Jewish boy to a Professional Builder of Worlds—and for most of his youth, he was Sam, S.A.M. on the hall of fame of his grandfather’s Donkey Kong machine, but mainly Sam.’
Yes, the first sentence hooked me into this story and kept me there.
The story opens with two college students, Samson Masur (mathematics at Harvard) and Sadie Green (computer science at MIT) running into each other at a train station. They first met in the games room of a hospital: Sadie was visiting her sister and Sam was recovering from a car crash that killed his mother and broke his foot in multiple places. Playing Super Mario Bros drew them together and, while they’ve not spoken for years, their friendship is easily resumed.
Sam’s injured foot has become a long-term disability. The virtual world of gaming provides Sam with a form of freedom, a release from his physical limitations. He and Sadie form a partnership, creating video games and while their success brings them fame it is also accompanied by tragedy.
‘Memory, you realized long ago, is a game that a healthy-brained person can play all the time, and the game of memory is won or lost on one criterion: do you leave the formation of memories to happenstance, or do you decide to remember?’
As the story unfolds over a period of thirty years, both in ‘the real world’ and later in a virtual world, Ms Zevin takes the reader on a journey through the challenges both past and present that Sam and Sadie face. There’s joy and tragedy, the impact of disability, the friction between ideas and delivery, the weight of reality.
I kept reading, wondering how Ms Zevin would draw the story to an ending. I closed the book wanting more, but not needing it.
‘What is a game?’ Marx said. It’s tomorrow, and tomorrow and tomorrow. It’s the possibility of infinite rebirth, infinite redemption. The idea that if you keep playing, you could win. No loss is permanent, because nothing is permanent, ever.’
Tumba, Sweden. A boy is found clinging to life, surrounded by murdered family members. His injuries are so severe that his‘Like fire, just like fire.’
Tumba, Sweden. A boy is found clinging to life, surrounded by murdered family members. His injuries are so severe that his survival is in doubt. The killer is still at large. Detective Inspector Joona Linna is desperate to know what the boy, who is the only survivor, saw. Linna sees hypnotism as a possibility and asks Dr Erik Maria Bark, a psychiatrist with experience with hypnotism, to help. For reasons that become clear as the story progresses, Bark is reluctant. He had previously promised never to use hypnotism again but is convinced to do so when Linna tells him that another family member who was not present during the horrific murders could be in danger.
While Bark’s use of hypnosis does reveal relevant information, once his use of hypnotism becomes public knowledge, it also sets in train a terrifying chain of events. Bark is already struggling, relying on pills to get him through both day and night, but his life is about to become much more complicated. His wife is suspicious and their son, who suffers from a serious medical condition, has become distant.
While it soon becomes clear who was responsible for the horrific murders, catching (or recatching) the perpetrator is more challenging. And then a kidnapping takes Bark and his family into direct danger. The story continues to unfold, with one very long chapter (amongst many much shorter ones) taking us into the past.
This is a long novel, and part way through I became annoyed with Erik Maria Bark and his actions. And then the events of the past helped me make sense of what was happening, and I kept turning the pages to find out how Lars Kepler would tie the various strands together.
This is a dark thriller with several twists. It is also the first in a series and, while this book sat on my reading shelf for far too long. I have at least nine more books to look forward to.
Lars Kepler is the pseudonym of husband-and-wife team Alexander Ahndoril and Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril. The Ahndorils were both established writers before they adopted the pen name Lars Kepler and began writing the Joona Linna series. Nine instalments have been published so far, with the tenth expected in 2024.
Damon Fields is born to a single drug-using teenaged mother, living in a single wide trailer in Lee County, Virginia. His co‘First I got myself born.’
Damon Fields is born to a single drug-using teenaged mother, living in a single wide trailer in Lee County, Virginia. His copper-headed father is dead. In an area rife with nicknames, Damon quickly becomes known as Demon Copperhead. With his mother in and out of rehabilitation, Demon is often looked after by the warm-hearted sprawling Peggot clan. His best friend is Maggot (Matthew). His mother marries while Demon is away with the Peggots, and her disciplinarian boyfriend becomes a controlling abusive husband and stepfather. And then his mother dies.
‘A kid is a terrible thing to be, in charge of nothing.’
