KEEPER OF THE SNAILS

My Book on Kindle

2012-02-03T15:54:00.003Z

I am delighted to report that my book is now available on Kindle.
I have, of course, downloaded a sample straightaway...

Thank you Seren!

I Consult I Ching

2012-01-30T08:25:00.002Z

Following on from Anne S's comment in my previous post, I found an I Ching reader on-line. It invites you to ask it a question so I asked 'How can I improve how much I do?'

What it did then seemed complicated and involved tossing a virtual coin six times and then decrypting the resulting code of heads and tails by using instructions and sayings from I Ching.

The answer it gave was as follows:

Cast Hexagram:

9 - Nine

Hsiao Ch'u / Gentle Restraint

Winds of change high in the Heavens:
Air currents carry the weather.
Dense clouds blow in from the West, but still no rain.
The Superior Person fine tunes the image he presents to the world.

Small successes.

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

No matter what you do, the fruit of your labors never seems to ripen.
Your reward remains just out of reach.
Men have gone mad from such anticipation.
Don't lose your balance lunging for the brass ring.
While the Fates continue to restrain you, go them one better and display a self-generated restraint and grace.
Look for the humor in the situation.

As Anne says it is like consulting a wise sage - and gives me an idea of how the ancient gave advice.

It strikes me as timeless. I am sure the same sort of opaque guidance was given by the Oracle at Delphi, the divination bones of the Ancient Chinese and those who consult shamans and astrologers everywhere.

This morning I can see what the point of this is too. Its function is not to tell the future or actually give an answer, but encourage the punter to step back and reflect. To consult the oracle the king had to send a messenger up a mountain in southern Greece; to extract an answer from a divination bone the bone had to be heated and cracked, and wait while those cracks were interpreted. I am sure it calmed the commander contemplating battle and could give a king either confidence or a chance to reconsider. Perhaps the longer and more arduous the journey the better, because it is the journey that counts. Likewise, the astrologer has to gaze at the stars, and then consult tables, and the fortune teller in the tent takes her time to gaze into crystal balls or deal cards. The punter waits, and then after the response comes he still has to work out what it means. As he does he is reflecting and doing nothing. In Tao terms I guess this is a result in itself.

So the phrases I have decided to take with me today are:

The Superior Person fine tunes the image he presents to the world.
Small successes.
Don't lose your balance lunging for the brass ring.
While the Fates continue to restrain you, go them one better and display a self-generated restraint and grace.
Look for the humor in the situation.

So I shall edit, celebrate small improvements (rather than aim for the large brass rings), avoid facebook ... and laugh. That sounds very good to me.

Early Imperial China I

2012-01-26T20:07:00.010Z

I am in the thick of another place, another time: early imperial China. I am concentrating on the Zhou, Qin and Han dynasties, and very interesting they are too.

I started with a film called Confucius (551 - 479 BC) to give me a taste of the 'Spring and Autumn' era at the end of the Zhou Dynasty. It seemed windswept, cold and desperate. Reading about the philosopher's life in the Cambridge Illustrated History of China, the film seems true to life. Women were little seen except by the hearth or, once, dressed in red silk dancing in a troupe. Confucius was a teacher longing to give advice to the leaders of the many different states which were at war with each other just then. People should put others first, he thought, and should respect authority.

The film shows him wandering around the plains of China for most of his life before kings realised the wisdom of his words.

His disciples wrote down his words in a series of 'Analects' ('Do not do unto others what you would not have them do unto you,' was one of the things he said (which seems familiar)) and these were taught to subsequent generations. Mencius, for example, was taught by Confucius' grandson and asked King Hui of Liang (370-319 BC):

'Why must your majesty use the word 'profit'? All I am concerned with are the good and right. If your majesty says, 'How can I profit my state?' your officials will say, 'How can I profit my family?' and officers and common people will say, 'How can I profit myself?' Once superiors and inferiors are competing for profit the state will be in danger.'

Which seems especially pertinent today.

The Daoists, which were around at the same time, offered another philosophy which was more mystical and centred on the 'Way of Dao' or the source of all that exists. The Daoist works seem more poetic and open to interpretation. I suppose it could be summed up with the words of the Beatles: 'Let It Be.'

One of the source books, 'Laozi' seemed to recommend ignorance:

'A sage governs this way:
He empties people's minds and fills their bellies
He weakens their wills and strengthens their bones
Keep the people always without knowledge and without desires,
for then the clever will not dare act.
Engage in no action and order will prevail.'

However, Zhuangzi (369 - 286) seemed to give a more humorous interpretation, and I have downloaded his book of parodies and parables onto my Kindle.

The age that brought Confucius and Tao in China, also brought Buddha in India and Aristotle, Plato and Socrates in Greece. Maybe people had settled down long enough to think, or as the Cambridge Illustrated History puts it, ' began to stand back and look beyond'.

The west and the east are compared at the end of the chapter on the Qin and the Han Dynasties that came next. This is roughly synchronous to the Roman Empire and the two have something in common: they both built walls to keep out barbarians, they both sent out settlers and officials to administer and gather taxes from their colonies, educated the local land owners, and even the areas of the two empires were similar. However, there were differences too: the Chinese culture was crop-based, and there was much greater cultural cohesion due to the use of one common script.

The agrarian society is yet another reason for the decline in Chinese science in later years (which so fascinated Joseph Needham): commerce was held in contempt in ancient China, and merchants were heavily taxed. During the Han Dynasty the state also took over the distribution of grain, as well as the running of the iron foundries and salt works. All of these discouraged trade and industry: both of which drive the discovery of innovations in science and technology.

Other reasons (as I have discovered earlier in my reading) may have been the prestige of a career in the civil service (so gifted people were attracted to this rather than to a career in innovation), and the lack of an aristocracy (this meant there were no factions, hence little competition for power and so little internal fighting - which again precluded the necessity to innovate).

Having made notes on the first three chapters, I decided I wanted to learn a little more about The First Emperor, and so have moved onto the book I bought about three years ago when I went to see the Terracotta army in the British Museum with my mother. I have only read a couple of chapters but the text is proving to be as inspiring as the photographs.

The Summer Without Men by Siri Hustvedt

2012-01-23T13:50:00.009Z

Siri Hustvedt's novel The Summer Without Men is lingering with me this morning. I finished it last night. Although a short novel, with a scant 200 short pages, it is rich with several themes skilfully woven together. It begins with the words: 'Sometime after he said the word pause, I went mad and landed in hospital.' The 'Pause' is the mistress of the narrator's husband; it devastates her because the marriage is a long and, until then, a happy one.

By the start of the novel, Mia has recovered enough to leave hospital and goes to live in a rented cottage in rural Minneapolis close to her elderly mother's retirement home. Her mother is a widow, and her friends are known as the Swans - all women - the pupils that turn up to Mia's poetry class are all pubescent girls, and her next door neighbour is a woman with a four year old girl and baby (and largely absent husband) the summer of Mia's recovery is an all feminine one.

The book chronicles Mia's return to strength, with a variety of intelligent and astute observations about the mind, consciousness ('the hard problem'), mental illness, male and female relationships, marriage, sexuality and ageing. In fact, the whole of female life is here: the effect of motherhood (there is a particularly touching scene when she helps with the baby next door) - in both the young and the old; childhood and the painfulness of finding a place to fit; middle-age and the acceptance of aging and death.

An unusual and attractive feature of the book is the way Mia addresses the reader. She observes that most readers of novels written by women tend to be women, and by the end of the book she addresses that reader directly, 'You, friend out there...' she says, and by that time I felt I certainly was. I shall certainly be reading more of Siri Hustvedt. I have a feeling she could become another favourite author.

Thanks to Sceptre for sending me a copy of this book.

Can You Eat, Shoot and Leave? by Clare Dignall

2012-01-20T16:59:00.004Z

Can You Eat, Shoot and Leave by Clare Dignall is 'the only official workbook' for the international bestseller, Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss.

The idea of a workbook to support Eats, Shoots and Leaves is an excellent one; the best way to learn, I have always found, is to do. The workbook follows the pattern of topics of the original: The Apostrophes; The Comma; The Colon and Semicolon; The Dash, The Question Mark and Exclamation Mark; and The Hyphen. Lynne Truss has written an entertaining foreword, and this is followed by a 'Cosmo-style' quiz to ascertain the reader's skill level.

There then follows the 'meat' of the book - the chapters on punctuation. Within each chapter is a short introduction, including the history of the punctuation under discussion; a warm-up exercise; further explanations with examples; and then another couple of exercises. I found that I learnt a lot, and it answered several punctuation problems that had confused me for some time. The sections on semicolons and colons were particularly clear, and I also thought the section on direct speech was well done.

The penultimate chapter is called 'The Challenge'. This contains longer pieces to edit, and they are, indeed, quite challenging. The book ends with another quiz: excellent for finding out if the book has had any beneficial effect!

I worked through the book immediately after reading Lynne Truss's Eats, Shoots and Leaves, which I suspect is how many readers will come to it. Lynne Truss's humour is a hard act to follow, and Clare Dignall's seemed a little laboured to me in comparison. Humour is very much a matter of taste, however, and what may not appeal to this reader may have the opposite effect on another.

Some of the examples, for instance in the section on apostrophes, were idiosyncratically chosen, and depended on the reader's knowing the names of various colleges in Oxford and Cambridge Universities, which seemed a little too needlessly specialised. There were also a few grammatical mistakes - somewhat ironic in a book like this - and future editions could do with more stringent copy-editing. However, despite these quibbles, I found it a useful book which has influenced my sentence structure, and I intend to keep it in the top drawer of my desk for ease of reference.

This book was sent to me for review by the publisher.

Self Improvement: 1

2012-01-12T16:45:00.005Z

I have started the year with a little self-improvement. The 'equipment' has, of course, been a book. Today I finished the first: My Grammar and I by J.A. Wines and Caroline Taggart.

This is wittily written, and I learnt a lot. Since I read it on a Kindle this had advantages and disadvantages.

One of the main advantages was the bookmarking and note-taking facility. Those things I didn't know I could highlight and refer to them easily when I wish to refer to them in future.

The disadvantage was that the page references weren't linked, but referred to by page number (which there aren't on my Kindle, well not without accessing another menu, which is tedious). The publishers have missed a trick there: the ability to link is one of the main advantages of the ebook format.

Another, more minor, gripe is that there were quite a few (deliberate!) examples of bad grammar, and sometimes the correct version was not given alongside. I would have preferred it without these altogether since there is always a danger that bad practice will stick in the mind.

Apart from these little niggles I found it a useful book, and it clarified a lot for me. One of the most interesting was the differences in grammar between American English and British English: we say 'which' while Americans tend to favour the less formal 'that'; we tend to omit the full stop (period) after contractions such as 'Mr.' while Americans are keeping theirs; and the Americans use the em-dash with no spaces, while we have an en-dash with a space each side.

There were sections on spelling and confusables, parts of speech, sentence structure and punctuation. It started with an interesting section on the history of grammar which provided me with an explanation of why I have always felt inadequate in this. I was educated in an era when the teaching of grammar was deemed to be unnecessary; the philosophy was that it was possible to learn through experience. This is fine most of the time, but there are odd occasions when I wonder, for instance, whether to use 'who' or 'whom'. All I had to go on until now was how it sounded, which wasn't always foolproof. Now I know that one is the subject and the other is the object. This helps me not only choose the right one, but know why I've made that choice. For me, it was a moment of great insight; one I was only able to have through reading this book.

