RANDOM JOTTINGS

Time for a reading round up as I have got through quite a few in the last week or two.  Here goes:

Liz Trenow – The Secrets of the Lake.   Liz Trenow live in Colchester, as do I, and years ago our children attended the same school and playgroup and played together.   When I received a copy of her first book The Last Telegram reviewed here one day I remember thinking gosh I used to know a Liz Trenow and then realised it was the same person and flew into a panic thinking OMG what if I do not like the book she has written?  Well it was a needless panic as I loved it and have read all of hers over the last few years and not been disappointed.

Many of her books have a local setting which I really appreciate as I recognise places and it all helps to place the narrative and the characters and this one is no different. The basic story is that of a mysterious disappearance of Jimmy, a ten year old with learning disabilities, brother of Molly, his big sister who, after the death of her mother, has the responsibility of looking after him.   This is just after the end of the war and the help and assistance that would be available to day is non-existent.

Molly’s father, the vicar, is accused over missing church funds and though we, the reader, can guess straight away who is really behind the fraud, the whispering continues.   Then one night, Jimmy disappears never to be seen again.

Years later, as an old woman, Molly is visited by the police as a lake has been drained and bones are found. Could it be Jimmy and will she finally know what has happened?

This is very much a broad outline of the story and, of course, there are much more nuances to be explored, ditto characters. As with all the books by Liz, it is immensely readable and I sat and read it through in one session. 

Liz Trenow will be talking about The Secrets of the Lake at the Felixstowe Book Festival which takes place 25-27 June.

The Swiss Summer – Stella Gibbons.   I recently reviewed Woods in Winter by this author which I absolutely loved.   These reprints are published by Dean Street Press, who is one of my favourite publishing houses and whose every book is yearned for by me.   The blurb tells us “worn down by postwar London life, forty-something Lucy Cottrell finds herself accepting a surprise invitation to spend the summer at a Swiss Chalet, accompanied by the very practical  and undemonstrative Freda Blandish, who she hardly knows”

Visitors come and go who are viewed with suspicion and disdain by Utta, the housekeeper, who looks after the chalet the year round and has a possessive pride in it.

This is not such a focussed story as the Woods in Winter, it meanders a great deal and really has no particular narrative drive, save wondering who will inherit the chalet when its owner, an elderly lady living in London, dies.  But it is such a pleasure to read.   We view the characters and surroundings through the eyes of the narrator, Lucy, who is a gentle soul if rather lacking in backbone and, while not exactly gripping, the reader is gradually drawn in.   The descriptions of the lush scenery are quite lovely and instilled in me a longing to climb a Swiss Alp – a longing unlikely to be fulfilled as we cannot go anywhere at the moment and my dodgy knee would not get me up a gentle slope let alone an Alp. Ah well………..

Wobble to Death – Peter Lovesey.   This is, unbelievably, a 50 year special edition of this title. I remember reading this when I worked at Highgate Library when I was a teenager and I am absolutely delighted to say that the author, who forgave me when I posted about him thinking he was dead, told me he was alive and kicking and is the author of the Inspector Peter Diamond books set in Bath which I love.

Wobble to Death is set in London 1879 and features a six day, 500 mile speedwalking contest.  One of the favourite contenders meets a mysterious death and enter Sergeant Cribb who we meet for the first time.   The Cribb novels are now on my list of re-reads as I also remember a wonderful television series yonks ago with Alan Dobie, who had the most wonderful speaking voice and was a great actor.

Highly recommended and you are in for a treat.

Rudolf Nureyev The Life – Julie Kavanagh.  This Penguin edition has the ubiquitous phrase on the front cover “now a major film”.   One of these days I would love to see now a “minor film” but we know that ain’t gonna happen.   I loathe this kind of repackaging and the photo on the front is of the dancer who portrayed Nureyev in the film The White Crow, and not Nureyev himself which also irritates.

I read this biography when it was first published and remember feeling at the time that Nureyev, yes and we know he was a genius, yadda yadda yadda, was a deeply nasty piece of work. And yes, I know he had an impoverished childhood, suffered for his art and had to leave his homeland behind, but I am not sure that even if he had had a pampered existence, he would have been any different. 

I saw him dance, with Fonteyn and others, many times and his stage presence and magnetic personality were undeniable. He thrilled and moved you when you watched him but after this re-read, I once again came to the conclusion that he was deeply unpleasant and though he had devoted friends I cannot help but feel that these lifelong friendships were used by Nureyev because they could help and give him what he needed. He seemed to drain them dry.   Fascinating book but left an unpleasant taste in the mouth.

I had one brief encounter with Nureyev back in the sixties.  I was attending a Rodin exhibition at the Hayward Gallery in London, it was pretty crowded and I was aware that a group of people were behind me. I stepped backwards and trod on somebody’s foot, turned round to apologise and it was Nureyev.  When I got my breath back and said Gosh I am sorry or words to that effect, he just waved his hand, dismissed my words, smiled and walked on surrounded by his acolytes.   I remember standing there thinking how slender and small he appeared and then when he walked through the crowds who parted to let him through like the parting of the Red Sea, it suddenly struck me that I had stood on his foot…his foot! I could have wrecked his career.

Well, obviously I didn’t but there you go.

OK this is turning into a long post and I still have about five books to go so I think I am going to leave this for today and return with the rest as soon as possible.   I am away this weekend with grandchildren, which is lovely, so it may be a few days.

Oh and this week I realised when I checked the date that Random Jottings has been going for Fifteen Years. I can hardly believe it and my thanks to all of you who have visited and followed and commented on all this time.   It is such an integral part of my life that I cannot imagine how I could cope without it and in the last year it has been a lifeline.

So thank you!