Demon’s life goes from bad to worse. As he says: ‘My new life started off bright and early with my new caseworker Miss Barks. She raised up the blinds and said ‘Good morning, Damon. Let’s take you home.’ For a split second I thought I had one, and was going there. Sometimes a good day lasts all of about ten seconds.’
Demon is shunted between foster homes, used as cheap labour and a source of income, school (except for art) becomes secondary. Demon has learned not to trust, not to build up his hopes, and not to rely on anyone else.
‘The teachers, principal, and Miss Barks all gave me the same lecture on how I was not working hard or living up to my potential. I had no fight with them. You get to a point of not giving a damn over people thinking you’re worthless. Mainly by getting there first yourself.’
Demon makes contact with his paternal grandmother, Miss Betsy, and for a time she and his great uncle, Mr Dick, provide him with support. Athletic success seems within Demon’s grasp: he moves into live with Coach Winfield and his daughter Agnes (known as Angus). Demon’s popular for the first time in his life but an injury puts paid to that and leads him into addiction. And, as his life spirals out of control, I wondered how Demon could turn it around. He is loyal to a fault but sees himself as being invisible and having no worth.
‘Sometimes I thought of Miss Betsy and Mr Dick, what they’d think to see me now. The words he’d sent up on a kite, wanting to be hopeful of me. Sad case that I was, false or cruel I wasn’t, if I could help it. And if hard work counts for anything, I was crushing it. Addiction is not for the lazy. The life has no end of hazards, deadly ambushes lying in wait, and that’s just the drugs, not even discussing the people.’
Hopeless as Demon’s life seems at this stage, he is caring for others. There’s his drug-addicted girlfriend, Dori as well as various members of the extended Peggot family.
Ms Kingsolver cites ‘David Copperfield’ by Charles Dickens as a source of inspiration for this book. I can see some of the parallels – especially between U-Haul Pyles and Uriah Heep. It’s sobering to realise that so many of the issues described by Charles Dickens through David Copperfield are still present for so many children today as a consequence of poverty.
And Demon Copperhead? I can only hope that he finds his ocean.
This is definitely one of the best novels I have read so far this year.
‘Later, when he was asked about it, as he would be many times over the course of his long, long life, Percy Summers would say truthfully that he’d tho‘Later, when he was asked about it, as he would be many times over the course of his long, long life, Percy Summers would say truthfully that he’d thought they were asleep.’
Christmas Eve, 1959, Adelaide Hills. At the end of a hot day, beside a creek, Percy Summers makes a terrible discovery. The small South Australian town of Tambilla becomes embroiled in a horrifying murder case.
In 2018, Jess Turner-Bridges is a journalist in search of a story. She has lived and worked in London for nearly twenty years but having recently been laid off from her full-time job, is struggling to make ends meet. And then she receives a telephone call from Australia. Her grandmother Nora, who raised Jess, has suffered a fall, and been taken to hospital. Jess is advised to return to Australia and is shocked to find her grandmother frail and confused. Granted, Nora is almost ninety, but she has been a strong and vital part of Jess’s life. Jess has lived with Nora since she was very young: apparently her mother Polly was unable to look after her.
While Jess waits, hoping that Nora will soon be well enough to come home, she wonders why Nora was heading to the attic when she fell. Nora’s housekeeper tells Jess that Nora seemed distracted for some weeks before her fall. Jess thinks that Nora must have been looking for something in the attic: the one place Jess was forbidden to play in when she was small.
A comment by Nora, a mention of her dead brother, leads Jess to do some digging. She learns about a book by Daniel Miller, about the Turner family tragedy of Christmas Eve 1959. She finds a copy of this book in Nora’s bedroom and learns that her family is connected to this tragedy, a crime that has never been satisfactorily solved.
As the story gradually unfolds, shifting between 1959 and 2018, Jess’s investigations lead her to some uncomfortable discoveries. The Turner family is not the only family with secrets and not all the answers she finds are comfortable.
Ms Funder writes that at the end of the summer of 2017, she found herself overloaded with family and other responsibilities which‘How did I get here?’
Ms Funder writes that at the end of the summer of 2017, she found herself overloaded with family and other responsibilities which were taking her away from her writing deadlines. One day, taking some time out for herself, Ms Funder visited a second-hand bookshop where she found a first-edition, four volume series of George Orwell’s Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters from 1968 . This book led her to rereading Orwell’s books and then to reading six major biographies about his life and work. None of these biographies recognised the role and contribution made to Orwell’s work by his first wife, Eileen O’Shaughnessy.