I bought this Kindle book for £0.99 in the Amazon post-Christmas sale.

Next on my self-improvement list is Eats Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss (which has been in my TBR book pile for years) and the newly published Can You Eat , Shoot and Leave by Clare Dignall.

Re-Vamp edited by Die Booth and L.C. Hu

2012-01-02T19:04:00.015Z

Open Re-Vamp at your peril: it is an excellent antidote to the season of too much good will. The woman in black on the cover, with her dress turning into vile creatures, acts as a warning: inside this book things will not be as they seem. There will be twists of the supernatural kind.

First there are vampires. The first,The Tangled Thread by Die Booth is a pitch-perfect 'then and now' story. The idea of a vampire, and what it means to be a vampire ('...I can feel death coursing through my veins. It feels like when you have blood taken, the pull and drag of it...'), is explored in what rapidly becomes a morality tale.

Fallon Parker's story, Beyond the Grave, is set in a traditional vampireland called Dapfen, Swabia. She swiftly evokes a suitably sinister atmosphere with terrifying shrieks and strange disappearances, and the story builds up neatly to a tense culmination of recovered corpses.

Adrian Benson's Apotropaic Proliferation has a wonderful rhythm and opaqueness : 'But I knew you'd survive, I knew what you'd be, And I knew that I'd come back to claim you for me' and tells the story of two star-crossed lovers with a difference in 'his' and 'her' stanzas.

Lump by L.C. Hu is set in modern-day USA. It is a convincing and expertly written story with an ominous ending. The way in which the tension slowly builds is particularly well done, and the ending is unexpected too: the 'and it was all a dream' has a new twist.

Deidre Murphy's Sometimes They Do is whimsical 'drabble' (a story in exactly 100 words).

The section on ghosts begins with Tammy Lee's Ghost of a Smile is about a ghost that likes things 'just so'. It is an unusual ghost story for many reasons, and I especially liked the way it gradually drew me in and somehow contrived to remain light-hearted throughout.

David Hill's The Twelve O'Clock Man is a memorable and charming story about love in later life, and like 'Ghost of a Smile', left me feeling happy.

Retrospectre is another from Die Booth, and has her characteristic deft touch: 'Out of the corner of my eye I saw Rosie cram a whole Bakewell tart into her greedy, gob, thinking we didn't notice...'. This is a completely believable ghost story brought alive by some great characterisation.

Fragments from Ghost Apocrypha #1 by Adrian Benson was another very original story, extremely well written, and based on the concept of a 'bedhanger' - 'a nocturnal disloacted wisp of spirit'. Either an 'emissary of the future coming of a more mature ghost' or 'a type of residue.' The writing is incredibly vivid and imaginative.

J.T. Wilson's Ghostwalk is a clever story based on a modern-day sight-seeing tour. There is an immensely satisfying twist.

The Unseen is another example of L.C. Hu's assured writing. It is a beautifully told story about the relationship between an invalided woman and a child.

The End of the Line by Tessa J Brown is a terrifying ghost story thriller. The tension never lets up.

Milla Galea's Love Never Dies is a story about loss, and the danger incurred when dreams come true. It is sensitively told.

Claudia Glazzard introduces the werewolf section with a very good haiku, while L.C Hu's The Natural Beast tells of an attempt to harness the change into beast for a murderer's own ends - with a surprising result.

In the next story: Dogged by Die Booth is a new take on the idea of the werewolf bite as the agent causing transformation; while John Ivor Jones's 'Once We Were Gods offers an intriguing quasi-religious explanation for the legend.

Tessa J Brown's Family is from the point of view of the werewolf, who knows that the change is imminent, and his attempts to ensure his potential victims keep their distance. An unusual take, and very effective.

M Harley's Grey and White and Red ends the selection with another exploration of how it feels to be a werewolf. It is lyrical and imaginative.

Zombies are the next creatures in this supernatural menagerie. The first story of the set, Escape by Tessa J Brown, is a gripping story that takes place in a biodome and reminded me of Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake.

Found by Die Booth owes much to W. W. Jacob's The Monkey's Paw, and evokes the same claustrophobic atmosphere and dread.

Flowers in the Snow by Tammy Lee is a great little Sci-Fi story about and advancing disease, while Mr Zombie by L.C. Hu is a quirkily-told tale about John Rivera who is, allegedly, a zombie.

But They Love Me by Die Booth is a very well written story about a rock star; there is more than one way of becoming a zombie.

The penultimate section, on Serial Killers, is particularly strong. Michéle Rimmer's The Maggot about a bad smell is satisfyingly disgusting and very well structured; while Die Booth's The Fourth Ape is superb. It concerns a collector of animal specimens and says a lot in a clever and subtle way. J.T. Wilson's A Place for a Girl with Hair Slide convincingly captures the voice of a teenager who makes some gruesome discoveries, while this section is finished off by L.C. Hu's All Better, which features one of my favourites: the sinister child. This is expertly told, a great story.

The book finishes with a graphic story, Case US-0-59 by Triska and Vivian, an enigmatic series which is very well done. There is more art work between the sections, which I thought much enhanced the book; as did Susan Price's introduction. She finishes with 'I love Re-Vamp too. I dip in and out of it, reading story here and there, and always find good ones...' Several of the authors are in Chester Writers. They are at all stages of their writing careers, and each has produced an accomplished piece of writing in Re-Vamp. I am proud to know each one of them. Congratulations to Die Booth and L.C. Hu on producing a fine anthology.

2011 and 2012: My Literary Travels

2012-01-01T14:40:00.006Z

In 2011 year I have read 75 books (I was able to determine this quite easily because I have been tagging the books I read ('read in 2011') in my library in Librarything.

This might not be a very impressive number for a lot of people but it is a very good number for me - especially since several of them I considered to be difficult and long academic-type books. The book I remember the most was Kingdoms along the Silk Road by Christopher Beckwith from which I learnt an unexpected amount about all sorts of topics including, of course, the Silk Road.

Looking at the pile (which I have also catalogued by stacking on a particular area of the floor in my study) I can see that I spent much of the year learning about places: the afore-mentioned Silk Road (8 books), and also Japan (30 books), Italy (9 books) and France (9 books).

In 2012 I am intending to go back to China (29 books) - concentrating on both the start of the country (the emperor Chin of 250BC), China of the early 1960s (which has fascinated me ever since I read about that era in the biography of Mao Tse Tung by Li Zhi-Sui), but also the China of today.

I am intending to start with a little self-improvement: by reading My Grammar and I by Caroline Taggart which I have downloaded onto my Kindle.

On the news everyone is predicting a dismal year for Europe and the UK. It is a worrying time, which makes it more important than ever to have a means of escape. For me there is no better escape than a book and would like to wish anyone reading this blog post a very happy reading year!

The Chester Wheel

2011-12-30T17:24:00.006Z

From up here,

even a wet northern city

has enough gingerbread bricks

and dollymixture building styles
to entertain

the most exacting passenger

taking flight

over fairytale architecture.

Happy Christmas Kindle

2011-12-27T12:18:00.006Z

Thanks to Hodmandods Major and Majorette my Kindle is now sporting a new festive jacket,

and now, thanks to the Kindle sale on Amazon, I have spent a happy morning sampling a few books before deciding to download them at 99 pence a shot:

The Very Thought of You by Rosie Alison,

Notes from an Exhibition by Patrick Gale,

A Long, Long Way by Sebastian Barry,

and two non-fiction books from Caroline Taggart: Classical Education

and My Grammar and I

because I start every new year with ideas of self-improvement.

New titles come up every day for the 12 days of Christmas. I resisted yesterday, but today proved too much.

Boxing Day

2011-12-26T20:37:00.005Z

The Point of Ayr: the most northerly part of mainland * Wales, where the estuary of the river Dee meets the sea

and a light house once marked the spot

and shone one light west towards Wales

and another east where the silted up shore of one country meets the sand banks of the other.

Salt marches and sand dunes rise now

guarded by a tin man

as blind, mute and dim as the stars in the sea.

*= added later. Many thanks to Richard Carter (see comments).

Tis the night before Christmas....

2011-12-24T22:32:00.000Z

Robin Haiku

2011-12-16T13:15:00.003Z

First snow of winter.
As if on cue, a robin
glows from my table.

Lombes and Lambing.

2011-12-15T04:45:00.005Z

I went to the British Library today to try and find out more about Thomas Lombe and his silk mill. I did find something that could be useful - a document from the early eighteenth century. However, I didn't manage to see it because it had a 'malformed shelfmark' in the catalogue.

The British Library staff put every effort into finding it for me - and came to the conclusion that they would have to make a special journey to 'the second basement'and would send me an email if they managed to find anything. This sounded very interesting and made me wish I could go and take a look there.

Writing that makes me wonder if the 'second basement' is really underground, and if it is how it can be adequately protected against flooding - should the Thames break through its barriers, as I have heard it could as the climate warms. I hope it is.

The main reason I went to London, however, was to go to the Science Factory's Christmas Drinks at The Lamb, a pub in nearby Lambs Conduit Street. The Lamb in question was a man called William Lamb, and in 1577 (according to this website) he improved the conduit that brought fresh water to the area (presumably from some nearby river, maybe even the Thames). The original pub bearing his name was built in 1720 - a pleasing synchronicity and chiming of words because this is the date of the Lombe mill. However, the pub as it stands today is Victorian, and last night it was quite a battle fighting my way through to the function room upstairs. There are complaints about short measures on the website, but I have to say that my measure of Pinot Grigio was very generous indeed!

What I'm Doing 37:

2011-12-12T20:21:00.002Z

What I'm listening to:

Ariodante: an opera with an Italian libretto by G.F. Handel first performed in Covent Garden in 1735.

The version I have downloaded is sung by Anne Sophie Von Otter from Archiv 457 271-2: Anne Sofie von Otter, Lynne Dawson, Veronica Cangemi, Ewa Podleś, Richard Croft, Denis Sedov, Luc Coadou; Chorus of Les Musiciens du Louvre; Les Musiciens du Louvre; Marc Minkowski, conductor (live recording, 1997). I am hoping this will help me get into the mood of the early eighteen century.

What I watched last:

Alice in Wonderland - Tim Burton's adaptation of the Lewis Carol classic. It had some good effects and ideas, and Johnny Depp and Helen Bonham Carter were as brilliant as usual, but the story (which was a derivation of the original) seemed not quite extraordinary as I was expecting.

What I'm reading (on my Kindle):

A Tale of a Tub by Jonathan Swift. Having now compiled my lexicon of 400 words (based on Gulliver's Travels), I am eager to read a little more of his satire.

The Eighteenth Century Lexicon

2011-12-06T20:06:00.006Z

I have decided to compile a dictionary. It is a dictionary with a difference: one that defines the way words have changed from the eighteenth century England of Jonathan Swift to this one of ours in the twenty-first century.

The meaning of words seems to have changed quite subtly over the last three hundred years. For instance in the eighteenth century a man might 'receive an intelligence' which in today's parlance, means that he has simply been 'told' something that interests him. The word 'intelligence' now has spying and intellectual connotations, which it didn't seem to necessarily have back then.

Then there are words that have fallen out of use altogether: such as 'wherein' (meaning 'in which') and 'beeves' (the plural of beef) and 'bigness' (size).

Another interesting thing I have discovered is that when reporting direct speech the words between the speech marks are not direct quotes from the person speaking (as in 'I would like you to come with me,' said the king.) but remains reported, as in: the king said, 'he would like me to come with him.' I keep wondering if I have that right, but I think I have.