Eileen O’Shaughnessy (1905-1945) attended Oxford on a scholarship but dropped out of study for a master’s degree at University College in London after marrying Eric Blair (George Orwell was Blair’s pen name) in 1936. Eileen dropped out so that she could accompany Orwell to a remote location where he could write. Eileen ran their household, managed their farm, and associated shop, edited his work, and held other paid jobs. Eileen nursed Orwell when he was ill with tuberculosis, and she looked after their adopted son. All of this while suffering from her own ill health: Eileen was dead at the age of 39 after undergoing surgery for uterine tumours. How could Eileen’s role in Orwell’s writing life be ignored or overlooked so comprehensively?
In her research, Ms Funder refers to six letters written by Eileen to her friend Norah Myles. While these letters were not available to Orwell’s biographers (they came to light in 2005), I can’t help wondering whether they would have made any difference to the biographies presented. I am now keen to read Sylvia Topp’s book Eileen: The Making of George Orwell to learn more of Eileen’s story.
Ms Funder writes:
‘A wife gives a man a double life: one to go off in, and another to come back to.’
Certainly, in Orwell’s case, Eileen’s support provided Orwell with the freedom to pursue his own path. I feel enormous sympathy for Eileen. When Orwell volunteered for the anti-fascist forces in the Spanish Civil War, Eileen went to Barcelona to work at the political headquarters of the Independent Labour Party. And, as Ms Funder observes:
‘How is it that she remains invisible? I scanned through the electronic text of the book [Homage to Catalonia]. Orwell mentions ‘my wife’ thirty-seven times. And then I see it: not once is Eileen named. No character can come to life without a name. But from a wife, which is a job description. It can all be stolen.’
Surely Eileen’s poem, ‘1984’ in which she projected a dystopian future and written before she met Orwell influenced Orwell’s book which was written after her death.
If I am honest, I was more interested in Ms Funder’s examination of Eileen’s life than I was in Ms Funder’s comparisons to contemporary life. But as I finished the book, I thought of my own experiences of patriarchy, of the assumptions made (NOT, I must add by my husband) about gendered roles and responsibilities. I will reread Orwell’s books through a different lens.
‘Cooking is chemistry. Chemistry is life. Your ability to change everything—including yourself—starts here.’
In 1961 Elizabeth Zott is a 30-year-old si‘Cooking is chemistry. Chemistry is life. Your ability to change everything—including yourself—starts here.’
In 1961 Elizabeth Zott is a 30-year-old single mother, the star of a cooking show for housewives called Supper at Six. She was training as a research chemist when her academic career was derailed. Then, working at the Hastings Research Institute, Elizabeth finds her soulmate: Calvin Evans a brilliant chemist, nominated for the Nobel Prize. It’s a meeting of minds: a relationship with mutual respect, strengthened by rowing together and compounded by the addition of a very special dog, Six Thirty.
So how did Elizabeth end up as the reluctant star of America’s most loved cooking show? The narrative takes us back ten years, through Elizabeth’s struggle to be recognised for her ability not pigeon-holed by gender. Those of us old enough to remember the 1960s will appreciate the challenges Elizabeth faces and may be able to relate (at least in part) to the misogyny and sexism.
If you’ve not (yet) read the novel, I don’t want to ruin the story by providing any more detail. This is a novel to read for yourself, to laugh at some for the dry humour and to despair at some of the obstacles Elizabeth faces. You will meet some wonderful characters (as well as some dastardly villains) on the journey.
‘Fifteen years have passed since the demons were destroyed…’
This, the first book in a proposed trilogy, takes us back to Mr Brett’s demon cycle world.‘Fifteen years have passed since the demons were destroyed…’
This, the first book in a proposed trilogy, takes us back to Mr Brett’s demon cycle world. People remember the heroes: Arlen Bales (my favourite), Ahmann Jardir and Rojer Halfgrip and our protagonists in this book are their children.
Olive, Princess of Hollow, has had her destiny mapped by her mother. Olive seeks more flexibility and more freedom. Darin Bales, son of Arlen, lives in his dead father’s shadow. Those who are not convinced the demons are not all gone are soon to be proved correct. Both Olive and Darin are in danger.