I am also coming across words that must have been in vogue during Swift's time. This morning I came across the term 'Hapsburg Lip' which I discovered was a genetic mutation caused by inbreeding. At the time Jonathan Swift was writing his book Charles II was on the throne in Spain. He was the end of the Hapsburg line, and according to this Wikipedia article his Hapsburg Lip was only part of his problems. ....

It is a singular story, and I confess that I have been mindful of it over the entirety of this day.

The Wedding of 2011.

2011-12-05T21:39:00.004Z

The big event of this year, of course, was the wedding...no, not that wedding, but this wedding - as written up by my daughter-in-law, Hodmandod Majorette.

The first two parts of the honeymoon are here (part 1), and here (part 2). I am delighted and very proud that Majorette is keeping up the family blogging tradition. It obviously runs through the female line (along with the mitochondria :-)).

Jonathan Swift's Prodigious Imagination

2011-12-01T19:40:00.004Z

I continue to read Gulliver's Travels. After the land of tiny people comes the land of giants, and having become small, Gulliver is forced to consider how he must have appeared to the people of Lilliput. The human body up close, he observes, is covered in blemishes and the smell is enough to make him swoon.

Having been rescued and come home again, Gulliver is soon lured out to sea again, and inevitably finds himself in yet another land - this time an island that floats in the air. Reading this in the eighteenth century must have been an extraordinary thing; no one had yet flown off the ground, not even in a balloon, and here was a priest in his fifties with an imagination prodigious enough to not only see it, but evince it all.

I have also come across a free audiobook on-line of one of Jonathan's Swift's shorter works: A Modest Proposal. It is courtesy of Librivox and read by John Gonzales.

Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift

2011-11-30T08:45:00.005Z

Although I have seen Gulliver's Travels in the form of film, theatre and children's book, I have neveer before read the full classical version. Having read the first part I am surprised at how satirical it is; in fact I am coming to the conclusion that Jonathan Swift was using it mainly as a platform to explore what must have been then quite radical ideas on sociology and politics. There are ideas on child-rearing, legal systems, morals, republics, and monetary policy - among many other things. He was obviously encouraged by the ideas of the Enlightenment to think about alternative worlds. He says a lot about the stupidity of war - pointing out that all it needs is someone in power to advocate a certain way of breaking open an egg, and for another to disagree, for people to go to battle, and lives to be lost.

It is also funny in its crudity. Gulliver is expelled from Lilliput because of his unorthodox manner of quenching a fire in the queen's rooms of the palace. Thereafter she is thoroughly disgusted, and refuses to return - and I can't say I blame her. However, I am not sure I would regard his action a capital offence.

I am reading the book on my Kindle. This is useful because it helps me find definitions for the unfamiliar words, and also, more interestingly, the words which then meant something entirely different from what they mean today. I am learning yet more about the eighteenth century.

A Memoir of my Life (Volume 1) by Giacoma Casanova

2011-11-29T11:37:00.011Z

Having finished my research on what life was like in the eighteenth century, I am going to complete my study by looking at the eighteenth century voice. The two voices I have chosen are those of Giacoma Casanova and Jonathan Swift, since both of these have lives that neatly span the century, and are therefore representative.

I began by reading Giacoma Casanova's Memoirs on my Kindle. I hadn't expected them to be quite so entertaining. It starts with the young boy suffering a nose bleed. In some accounts I have heard it described as a haemorrhage, and that is indeed what it seems to be. His beloved grandmother takes him on a gondola to see a witch, who heals him with ointments, enclosing him in a smoky atmosphere and chants. Excellent pre-enlightenment stuff! And it cures him. When he arrives home, he is, as predicted, visited by a mysterious beautiful woman at night, which seems very much a symbol for the rest of Casanova's life.

Soon afterwards, he has his first sexual encounter with a girl, only slightly older than he is, called Bettina. Bettina is somewhat duplicitous, and to get out of a sticky situation involving another older boy, she pretends to have spasms. These, Casanova wryly observes, are only cured by exorcism - not from their usual parish priest, but from a younger one who is better looking. She is rescued from her complicated situation by a bad bout of smallpox. Since Casanova has already had the disease he stays with her, and he gives graphic descriptions of the course of the disease, including the smell of the pustules, and the sick room in general. When she is past the crisis he warns her that if she scratches she will ruin her looks, and he observes that for a girl such as Bettina this is a most effective remedy for itching.

Although there is a bravado in his account, the account itself strikes me as generally honest (albeit the character he describes is inherently dishonest). He blames his promiscuity on a 'natural' excitement (which he can do nothing about, not that he would want to), and he seems to sometimes blame his female companions for knowingly inducing this in him. He loves women, and yet even while he is loving them he is, at the same time, deceiving and abusing them.

Apart from these encounters, which he describes with none of the guilt or self-reproach that is evident in the English diarists of Behind Closed Doors, there are other entertaining scenes, such as when he gives a sermon with no preparation whatsoever.

I have left Casanova at the end of volume one (of ten, I believe), and his departure from Venice for Rome. I feel I have learnt a lot about the social mores of an eighteenth century gentleman in Venice. It is a life of pleasure, and very much supports Monsieur Monnier's account of the place. I will come back to read the rest later.

The Eighteenth Century: Venice

2011-11-25T09:24:00.014Z

Continuing my investigation of the eighteenth century, I return at last to Venice, which at that time was the home of Casanova. Russell Davies, in a recent series based on Casanova's memoirs for TV, portrayed Venice as a place of masquerades and sumptuous silken clothing, which from my reading seems to be an accurate evocation.

Before unification, Italy consisted of several city-states or regions, and Venice was one of the more influential. I read a little about the city in John Julius Norwich's History of Venice, but his focus tends to be political and there is little from the modern era, so I decided to try elsewhere. A google search produced Venice in the Eighteenth Century by Philippe Monnier.

Philippe Monnier was from Geneva and certainly loved the place. His prose is rich, maybe a little too rich, and after a short while it began to seem like hyperbole. This helped to give an impression of what must have been (and still is) an extraordinary place. The Venice of the eighteenth century had had a glorious past, but was now on the cusp of decline, but even so continued to indulge in months-long carnivals and masquerades. Like the population of the Western World at the beginning of the twenty-first century, the inhabitants of Casanova's Venice were relying on promises and times past. I suppose it could be read as an analogy for how we live now. The aim, Philippe Monnier says, 'The aim was to live contentedly and carelessly, not thinking of tomorrow.'

Marriages, like those in England and France of the time, seemed to be ones of convenience rather than love, and it was common for women of all classes to have a cavalier as a companion. A cavalier would be secured on the same footing as a doctor or confessor, and would be expected to be a shadow at her side. He would carry her gloves, her handkerchief, and her lap dog. He would be on hand to call a boatman, and supply spare change and visiting cards (when these were required), and sharply reprimand anyone he considered to be insufficiently respectful. There were some that questioned the morality of this arrangement; but apparently the husbands were all quite happy with it, and saved them the bother of accompanying their women on tiresome social engagements.

A large proportion of women did not marry, but entered convents which were decidedly unchaste. Monnier records concerts and nuns with low necklines and pearls hiding (only partly) behind screens.

Just as now there were many poets and authors, and the entire population had what Monnier considered to be a natural appreciation of music, opera, theatre and comedy. Most people played a musical instrument and took dancing lessons, and as well as bursting into song at the slightest provocation (in parts) played out dramas (presumably of both the intentional and unintentional sort) in the piazzas and lanes during everyday life. It seemed to be a place determinedly dedicated to the pursuit of pleasure.

The book ended with the following sentiments, which I have summarised:

Venice has been losing empire since the discovery of America. One by one the ports have been lost. Poverty can be seen in the buildings with cracking house fronts and gaping walls and boarded up windows. Galleries have been emptied of their treasures. Everything is for sale. Patricians have lost rank. They are becoming poorer, their cloaks threadbare, and their lace discoloured.

The poorer the city grows, the more extravagant she becomes. The factories may be deserted; but the hundred and thirty-six casini and the five thousand Venetian families receive company every evening, and their drawing rooms are crowded.

As Venice declined so France was poised to rise, and in the century after that it was the turn of England, and then, after that, the USA. Just as Anjet Duvekot says it is all one big merry-go-round...

The Eighteenth Century : England

2011-11-24T11:42:00.005Z

So, having learnt about the exciting background to the Enlightenment and the fomenting of revolution in France, I turned to Behind Closed Doors to learn about life in eighteenth century England.

The tone, as suggested by the title, is quieter and more personal. The eighteenth century was a time when the idea of a polite society began to dominate. Just as in tenth century Japan there were many rules of behaviour, unwritten, but known and obeyed by everyone who wished to fit in and advance up the societal hierarchy.

In some ways it was as though the Enlightenment had not happened. The offence of witchcraft was only abolished in 1736, and superstitious practices continued (e.g. a shoe buried behind the hearth bringing good luck) until 1800.

The first chapter described the general domestic set-up at the beginning of the century. There was little privacy; servants might sleep with children or next to the masters. The landlady kept the keys and was in charge of who went in and out and when. There was a shutting in at a preordained time, and the watch was called at eleven o-clock. Anyone caught out after this was consigned to the watch tower.

The second chapter dealt with the life of single men. Unlike their continental counterparts they seemed uptight about women and sex, regarding passion only as a part of marriage and a means of having children and continuing the line. They dined out at clubs, chop and coffee houses, they carried swords and wore linen shirts, breeches, stockings and waistcoats. They didn't sew unless they were tailors. They danced, played musical instruments and drank tea.

On marriage, the woman generally held sway over the decorating; it was considered bad form for the husband to interfere too much. Decoration usually only occurred on marriage. The housewife then became the manager of the household. The complexities and domestic division of labour in middle-class households was considered in chapters three and four.

In chapter five other living choices were considered as the large house gave way to smaller villa mid-century, and these were decorated with just as much care. Chapter six, my favourite chapter, dealt with the wallpaper and upholstery. An unusual and not very interesting topic you might think, but there turned out to be quite a lot to it. First there was the colour choice; all of these had specific meanings, and as well as being subject to fashion, were regarded as being suited to particular rooms (because of their perceived degree of masculinity or femininity).

Chapter seven dealt with the importance of class and the role of the married and unmarried woman. Following the revolution in 1688, Great Britain had become liberal and more democratic. However this democracy did not extend to the home, or indeed to females. Unmarried women were sometimes expected to take the role of unpaid domestic servant quite cheerfully, while married women sometimes led unhappy lives under a tyrannical husband. But each usually had a sanctuary - either a sitting room or a closet.

One in five women did not marry, and if not taken in by a relative, tended to congregate together in rented accommodation. Some towns and streets were famously dominated by women. They had characteristic furniture and accessories, including the all-important tea-making kit which had recently become popular. On the continent such women would live together in a convent, where they would entertain and be entertained by male visitors according to John Julius Norwich in the History of Venice, but in non-conformist England these institutions were viewed with suspicion.

Another contrast with the continent (or at least France according to the book What Life Was Like During the Age of Reason) was the attitude of society to women and science. In France it was acceptable for a woman to be interested in science ('What? And leave behind my microscope?' exclaims a young woman when her lover suggests an elopement in a French play), whereas in England science was regarded as purely the province of men ('A woman makes a ridiculous figure , poring over globes , or thro' a Telescope...' opined a character in an English play of 1730).