The story progresses through the points of view of teenagers Olive and Darin. There are plenty of complex familial relationships to navigate, as well as the practice and impact of magic. One of the themes that Mr Brett includes (and handles well, in my view) is gender identity. One of our characters is nonbinary which is both restrictive and freeing as the story unfolds. Legend and intrigue inform some choices, while magic is not always enough to save practitioners from the demons. There are plenty of fight scenes, each of which is important to the story.
I don’t want to spoil the story for anyone who has not yet read it. Suffice to say I was happy to return to this world and I am glad I delayed reading this book because I hope I don’t have to wait too long for the next instalment. I really want to know what will happen next.
The maps at the beginning of the book are helpful, as is the family tree and the Krasian Dictionary at the end.
While reading the Demon Cycle series is not essential to understand this story, I’d recommend it anyway. Ever since I read ‘The Warded Man’ back in 2008, I’ve been captivated by this world.
‘I am an old-fashioned reporter. I type with two fingers and mark up copy by hand.’
Meet Ray Moody. He’s a small-town New Zealand reporter who drinks t‘I am an old-fashioned reporter. I type with two fingers and mark up copy by hand.’
Meet Ray Moody. He’s a small-town New Zealand reporter who drinks too much and is separated from his wife. Ray is searching for a big story, and the disappearance of tourist Blanca Nul might be just the ticket. Ray gets the tip that Blanca Nul modelled for a pornographic magazine but while he is chasing the story, he crashes his car and loses his job.
Exactly one year later, Blanca is mysteriously sighted. Could this be the chance that Ray needs to revive his career? He certainly hopes so. If nothing else, it gives him a chance to avoid his own sad reality. The woman mysteriously sighted is identified as Amber Drake, a local, and is labelled as a suicide. Ray is not convinced but his investigation leads him into danger, especially once he arrives at the Blue Hotel.
There are a few layers to this story: part private eye investigation and part self-destruction, Ray Moody is seeking for answers to personal issues as well as to the disappearance of Blanca Nul:
‘In life what matters reveals itself only at the end. Until that moment, you will always be wrong.’
If you like crime noir, you may enjoy this. I did.
‘Out in that country, if you owned a sheep station the size of a European principality you stood tall. If you were a rent-paying public servant, like ‘Out in that country, if you owned a sheep station the size of a European principality you stood tall. If you were a rent-paying public servant, like Hirsch, you stood on the summit of Desolation Hill.’
Life for the only police officer in an area ‘the size of Belgium’ in South Australia is full of challenges. Constable Paul Hirschhausen (Hirsch), based in the small town of Tiverton, is investigating the disappearance of Willi, a 21- year-old European backpacker who disappeared while the borders were closed during the Covid-19 pandemic. He takes the backpacker’s mother, Dr Janne Van Sant, to Dryden Downs, where Willi last worked. The sign on the gate reads:
‘Unvaccinated visitors welcome here, and, in smaller type, We refuse to enforce unlawful directions from a government that would microchip its people.’
Dr Van Sant observes that these sentiments also exist in Belgium: ‘A government that would microchip its people. It’s age-old, isn’t it, the fear that powerful malicious figures are working against us through invisible means? Like witches?’
According to the Drydens, Willi left with a new girlfriend some months earlier and travelled to Noosa in Queensland.
Dr Van Sant is not convinced, but as they head back to Tiverton, a call is received about a fire by the roadside. A suitcase, doused in diesel, has been set alight. The suitcase contains a body: Dr Van Sant knows it is not her son’s. So where is Willi Van Sant, and who is the man in the suitcase? Hirsch has plenty of challenges: locals frustrated by restrictions, several online scams as well as a cadre of active anti vaxxers have increased the tension within the township. Add racism to the equation and, closer to home, his partner Wendy’s teenaged daughter is being bullied. The days never really end.
Hirsch continues on. There are a couple of families he’s keeping an eye on, and then the federal police arrive. Whatever it is they are interested in, they are not sharing information with Hirsch. But after an horrific incident, various pieces of different puzzles fall into place. Mr Disher breathes life into people and place, into the challenges that were often magnified in small communities during the pandemic.
This is the fourth instalment in a terrific series. Hirsch is well-developed credible character.
Jennifer (JC-S)
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