Instead women were expected to indulge in craftwork: embroidery, featherwork and shellwork, even pictures made from dried seaweed. A woman was expected to always have her 'work' alongside her; it was thought to keep ennui at bay, which if left unchecked could result in melancholia and suicide. However, kitchens were also the site of women's expertise, and by the end of the century these were separate places, sometimes they could be considered laboratories of experimentation in themselves.

The evolution of the smaller, more intimate meeting place was a big feature of eighteenth century life - in England as well as on the continent. Salons and dinners were where issues and ideas of the day were discussed, and the seeds of revolutions - both dramatic and more quiet - artfully sewn.

Behind Closed Doors is a useful and interesting accompaniment to the TV series. Thanks to Yale University Press for the review copy. My apologies for taking so long to get round to reading it.

The Eighteenth Century: France

2011-11-23T12:32:00.000Z

For some reason, the eighteenth century was little covered in history lessons when I was at school. So in the last week or so I have decided to learn a little more. This has become a three-book odyssey travelling from France, over to England and then back down to Venice. Each book showed a separate aspect of the era, and altogether I found it a very rewarding experience. I now feel I know a lot more about how it was to live in the era of The Enlightenment, which some call The Age of Reason, others call The Early Modern Era (late part) but which I shall call The Eighteenth Century.

The first book I read was this: What Life Was Like During the Age of Reason (by the 'editors of Time-Life') which spanned the time 1660 until 1800 in France. This was a short book with lots of pictures, and I particularly liked the introduction which neatly set the scene.

The Renaissance (the fourteen and fifteenth centuries) was the time when western Europe emerged from the dark ages and rediscovered ideas from the Greek and Roman (and, I suspect) Chinese civilisations. They turned from studying God to man, and these ideas were developed in the sixteenth century with people like Martin Luther and John Calvin reforming the church, and Nicolaus Copernicus and Galileo Galilei using mathematics to describe nature. In the following century, the seventeenth, observation and mathematical analysis increasingly became more important, as man became more confident he could explain what was around him without resorting to the presence of the divine. Francis Bacon, René Descartes, John Locke and Isaac Newton led to the conviction that science, reason and observation rather than religion, dogma or revelation was the way to the truth - the 'Enlightenment'.

In 1661 Louis XIV was crowned King of France. He was a relic from the days before Enlightenment because he was considered semi-divine, and God's representative on earth. He lived extravagantly, rather like the nations of the twentieth century century, beyond his means. And, also like the modern world, it was his descendants that had to pay. He built up debt and persecuted protestants, but also led to a cultural flowering in France, with the establishment of Academies.

He was succeeded by the five year old Louis XV in 1715. He inherited debt and in consequence his people were taxed: half of what they earned was claimed by the King. A huge gulf developed between the rich and poor. The strength of the commoners grew: they could purchase titles and jostled nobility. Jesuits were driven out and Protestants were still banned. Free-thinkers like Voltaire (pen name of François-Marie Arouet) scoffed at them all.

In 1774 Louis XVI came to the throne. Unrest grew, and the king was undermined by the new middle class, the Duc d'Orleans and the rise of the free-thinker. Tax was still punitive, and the poor were still desperately poor. 45% died before the age of 10.

After examining the lifestyle of the Royalty, the book goes on to deal with the Bourgois, the petit Bourgois, and then individuals like Joseph d'Hémery (chief of police) and Madame de Coudry (midwife extraordinaire) and a typical journeyman called Jacques-Louis Menetra who was befriended by Rousseau. The tension builds until the storming of the Bastille and the Reign of Terror.

Altogether I found it to be an excellent book for a quick, accessible look at pre-revolutionary France.

Many thanks to my mother for lending me this copy!

The First Factory

2011-11-22T13:23:00.002Z

Last year, I was invited to go to a library in Derbyshire to speak, so I thought that while I was there I would visit a Derby Museum. It was reputed to be the site of the first factory in the world - a silk mill set up by a man called John Lombe.

Unfortunately, the talk was cancelled, so I put off going to the museum for a while, which is a shame because when I eventually decided to go I found that the whole thing had been shut because of the cuts. So, to console myself, I ordered a book called The Transformation of a Valley which gave me a little more information about the origin of this auspicious factory.

I learnt that the plans for the Derby silk mill came from Italy as a result of industrial espionage. In my efforts to find out more about this I came across Gavin Menzies's book, 1434,. Gavin Menzie is a controversial historian, but I found the main premise of the book not too far-fetched or surprising. It was this: that in 1434 a fleet of Chinese ships reached Venice, and it is this that started the Renaissance.

I know from my reading of Joseph Needham's work that the Chinese developed many things (including hydraulically powered silk mills) long before the west, and I also know that by 1434 there had been communication, albeit a slow and dislocated one, between China and the West for several hundred years.

What I didn't know was that Leonardo da Vinci's 'inventions' (including silk mills) were not really his, but simply elaborations of diagrams of predecessors like Giovanni Battisa Alberti, Francesco di Giorgio and Mariano di Jacapo ditto Taccola. Some of Francesco di Giorgio's diagrams (and therefore Leonardo da Vinci's) were strikingly similar to Chinese ones in the Nung Shu - a popular encylopedia written just a few years before di Giorgi's. How these Westerners got their hands on these presumably Chinese designs is a moot point, but I am quite happy to believe that it was via this fleet of ships - given any evidence. Unfortunately, Gavin Menzies has not yet found any that absolutely convinced me, but maybe some will turn up eventually . There certainly seem to be almost-convincing rumours.

I enjoyed reading this book and found it very interesting, especially since it led me to this: The Silk Industry of Renaissance Venice by Luca Mola. This was a scholarly study about how the Silk Industry around Venice (and to some extent the whole of Italy) developed from what was a cottage industry before 1434 to an industrial enterprise (using these Chinese-style hydraulic silk mills).

The secret of how the hydraulic silk mills operated was jealously guarded, but from time to time, reckless Italian mill workers (maybe having got into debt) would run off to another town taking their secrets (on both milling and weaving silk) with them. Their home city would often have a price put on their head, and instruct agents to set their new homes alight. Clearly a lot of people knew of the mills, but it would make sense that the Lombe brothers would need plans of how the mills worked in detail in order to produce one of their own. Accordingly, Thomas Lombe was dispatched to Italy to find out exactly how the silk mills operated.

The Luca Mola book points out that the mills in Verona and Vicenza employed hundreds of people, just as (presumably) the Chinese mills had too. If this is the case, then John Lombe's mill in Derby cannot be the 'first factory in the world' (that crown must belong to the Chinese), but it was still a first for the British Isles, and the start of an industry that would, for a short while, become extraordinarily important.

Anatomy of Norbiton

2011-11-17T08:45:00.003Z

If you have a little time to spare, I highly recommend a visit to Toby Ferris's Ideal City of the Failed Life in Norbiton, South West London.

It's a weirdly mesmerising experience. Enter and become happily lost. The essays nest, link and envelope. For me it truly was like entering another place. I have a feeling that W.G. Sebald would love this concept if he had lived long enough to come across it. In a way it seemed to me to be a development of his art.

Another prize listing for Patrick McGuinness!

2011-11-16T08:42:00.004Z

After being long listed for the Booker, I see in the BBC News that Patrick McGuinness's The Last Hundred Days is up for a prize again! It has been shortlisted for the Costa First Novel award.

Congratulations Mr McGuinness! And Seren...!

Flesh and Bronze by Alison Leonard

2011-11-13T12:52:00.009Z

I've known Alison Leonard quite a few years now, and this is the second book of hers that I've had the pleasure to read. The first was a book for children called Tinker's Career, which I remember as engrossing - a short book, and also one I couldn't bear to put down until it was finished. This one, which I bought from her book launch a few weeks ago, I read on my Kindle, and also listened to on my ipod. Its main publication is through the new audiobook publisher 'Books Are Loud' which Alison and a few of her cohort from Manchester Metropolitan University have set up . More details on the MMU website here.

Flesh and Bronze is extremely well read by Julia Franklin, and it a pleasure to listen to her voice, but since I tend to listen to audiobooks at night in bed and tend to drift off while listening to them, it was great to be able to read the ebook version too. Just as in Tinker's Career, I found that after a few pages I became addicted to reading this one too, pausing now and again to note the passages I particularly appreciated (and there were many) on my Kindle.

The story concerns one of Degas's former models, Juliette. One day, after Degas's death, she sees 'herself' as a beautiful young woman captured in bronze as Degas portrayed her, and this model 'herself, Beautiful' becomes a recurrent symbol of what she was, and how she still is within. Juliette is now much older and poorer. She pauses to rest in the doorway adjacent to the window in which she has seen her statue, and is eventually invited into the stairwell of the Parisian apartment by the kindly concierge.

The model is owned by a man called Didier, who aspires to accomplish great art of his own, but who has been damaged by life, just as much as Juliette. 'Trouble is' (notes Juliette) 'marble truth was too much for him. It is for most of us in the end.'

What happens next, and how Juliette's and Didier 's lives inform each others, and how they learn and are changed as a result, forms the main narrative of the book. Along the way the readers learns about Juliette's life, and also Didier's. Degas is there too, and although his presence and aspects of his life (such as his attitude to the Dreyfus affair) are important, he is never really the focus of the story.

The story is very well-researched, and this research skilfully handled with a light touch. I especially liked the passages on bronze casting, which were vivid, very interesting and added greatly to the feeling of authenticity of the setting and characters. I also learnt a lot about Degas, and living in turn-of-the-century Paris. Altogether, I found it to be a thoroughly enjoyable and informative read.

11/11/11

2011-11-11T08:21:00.006Z

Parallel lines.
Some waver out; while others stop
bluntly. A fat ending, as if the pen left the page
still full of ink.

So much has happened since you left.
I don't know what you'd make of it all.
I like to imagine you'd be pleased.
You have a new niece. With hazel eyes, like yours, and a face that seems
to accommodate a grin much more comfortably than any other expression.
I wish you could see her.
I imagine you'd smile.

Her life - a line that has only just started.
Parallel to yours.
No intercept.

What I'm Doing 36:

2011-11-07T21:06:00.001Z

What I watched last:

Norwegian Wood directed by Anh Hung Tran.

Haruki Murakami perfectly transposed onto the screen! Sure, it was slow - but it needed to be. I felt it was a little like poetry leaving spaces to fill in. I found this satisfying because I think it strongly evoked the book, but maybe it is not so satisfying for someone who hasn't read the book - and who prefers to be entertained and not work too hard. There were some beautiful scenes, and I thought the translator of the subtitles did a grand job (not that I know any of the original Japanese, of course, but just judging on the end result).

What I'm listening to:

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke

Since I've only just started, and it is very long, I should think this will keep me going for some time.

What I'm reading (i) on my Kindle:

Re-Vamp, an anthology of speculative fiction edited by Die Booth and L.C. Hu.

What I'm reading (ii) on paper:

The top four are 'work' (i.e. research for my novel), whilst the bottom three are pleasure and have been given to me by publishers. At the moment I am in the middle of the Silk Industry of Renaissance Venice by Luca Mola - which is completely fascinating.

Body Visitors

2011-11-03T15:26:00.004Z

I would just like to share a quote I have just come across on a website about plagues. I felt it too good to keep to myself.

'When St. Thomas à Becket was prepared for burial in England in 1170, he was found to be wearing (from the outside in) (i) a large brown mantle, (ii) a white surplice, (iii) a coat of lambs' wool, (iv) a woolen pelisse, (v) another woolen pelisse, (vi) the black robe of the Benedictine order, (vii) a shirt, and (viii) a tight-fitting suit of coarse hair-cloth covered on the exterior with linen. During preparation for burial the cold English air stimulated so many of the critters occupying his hair suit that it "boiled over with them like water in a simmering cauldron."'

Rome Day 4: Streets, alleyways and executions

2011-11-02T08:09:00.013Z

Our last day, and we made our way by bus to Rome's 'original hill' (according to the top 10 guidebook), the Quirinal. By Roman times it seems to have become an upmarket suburbia of villas, temples and baths. After the fall of the empire, and the subsequent depopulating of Rome, it reverted to countryside and, I suspect, might soon have become another Wroxeter. The entrance to the frigidarium of the great baths of Diocletian, still stands, however,

because in 1561 the pope commissioned Michaelangelo to use the ruin as the basis of a church, the Santa Maria degli Angeli. The resulting space (which incorporates some of the original Roman pillars) is only half the area of the original, but even so gives a magnificent impression of marbled space.

Inside there was a small exhibition dedicated to Galileo, a retrospective look at his conflict with the church, attempting a reinterpretation of the relationship between things spiritual and scientific. On the floor was a type of solar calendar

using light from the sun and the moon from a vent high in the ceiling to determine the date - sundial-fashion.

Outside, in a small courtyard, the link with science continued, with a bronze statue of Galileo standing amidst the Roman remains - a gift from the China Centre of Advanced Science and Technology and WFS and designed by its director and winner of the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physics, Professor Tsung Dao Lee.

Another inconspicuous exterior, this time of scaffolding and tarpaulin, led to yet another Santa Maria nearby. This time the Maria was 'della Vittoria' and the interior was a much smaller 17th century Baroque church - stuffed full of Bernini statues. One of the most famous depicted the 'Ecstacy of St Theresa'. St Theresa was a mystic, whose descriptions of spiritual ecstasy reminded me very much of the descriptions of shamanic trances and transcendental meditation I've read. It seems to me that the human mind is just as much an unknown space as the celestial one above us.

We moved on, continuing by bus to the Campo de Fiori - the place where Galileo's predecessor Giordano Bruno was burnt at the stake.

He was executed for heresy of declaring that the earth revolves around the sun, rather than the other way around. He now looks down on fruit stalls and packets of multi-coloured pasta and preserves.

Following Walk 1 in Elizabeth Speller's book, we walked down the neighbouring narrow streets that looked as though they had been there for ever (or at least since medieval times)

with interesting shops

enticing alleyways

bridges linking neighbours

backyards with scooters

and shrines, each lit with either streetlight or candle.

A bus ride took us along an older street: the Apian Way

and the Catacombs of St Callisto, and for about an hour we were led through the complicated underground passages by an English-speaking priest. Like a vacated ants' nest of cavities, these passages were drilled from the soft black volcanic tuff and were once filled with the bodies of the early Christians, with a couple of special little highly-decorated crypts reserved for popes. The catacombs are vast, with four levels deep into the ground - although only the two upper layers are open to the public - and the tunnels snake around each other in a confusing network. The passages themselves are quite narrow and low, and the tour is not something I would recommend for the more claustrophobic visitor. We were not allowed to take pictures.

It was now four o'clock, and we were becoming conscious of time running out. After taking the bus back into town we managed to get into the Forum before it closed, and wandered around yet another ancient street

trying to work out what was temple, tomb, living place, shrine..

and after a while left - bemused and with the increasingly sure of our conviction that in order to understand any of it we would need to come back - with Amanda Claridge's guide, and possibly a human one too.

Rome Day 3: Stendhal's Syndrome

2011-11-01T08:10:00.011Z

There are several ways to the Vatican: down one of Mussolini's widened roads, where St Peter's dome shines at the end, drawing you forward, almost like a spiritual promise

or down one of the narrower medieval streets, where the cathedral is seen in more bashful glimpses.

Older streets are generally more interesting, I find, and this one yielded the oldest hospital in Rome with a revolving drum in its wall,

where in times past foundling babies could be left incognito: a pragmatic solution to a sad and ever-present problem: unwanted children and inadequate birth control.

Which leads me (neatly and not irrelevantly) to the vast square of St Peters and its circumnavigating queue (even though the basilica would not be open for several hours yet) and onwards to the walls of the fortress of the tiny Vatican state

with its guards self-consciously modeling the ancient uniform.

We queued. Then, having gained entrance to the impressive modern vestibule, queued some more (or rather formed part of a huddle)

gave a somewhat cursory glance at Roman carvings

and rooms full of later ones

and elaborately painted ceilings

with their guards who had lost interest long ago (I have given him a hat to disguise his identity)

to a darkened room with an Egyptian mummie

and another, strangely stuffy one (even though it seemed large and airy) hung with tapestries

then an even more magnificent ceiling (although we were led down it the wrong way - it only made sense looking back)

while the lower walls

and upper walls

and ceilings grew ever more splendid

until we reached the Sistine chapel accompanied by recorded messages not to take photos (so I didn't, but still the cameras flashed) and to remind us that we were standing in a place of worship. We stood. We gawped. We made appreciative noises with a thousand others, shoulder to shoulder, sucking in air that had just been breathed out, waiting for a gap between the press of warm bodies and a suitable time to elapse before we confessed we'd had enough, and glad to escape

...and although we could appreciate the magnificent skill and incredible wonderment of Michaelangelo's work, confess quietly to ourselves that actually we preferred the simplicity of this

that we found this quiet face was more affecting, and for me, at least said more about the glory of God and man, and that even this painting in a shrine we saw later in an anonymous alleyway

seems just as heartfelt, since it is kept so simply and sincerely alive with this symbol of devotion.

At the front of Elizabeth Speller's book she describes 'Stendhal's Syndrome' - 'a dizziness, panic or paranoia caused by trying to see too many artistic or historical artifacts in too short a time'. In Rome, of course, this is a constant danger. We walked on - back into the city and the Pantheon

(a beautiful building with an 'oculus' open to the sky) - a pagan temple converted to a Christian one. Then, eventually, by accident, came across the Marcello Theatre - a smaller version of the ampitheatre.

'What is that?' A woman asked me, when she saw me taking photographs, so I told her, and she laughed. 'There's just so much, isn't there?'

We agreed. It is difficult to keep appreciating such magnificence. Everywhere in Rome, it seems, there is some ancient splendour. It soon becomes background, and needs a smaller detail to bring it into focus. The next day I found such a fact, and it was this: when the Jewish population of the Roman ghetto was being persecuted during the second world war those tiny apartments in the Marcello Theatre became a temporary hiding place. So now when I look at these photos it is this Marcello Theatre that I want to see again, because, in some ways, its seems to be the most memorable and significant thing I saw that day.

Since it is hallowe'en...

2011-10-31T22:28:00.003Z

...I am going to finish the day by dipping into a collection of horror stories called Re-Vamp edited by Die Booth, one of the members of Chester Writers.

I have taken a quick look already, and can see it is an impressive production.

Rome Day 2: A Nero Fixation

2011-10-31T16:59:00.009Z

The historic heart of Rome, and in every ruin and building seemed to lurk Nero.

His mouth is small and mean. To me this is the face of a bully.

At first Nero was a popular emperor, ingratiating himself with public works, but then he concentrated on extending his own private empire, with villas filled with murals

and fine sculptures.

How long it took the world for the world to regain such expertise.

On the Palatine hill he also built palaces

with gardens

and baths with fountains

and mosaics

and veined marble pillars

connected with a tunnel

(with its own plaster moulding)

and, a recent discovery, what may be the circular remains of a revolving dining room, the Coenatio Rotunda

All of this was made possible by a fire that had burnt for days

reducing the city to ruin.

Out of these ashes came the Domus Aurea, Nero's home, which sprawled from this Palatine hill to the nearby Oppian.

Some blamed Nero for the fire, so his successors, intent on removing all trace of him, used the foundations of his lake to build a bigger monster

and new shops sprang up along the road (easy to imagine these spaces displaying yesterday's Armani)

But memories are not so easily removed; the Colosseum evokes Colossus, Nero's 30 m bronze statue

and each setting sun evokes the memory of fire

- a more benign inferno for the modern Roman.

Rome Day 1: Columns and Steps

2011-10-30T12:51:00.013Z

Our hotel was a former convent (on the right) next to the Roman Forum (over the wall to the left) next to the cobbled street - a somewhat strange choice for a city centre - which caused the fast moving cars to sound as if they were on miniature railway tracks.

To the east is the Palatine hill with the forum beneath

and further east the Colosseum. To the north is the glaringly white Vittorio Emanuele II memorial - a southern adjunct to the Capitol hill which seems to consist of steps and more steps (and on one of these a pair of newly weds being romantically photographed)

as well as museums arranged around a square designed by Michaelangelo, guarded by a statue of the famous she-wolf (which was surprisingly tiny).

We headed north our first day, passing the Trajan Column with its parade of soldiers marching to the top

then, continuing north along the Via del Corso, passed yet another - a copy-cat version of the first erected by Marcus Aurelius.

We were aiming for the Spanish Steps, the start of Walk 3 in Elizabeth Speller's book. A right turn took us along the Via Borgognona lined with expensive shops,

hotels and cafes. Until, at the Piazza Spagna itself

we noted (as instructed) the English tea house, and the fountain shaped like a boat in the bottom, and then, dodging the sellers of single roses, made our way upwards to admire the view

A long walk took us through parks and eventually a Roman gate, a huge piazza called Popolo, and the city streets again with its stalls

shops, and another, much later, column - this time of the Immaculate Conception.

It was this part of the walk that I liked the most. The quiet streets with their ochre-coloured walls,

each doorway revealing something human-sized and intimate - a rest from the Roman and the Renaissance which all too soon overwhelms, like an overbright light.

King James Bible Readathon in the Chester Literature Festival

2011-10-27T17:56:00.005+01:00

My first day back from Rome, and I plunged straightaway back into the Chester Literature Festival: taking my slot in the Readathon of the King James VI bible in St Anselm's chapel in Chester Cathedral. My section was the last chapter of Daniel and the first seven chapters of Hosea.

Some parts of the bible are not frequently read, and having ploughed through these pieces of eventless prose I can see why. There was a lot about whoring and adultery in general, and baring the breast in particular - none of this recommended by the narrator, Hosea.

I much preferred the earlier bits about Daniel interpreting dreams and surviving fires and the lions' dens - and his persecutors (and their friends and relatives) all being torn apart with true Old Testament justice. It reminded me of the colosseum, and made me think that throwing people into a pit with wild animals may not have been a wholly Roman invention.

The audience was not huge, in fact consisted just of Hodmandod Senior at one stage (who took this picture), but thanks to Katherine Seddon who was the understudy for the day, and who has done a lot to organise this event. It's certainly made me appreciate the beauty of some of the Old Testament language.

Chester Writers at the Chester Literary Festival

2011-10-20T08:04:00.006+01:00

Chester Writers is having a performance evening (as part of the Chester Literature Festival) at the Bull and Stirrup tonight so I have been getting a few things ready:

1. 50 programmes
2. Guest list
3. Guidance notices to our room
4. Signing-in sheet for the Open Mic session
5. Blu-tack
6. Introductory notes (because I am hopeless at ad-libbing)
7. Tin containing a float of £1 coins
8. Egg timer for the Open Mic session

My colleague Ravi has the audio equipment and lectern, Die has been working hard on the publicity and Anita has agreed to man to door - so I think we are all set...

The performers at the Bull and Stirrup (except for one who came later):
Michael Hall, Die Booth, Ian Cai Mercer, Suzanne Iupa, David Atkinson, George Horsman, Moi, Hilary Alexander, Timothy Heavisides, Ravi Raizada, Michele Rimmer, Christopher Atherton and Jane Mack.

The Power of the Spoken Word: Tweet Tales & the Launch of 'Books Are Loud'

2011-10-19T19:50:00.011+01:00

What a difference a reading makes! Today I listened to Hugh Bonneville and Brenda Blethyn read out the tweet stories from the Society of Authors, and stories that had seemed to me like an unconnected series of lines (probably because I knew how they'd been generated) had new meaning. They are certainly worth listening to (and, of course, supporting the campaign to save the short story on radio 4 - all it needs is your electronic signature here).

This was something I was thinking about on Tuesday night when I went to an audiobook book launch in Manchester. Judy Franklin is an actress, and has narrated many audiobooks for audible. She is also an author, and I met her and her friends Helen Sea and Diana Bradley through Alison Leonard. All of them were studying, or had been studying, at Manchester Metropolitan University's Creative Writing School. The novels they had produced on this course were launched together on Tuesday night - with not a piece of paper in sight - but through the new audiobook publisher BooksAreLoud. It's an exciting venture. Through Audible, they will be available throughout the world.

Alison (who is the author of the excellent Tinker's Career) has written a book called Flesh and Bronze, is based on a young prostitute who modelled for Degas, and who comes face to face with her younger self when she sees a bronze of herself in a shop window. It sounds a poignant tale and you can read a little more about it, as well as watch a rather good video here. The launch coincides with the Degas exhibition now on at London's Royal Academy.

Capuccinos by Diana Bradley takes place in a coffee house and centres on six people who work or are frequent customers. Diana is billed as 'Manchester's own Jackie Collins', and judging by that extract this is entirely accurate. To quote the publicity: 'It's not just the coffee that's steaming!' You can see more about it here.

Helen Sea's work is aimed at young adults, but as is often the case with this sort of book, is expected to appeal to adults too. Helen, like Alison, produced a haunting film to give a taste of the book. It is based in Norway and tells the story of a quest in the old Norse tradition.

Julia Franklin's Turn Up For The Book is a light-hearted romantic comedy, and is set in a background of advertising, restaurants, book selling... and a little murder! That sounds a wonderfully potent mix, and judging from the excerpt we heard is a hugely entertaining read.

The final author in the launch is one of the lecturers in MMU and his book The Only Living Boy has already been published by Salt. It is a collection of short stories, and we heard a couple of them during the launch: Judy and Robert acting a scene that was so well written that it came vividly to life.

Judy, who has started Books Are Loud, with Alison, Helen, Diana and another author, Paula McDonald, says that she will be able to use her knowledge of fellow actors to make a good match between book and actor. And her colleague, Rick Woodhouse, says he is looking forward to giving authors a voice on the world stage. For a small fee they will make an podcast sample of a book and launch it on iTunes. It sounds like an excellent idea to me - and will no doubt be good publicity for a book. They are hoping to attract small publishers to the scheme.

The guest of honour was the poet laureate (and head of MMU's Creative Writing School), Carol Ann Duffy, who gave a short speech after the launch showing her support for this enterprising group of graduates.

There was then an opportunity to buy flashdrives of the audio and kindle versions of the books (and I am happy to report my first one has downloaded successfully on both Kindle and itunes so I am looking forward to a little multimedia reading when on holiday).

Chester Literature Festival: Paul Dowswell

2011-10-18T15:22:00.004+01:00

I went to my first Chester LitFest event yesterday: a talk by Paul Dowswell about his new book Sektion 20.

It is about East Germany in the Cold War and sounded so interesting I bought a copy (ostensibly for my sons, but I think I shall be reading it first). I also bought Paul's Ausländer which has been hugely acclaimed - and shortlisted for just about every prize (for young adult fiction) going.

Bloomsbury have done a fine job of the covers. In artificial light they sparkle most impressively

The Authors North Weekender

2011-10-17T09:48:00.005+01:00

From a subterranean station below Piccadilly station, a tram sweeps over canals and through rejuvenated industrial landscape. It glides, swishes, stops, warbles a reedy warning and then sweeps off again: Piccadilly Gardens, St Peter's Square, Deansgate. Outside the traffic has come to a stand still, but the tram glides on. Salford Quays, Anchorage. It is a regal way to travel. At some precise time later it comes to a smooth stop and the doors open. The end of the line. Step out and look around you. Salford's MediaCity, the new home of the BBC.

Gleaming towers. Smooth lines. Sun setting on water, mirrored planes and the word 'Studio' in big bright letters. The old mill town has become the future.

There are just a few steps over newly-laid turf from the terminus to the studio.

The door - more like an opening in the wall of glass is marked 'Sitcom Showcase'; but I am directed to follow the man in front (who looks as though he might be important) to another entrance. As part of Authors North I have become a VIP. My name is checked against the guest list, and I am given a crimson armband as proof of status.

Upstairs there is a table of wine, beer, juice, water, a couple of waiters and the other VIPs: comedy groups, writers producers and actors. It is like being at a publisher's party or in a Literary Festival Green Room. I chat with a member of a troupe from Newcastle until the Authors North party arrive. The voices become louder. Down stairs the rest of the audience mill around Dr Who's tardis which has landed by the window.

After the rest of the audience is seated, we are escorted to our seats. In front of us is the set representing the interior of a flat: chairs, sofa, ironing board and laundry basket. Around us are video cameras pointing into the audience as well as the stage, and above us a false roof not quite hiding supply lines of cables. People, lots of them, some with clipboards, all of them with tense faces, stand waiting to the side.

There are two acts. The first is called 'Single White Male'. The laughs come without pause, and a pair of hamsters are so convincingly squashed in their cage that I find my hand pressed against my mouth. Then there is a Shakespearean style mix-up that is brought up to date with the involvement of a computer.

The second act, Up!, is about a group of university students which turned out to be an exceptional funny and successful take on a familiar theme. The characters are wistful and well-developed. Some of the lines delivered by an actor called Eric Lampaert are delivered with a sort of lyricism.

After another short sojourn in hospitality, it is time for me to leave (although I do manage to tell Eric exactly what I think of him). Back I am back on the tram, then the train and looking forward to the main event in the Lowry Centre - just across a small wharf from the MediaCentre.

We have a room with a view: a river with skulls and the odd, unexpectedly large, steamer loaded with tourists and their large cameras.

Next door is a room full of ballet dancers. We can see them practising in silhouette through partly obscured windows. Across an internal bridge is the main theatre; the only sound from this is the announcement telling the audience to enter. At lunch-time I see a bride and groom drift leisurely and alone around the empty spaces, and I have the odd impression that I am seeing ghosts, or maybe stars on a film set, but they are just the main performers of the real-life drama of their wedding in the function room below. We are isolated and yet can see everything: an excellent venue. Anna Ganley, attending her last meeting as our secretary, begins to tweet the proceedings ( #authorsnorth)...

I gave the chair's report, and then a couple of excellent talks followed. Gary Brown, the Sony Gold Award-winning producer told us that it was an exciting time for drama in the northwest, with radio a particularly good medium for writers. Almost a million people listen to the Radio 4 afternoon play, and the BBC is the biggest commissioner of new drama in the world. Amidst all this gleaming rejuvenation and optimism I was finding it difficult to remember that I was still in the recession-hit UK.

Using examples he gave us tips on how to structure our work, how we should aim to write visually, and the importance of a strong narrative. He looks for plenty of scene changes when he encounters a manuscript, and recommends that 'the start' should be as late as possible in the story line. 25% of newly commissioned work is by writers 'new to radio', and he recommends that anyone interested should submit via the Writers Room (found on the BBC website). However, he stresses that it is tough to get commissioned, and writers generally had some sort of track record - if not in radio then in other forms of writing. Helen Shay, who introduced Gary, said he was an encouraging and supportive to new writers, and I should think he'd be a marvellous mentor.

After lunch Nazrin Choudhury (introduced by John Rice) gave us an impressive talk about her life so far as an award-winning screenwriter. Apart from making her mark in this country writing for various soap operas, she has also won a 'Focus on Talent' award for her first screenplay, Scum, and in 2005 her radio play Mixed Blood won the Imison award. She is now off to the United States to establish herself there, having acquired a specially dispensed green card. She spoke of the importance of courses and awards to her career, and recommends competitions and awards as a way of getting one's name 'out there' .

The day ended in the Seven Oaks Pub in Nicholas Street, in Manchester City Centre, where we heard The Liars League read out a series of previously submitted short stories (800 - 2,000 words ) on the theme of 'Blood and Guts.' The writing and reading was topnotch - and suitably gruesome. Altogether it was a hugely entertaining finish.

Added later: To see the speakers and members of the audience in their cartoon glory I advise you to go straight to Radiocartoon's blog. By some magical means he manages to make themmore like themseleves than they already are.

Thank you Anna Ganley, Rachel O'Mally and Lisa Dowdeswell for organising such a great weekend.

Rome Guide 4: Art and Architecture: Rome by Brigitte Hintzen-Bohlen

2011-10-16T16:04:00.002+01:00

Like the Archoeological Guide, Art and Architecture: Rome starts with the history of Rome too, but continues past the end of the Roman empire to the modern day.

After 476AD, when the last Roman emperor, Romulus Augustulus, was deposed, the ancient buildings became more and more dilapidated. The Visigoths were now in charge, but their capital was Ravenna, which was fairly close to Venice. The inhabitants of Rome left, until by the 6th century it had only 50,000 people.

Pope Gregory I (pontificate 590-604) was a great leader. At the end of the plague he went on a mission to northern Europe and people flocked into the city as a result. Later popes allied with Frankish kings which allowed the popes to rule over Rome, while the kings were appointed 'emperor' by the grace of God in St Peters. The first such alliance was in 754. This was the start of Holy Roman Empire with a spiritual base in Rome, but power centre further north.

In the 8th and 9th centuries Rome enjoyed a moment of prosperity, but afte this it suffered, because unlike Florence, Venice and other northern cities, was outside the trading centre, and the population decreased further to 25,000.

In the 12th century the population rebelled against the pope and there was a brief democratic government. In 1303 the Roman pope Boniface VIII was deposed (as described in the Cathar Book) , and the next pope, Clement V, was French and moved to Avignon. Rome sank to its lowest depth. Several popes claimed the holy chair at St Peter (Great Western Schism) until in 1417 Martin V elected. This ushered in the Renaissance.

In the 15th century, the popes secured increased power which enabled the city to be reconstructed. Popes preferred to give key positions to their own relatives ('nepotism' come from this - word for nephew). It soon became the centre of the High Renaissance and Raphael and Michelangelo entrusted with the decoration.

In 1527 Rome was sacked by Charles V, but although damaged, it recovered quickly.

The Counter Reformation came after the Council of Trent 1545-1563. One of the more famous sacrifices demanded by the Jesuits of the counter reformation (against the reformation movement) was Bruni due to heretical philosophising about the earth going round the sun in 1600.

The church grew in strength until the end of the 17th century. New churches and palaces enhanced the appearance of the city. Under Sixtus V (1585- 1590) there was huge urban planning. The Renaissance was succeeded by the flowing lines of the Baroque e.g. internal designs in St Peter's.

In 1600 there was new inspiration: for example in the works of Caravaggio. The Baroque enticed many people to Rome and papal power began to decline. In 1798 Napoleon surrounded the city and declared it a republic. The Pope was removed but restored in 1814.

In contrast, the French provided help when Rome wanted to resist the revolutionary troops of Mazzini and Garibaldi. Rome was declared capital, but when Franco-Prussian war forced France to withdraw, the pope was obliged to renounce his claims to secular powers. The people of Rome voted to become part of a unified Italy in 1870. It became the capital of Italy in 1871, but by this time the pope had withdrawn behind the Vatican walls in protest.

Mussolini (Il Duce) recognised the sovereignty of the papal state in 1929. He then cut through the city and built a magnificent stadium and dreamed of restoring the old empire. He was executed by partisans in 1945 after defeat in the second world war.

In 1946 monarchy abolished. Rome has been the capital ever since. However, it cannot hold its own in comparison with northern cities. The main problem is its chaotic traffic and high levels of pollution. However, there have been improvements in terms of archeology, and there are large new excavations.

After this short history, Art and Archeology: Rome then goes through landmarks with pictures and explanations. There is just the right amount of detail. At the back there is a great glossary and biographical section, and a pull-out time-line. These are great for quick reference. It is an interesting and very useful book - and although fairly heavy (because of the pictures) is just about small enough to be carried on a sight-seeing trip.

Rome Guide 3: Rome: an Oxford Archeological Guide by Amanda Claridge

2011-10-16T15:38:00.002+01:00

Rome: An Archeological Guide starts with a historical overview going from the ancient start of the city to the 6th cent AD. It makes an excellent introduction to the history of the city with just the right amount of detail.

Rome is supposed to have been founded in 753BC by a man called Romulus. He was a king with a group of supporters which reminded me of the comitatus of the Indo-Europeans described in the Empires of the Silk Road book I read earlier this year. By means of trade, they managed to gain ascendance over the neighbouring tribes.

At the end of the 6th cent BC the regal system was abolished and replaced by two elected consuls. Soon the patricians (wealthy families) had a monopoly on the consulship. This was challenged by the plebeians who formed their own state within the state and in the 4th cent BC they won equal rights.

The Roman conquest continued in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC. Enemies were made into allies and they contributed to the war effort. Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia, Southern Spain and then Carthage (nr Tunis, northern Africa) were taken. Much of the rest of Iberian peninsular and southern France, the Greece, the Balkans, some Asia Minor, the Aegean and central north Africa taken. In the city temples were built, then drainage systems improved and the streets paved.

In 90-31BC there were civil wars as the pace of expansion slowed. In the city, the main development, apart from planning by Julius Caesar, was the decoration of houses owned by the wealthy.

From 31BC to 14AD Octavian became leader (or princeps) with the title Augustus. Military campaigns were consolidated and the empire expanded. A fifth of the population of Italy settled in colonies overseas. During this time the city of Rome took shape. The population doubled in size from 200,000 in 2nd cent BC to 500,000 in 14AD. It was overcrowded, but there were building regulations and fire brigades (which also acted as a sort of police force), and aqueducts were reconditioned. A court style developed. Suburban houses(called 'Gardens') were developed.

From 14 to 54 AD there were a series of emperors from Tiberius to Claudius. More aquaducts, forts, and improved palaces were built. However, fires started to be a problem. These culminated in AD 64 when, under Nero, there was a great fire. At first, Nero was a popular emperor with a programme of luxurious public building projects, as well as more private projects, such as a golden house for himself and associated gardens. But when fire raged for 9 days, Nero's reaction unimpressive. although he then started to improve roads and buildings and make them more fire-proof, there were conspiracies and Nero eventually committed suicide.

Flavians, from 69-96 AD inherited and continued Nero's programme of urban renewal. He dismantled Nero's palace and built the colosseum. Quarries providing fine marbles were developed and there was increasingly ambitious concrete architecture.

The years 96-180AD were the period of 'High Empire'. The emperors: Trajan, Hadrian and Antonines had no sons - so their successors were chosen by ability. They built the forum, basilica, public baths, docks, circus maximus and vestals house. Hadrian, in particular, had a great effect on the city's architecture. The run ended with Commodus - who became unbalanced towards the end of his reign.

Severans ruled from 193-238. He campaigned against the Parthians and installed his two sons as potential emperor and caesar. A succession of other usurpers followed. During the later 3rd century there were 18 emperors in 50 years. People on the outskirts took this period of instability as an opportunity to invade. In 285AD the empire was divided into two. Various projects were undertaken to improve Rome and their 'Gardens'. A huge new wall to protect against the Gauls was built. At this time the population of the city was probably over a million.

In the fourth century various shenanigans with the east and west emperors led to Constantine displacing Maxentius as emperor. Maxentius had devoted huge resources to public projects including palaces and temples. These were finished by his successor Constantine. Constantine subsequently became 'the Great' by taking over the eastern part of the empire too.He became a Christian in order to incorporate the Christians into the kingdom - a cynical rather than spiritual move. The prosecutions of the Christians came to an end and it became the state religion in 312.

The church of St Peters was made for the bishop of Rome (the pope) at the Vatican. It represented an ideal of universal government, a model for life, relevant to an emperor who came from outside the city. In 330 he moved the capital to Constantinople and this initiated the final decline of Rome as the hub of the Roman Empire.

After Constatine's death his three sons rules over the various parts of the empire, one taking over another, with a cousin called Julian eventually inheriting in 361. Julian was an educated man and gifted philosopher, and advocated equal rights for Christians and non-Christians. This enabled cults and temples to be reinstated in Rome. Intolerance returned with Gratian (and Theodosius in the East Roman Empire) in 379. In 394 the Vestal Virgins told to disband.

Overall fourth century Rome must have been an amazing place to live. There were festivals, amazing house (to encourage the rich back into the city), free pork, olive oil and and bread, marble decoration, fountains, streets, squares, magnificent public buildings like the colosseum , forum, pantheon and the palantine.

In the 5th and 6th centuries, Huns displaced Goths from their homelands, who then, in turn, invaded the Roman Empire. After being repulsed they were joined by more Germans to form the Visigoths, and eventually, to everyone's surprise, managed to sack Rome in 410. The Romans retook their city, only to have it taken again by the Vandals. Eventually the Ostrogoths held sway peaceably alongside the old Roman aristocracy. Civic life went on as normal with some places, like the baths and colosseum, repaired.

In 536 the Eastern Romans (Byzantine), on order from Justinian, took over the western Roman empire until the Ostrogoths retook Rome under Totila in 546. After this Italy was fragmented into kingdoms and duchies. The Roman senate was last mentioned in 580 and by then Rome was on the way to becoming a papal state.

After this interesting history, comes a glossary, and then (which forms the bulk of the book) a section which describes the antiquarian sites at various places e.g. the Forum and the Palatine. These are described in detail with plans and pictures. This is very interesting, but maybe better appreciated when it is there in front of you. Like the other books, it whets the appetite, and makes me think I would need to spend a few months in Rome to properly appreciate the place, taking a week to investigate each site. I don't think I'll ever have the chance, but it would be a fascinating thing to do - with the help of this book.

Rome Guide 2: The Colosseum by Peter Hopkins and Mary Beard

2011-10-14T09:28:00.003+01:00

The Colisseum is part guide, part detailed history - and if you are not reading it in anticipation of a visit, it will make you determined to go there (or even back there) soon.

The Roman Colosseum was built using the spoils from the sacking of Jerusalem on the site of Emperor Nero's lake. Emperor Nero famously fiddled while Rome burned, and this formerly popular leader had been disgraced and died, there was an effort to eradicate his more exuberant works, including a palace and grounds. However, the name 'Colosseum' ironically comes from Nero's statue (the colossus).

The colosseum was built to stage events was supposed to have opened in 80 AD. A lot of what is thought to have gone on - viz wild animal hunts, human-animal sex acts, executions of criminals at lunch-time and gladiator fights - may not have been frequent occurrences (perhaps taking place on just a few days each year).

The gladiators were social underdogs and yet some of them had the status and virality of superstars. There were maybe 8,000 gladiators deaths a year over the whole empire - and these were young men in their prime. Animals were apparently slaughtered in their hundreds in this colosseum alone. The logistics of capturing and transporting these large animals must have been challenging.

Prisoners, criminals and Christians were also executed - often by animal attack and being tied to a stake. There is no record of Christian martyrdom until after Christianity became the official religion - although there must have been some.

People were allocated seats through tickets. Women were only allowed at the back - except for the vestal virgins who sat at the front. The seating was according to social class, with lower orders further up. Since the Rome population was then one million, the 50,000 strong audience must have been ' the toga-clad elite'.

Emperors used the spectacle for their own purposes, one called Commodus being particularly notorious in his escapades: with a taste for dressing up as a gladiator, killing animals, and sometimes was even known to threaten the audience. Although it was a world very different from our own, with correspondingly different cultural mores, Mary Beard and Peter Hopkins suspect members of this Roman audience may well have had ethical doubts about some of this required 'entertainment'.

The Colosseum would have been much more elaborately decorated with marble and plaster at first, but this has been eroded away. The entrance for the emperor may have been underground with a mosaic floor. There may have been an attempted assassination of Commodus there.

The main floor was likely to be wooden with spaces underneath and apparatus to lift animals, objects and people to the 'stage'. It is not entirely clear when this apparatus was constructed, but was clearly impressive - as were the drainage and foundations of the structure too.

After describing the colosseum in its Roman heyday, the book goes on to consider what happened to it after Rome fell, and the empire removed to Constantinople. In medieval times (ca. 1000AD) the colosseum was thought to be a temple of the sun containing devils, and in middle of the twelfth century it was used as a palace. In the sixteenth century it was proposed to be used as a wool factory and then was used as a small glue factory. This helped to preserve it.

However, from the Renaissance onwards, it was used as a quarry for surrounding buildings, and only rescued from complete destruction by being recognised as a site of martyrs. In 1750 Pope Benedict XIV proclaimed its holy site status with a plaque.

Even so, by the nineteenth century it had been taken over by vegetation and Richard Deakin counted 420 different sorts of flowers there. It was only in the 1870s, after the reunification of Italy, that it was taken over by the antiquarians and archeologists, and patched up and excavated to ensure that it survives to this day.

The book finishes with a highly entertaining chapter on the colosseum's final couple of centuries before going on to give a very useful tips on making the most of a visit. Altogether it is a very interesting book which really brings the place alive - while being careful to detail what is actually known, and what is assumed.

Thanks to Profile Books for the review copy.

Rome Guide 1: Rome by Elizabeth Speller

2011-10-13T20:15:00.005+01:00

I have now read through five different guides to Rome, and am going to report on each of them separately. All of them provide useful information about the city. The first is Elizabeth Speller's Granta Guide.

Rome by Elizabeth Speller is part city guide, part travelogue. The writing style reminds me of a commercial version of W.G. Sebald's, recommending restaurants and hotels, providing little anecdotes and suggesting places to see. The descriptions are just wonderful and sometimes very witty. I read it through from cover to cover, scarcely pausing.

Ten walks are featured. I was hoping to decide which ones would be best to take, but each one seemed so enticing that I wanted to take all of them. In walk one I would encounter the ghetto, in walk two the parthenon and a museum. In walk three I walked down the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain and encountered a gelateria which I couldn't miss. Work four was the unmissable sacred heart with steps by Michelangelo. Walk five featured quiet rarely visited catacombs, while in walks six and seven I would experience the history of Rome through the architecture of its churches. On page 186 in chapter eight the Trastevere Museum was described - which made me desperate to see it, while walks nine and ten featured the Vatican and Appian Way respectively.

It's given me an excellent overview of the city, with interesting little cameos about the people Elisabeth Speller encounters as she did her research, and these in themselves give a good insight int the Italian character. It greatly increased my eagerness to see the city, my only regret is not coming across her guide to Athens before we went there too last year.

Interview with Alistair Bruce: author of Wall of Days.

2011-10-10T08:48:00.007+01:00

**Winner of Round Three of Amazon's 'Rising Stars' **
(Added later)

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of reading Wall of Days by Alastair Bruce, a dystopian novel set some time in the future in a drowning world. My review is here: I thought it an excellent novel, and judging from the huge number of 5 star ratings on Amazon other people think as much of this book as I do! (Coincidentally, on the same day that I post this I learn that Wall of Days has been voted the winner of Round 3 of Amazon's Rising Stars. Congratulations Alastair!)

Alastair has kindly agreed to answer a few questions about his book, which considering how busy his life must be at the moment, is very good of him.

Biography.
Alistair Bruce was born in Port Elizabeth, South Africa in 1972 and grew up there and in Cape Town where he went to university, gaining an MA in Literature. After a spell in the US he emigrated to the UK in 1997 and started working in electronic publishing. He currently works for a large technology company in London and is using the long commute to work on his second novel. He is married, has an 18 month-old daughter and lives in Windsor.

Interview.
Questions about Wall of Days.
Clare Dudman: How did the book come into being? (For example where did the idea come from, did it come fully formed from the idea, or was the evolution of the novel more gradual?)
Alistair Bruce: It was very gradual. I wrote a short story in my late teens or early twenties about a man living in a cave who meets a stranger. The story explored themes of isolation and was set in a seemingly post-apocalyptic world. There was something about the story that drew me back to it and I began to explore the personality and history of the cave dweller in more detail. The overall plot of the novel – exiled leader returns to find the unexplainable – has remained the same but the novel has evolved greatly within that structure. I started the novel in the late 1990s though most of the writing was done a long time after that. There were other events going on in the world in the mid to late 1990s that effected my thinking, specifically events in Rwanda and Bosnia and South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

CD: What did you set out to achieve (if anything) when you wrote your novel?
AB: I wanted to write a novel. There was no broader, more noble goal than that. I had written a few short stories and I simply decided that it was time I got down to a bigger project.

CD: What sort of research did you do?
AB: The type of novel it is didn’t require much research. There was a lot of reading around the novel that I did but it was less research than simply reading that happened to influence my writing. I read a lot about bog bodies, for instance. There is fact checking you have to do of course: do your measurements make sense, how do you harvest peat, how long does a particular amount of it burn for, how much wood do you get from a tree of a particular age, and so on.

CD: What effect does having a scientific background and interest have on the way you write?
AB: I’m not sure if a couple of years of physics and mathematics at university qualifies me for a scientific background! But I do have an abiding interest in nature’s building blocks and in evolution. Wall of Days has plenty of metaphors about history and stories buried in landscapes so I suppose on that level it has had an impact. On another level the attention to detail that those disciplines require has stayed with me (not that you don’t need this in other fields), which is partly responsible for the sparse prose style of Wall of Days. I can honestly say I have not thought much about this aspect though up until now.

CD: I see from your biography that you come from South Africa and now live in this country. Where did you write this novel? Did this have any bearing on how it turned out?
AB: The story I mentioned was written in South Africa but the novel in its entirety was written in the UK. I can remember sitting down to write in Colchester, Essex on a rainy day, wondering how to start, and writing the first sentence, “It has been raining here for ten years.” The ideas of exile and displacement that the novel contains, are also related to my emigration.

CD: Was the settlement of Bran completely invented or did you have somewhere in mind as a basis?
AB: I had nowhere particular in mind but the settlement and countryside around it takes elements from a variety of sources: the landscapes of the west coast of South Africa and the Western Cape, towns of the American west in the nineteenth century, and Kafka’s Castle and Penal Colony.

CD: The book could be regarded as a dystopian one based in a world that has undergone global warming. Is this what you had in mind? And what views do you have about global warming?
AB: The story is set in a world where sea levels have risen and covered up large parts of previous civilizations. However, it is not about global warming, no matter how passionately I might feel about it. Global warming, if anything, is a device I have used to create a world where cultural knowledge and history have largely been eliminated, a world where only here and there do indications of a past raise their heads above the surface. Any statements the novel may make about global warming are tangential at best to the thrust of the story.

General Questions.
CD: Do you have any connection with snails?
AB: I’m afraid you might not like this but when I was about ten I would earn a bit of extra pocket money from my father by finding and killing snails in the garden. I earned quite a bit. But I can say that I have not deliberately harmed any snails for many years now excluding the few I ate a while ago.

CD: What is your proudest moment?
AB: I returned home from the hospital at about one in the morning after my wife had given birth. Already as proud as I thought I could be, I found an email waiting in my inbox all but confirming I was going to be published. As days go it doesn’t get much better.

CD: Have you ever had a life-changing event - if so what was it?
AB: Other than the day I just mentioned? At the risk of sounding like a self-help book, life changes every day. Events like emigrating, having a baby, and getting published are probably the biggest for me.

CD: What is the saddest thing you’ve ever heard of or seen?
AB: I have become quite soppy since becoming a parent. Any kind of violence against children or pain suffered by them I find hard to take and understand. On a different scale I still find the Rwandan genocide deeply disturbing. Depending on whose numbers you believe up to one-fifth of the country’s citizens were killed, and most of these in the space of just three months. The inability or unwillingness of the international community to do anything to stop it, in spite of knowing about the threat of genocide months in advance, should continue to be a source of shame. I don’t think, even today, we have fully acknowledged the horror of a genocide against which events in the same mid-1990s timeframe in Serbia and Bosnia pale by comparison.

CD: If there was one thing you’d change about yourself what would it be?
AB: My knees. Running is beginning to be a bit painful.

CD: What is happiness?
AB: It is probably different for everyone. To rephrase a song my daughter likes: If you’re happy, you will know it.

CD: What is the first thing you do when you get up?
AB: Wish I could go back to sleep.

My next point of call...

2011-10-04T12:52:00.007+01:00

...is Rome, 1770AD.

I live in exciting times, though not necessarily my own.

An Interview with Stephen O'Shea

2011-10-03T15:27:00.010+01:00

Following on from the review of The Friar of Caracassonne (review here), the author, Stephen O'Shea has kindly agree to answer a few questions about the book and (the usual) about himself. It contains both a recipe for snails and a spectacular molluscan feat.

Photo credit: George Lange

Biography.
Stephen O’Shea is a Canadian writer and historian. His previous books on the history of the Middle Ages are this book’s bestselling predecessor The Perfect Heresy: The Life and Death of the Cathars and Sea of Faith: Islam and Christianity in the Medieval Mediterranean World. He was for many years a journalist in Paris and New York and contributed to a wide variety of publications on the arts and translated French feature films. O’Shea now lives in Providence, Rhode Island.

Interview

Questions on the 'Friar of Carcasonne'

Clare Dudman: What attracted you to the history of the Friar?
Stephen O'Shea: I had come across Bernard's story, in fragmentary form, while researching The Perfect Heresy. He's given a brief mention in that book... but his mysterious personal trajectory, his Roman candle appearance in history, always nagged at the back of my mind, even as I turned to other projects that had nothing to do with the Languedoc.

One day a few years back, on a hunch, I sat down and carefully read the transcripts of his trial (they had only recently been translated from Latin into French). It was an a-ha moment. Not only was the story compelling and dramatic in and of itself, but it also echoed the current uneasiness I felt at the spectacle of what our societies had resumed doing... Once again, the resort to torture, the secret trials, the unlawful detention... Precisely the thing that Bernard fought against seven hundred years ago.

Of course his starting point was entirely different from our opposition to such practices today, but the fight is timeless, universal even. Bernard had thought his Church had betrayed its founding principles, just as many of us think the same has been done to our hard-won commitment to due process and civil liberties. In short, an out-of-time enemy had been identified, and the rules rewritten to justify atrocious behavior. In Bernard's instance, his enemies, the Dominican inquisitors, reimagined their faith, as one founded on an imperative to persecute (!). I leave it to media dons and pundits to characterize how the present-day enthusiasts of summary justice and torture have reimagined their worldview. And, last, with Brother Bernard I had an amazing story, set in an epochal decade (first decade of the fourteenth), never before presented to the general reading public. So, to sum up: fascination with the man, his distant actions as a present-day parable, and the newness of the material. I knew I had to do it.

CD: What do you think was his most important legacy?
SOS: His name lives on locally in the Languedoc as a byword for resistance to overweening authority and religious zealotry. But, to be perfectly frank, his name is not a household word even down there, his contribution subsumed in the larger collective memory of the Cathars. I hope that works such as my own will contribute to broadening his legacy, getting out his story, making his actions part of the larger narrative we tell ourselves about the past.

Statue of an unknown priest in the Carcassonne castle museum.

CD: Is there a place in Languedoc-Rousillon you particularly recommend going to see - somewhere off the beaten track?
SOS: I think climbing Mont Bugarach, the sacred mountain of the Occitans (not Montsegur, by the way), is a wonderful way to spend an afternoon. The ascent is easy, the mountain weird and mystical (geologicallly, it's basically a mountain that has fallen over on its side), the site steeped in folklore about sorcery, Catharism, and mythical creatures. From its summit, a majestic view of the Pyrenees, a commanding view of the Corbieres, a horizon of fascinating history and arresting beauty. If you're really adventurous, spend the night atop it and watch for shooting stars.

Gate out of the old city to the new city (the Bourg).

CD: Did the Cathars leave any legacy in France or elsewhere? I'm just wondering if there was any relationship between them and the religious non-conformist uprisings that came later.
SOS: That's hard to say, accurately. Did they for example inspire the Protestant camisard revolt in the Lower Languedoc and the Cevennes? Probably not. What they did -- along with the crushing of Languedoc independence that occurred at the same time as their eradication -- was foster a spirit of truculence, a deep-seated anticlericalism in the people of southwestern France.

That was then. Now, or at least for the last 150 years, the story of the Cathars has been taken up and championed by various intellectual and cultural movements in the Languedoc, so that it is currently well-anchored in collective memory (The Cathars also, alas, have been relentlessly commercialized as of late by tourist boards and the like). If you're interested at all in this use and abuse of the Cathars from the 1850s to the present -- a thicket of weirdness and earnestness -- then I suggest you read the Epilogue of The Perfect Heresy, in which it is discussed.

Square in the Bourg - maybe the site of the old Franciscan convent?

CD: What was the most challenging part of your research?
SOS: In truth, the research was not that difficult, not compared to my other books. It was a complicated story, but the source material (principally the amazing trial transcripts) laid out, in an albeit opaque fashion, the who's, why's and what's of the story. Where the challenge arose was in how, exactly, to present it. I could not just plop it, fully baked, into an unsuspecting reader's lap. How to contextualize it? What to tell of the larger European world at the time, and what to leave out. So Bernard was a formal challenge, a challenge to the writer rather than to the researcher.

CD: Where did you have most fun?
SOS: Going to the Languedoc, bombing around its vineyards and towns, the sites of Bernard's actions. Snapping pictures. And talking to locals -- including Dominicans and nuns -- about Bernard and the Inquisition. I love how you sometimes can talk about something that happened 700 years ago as if it happened just yesterday. Such is one of Languedoc's greatest charms, its voluble, warm, very opinionated people.

CD: How does this book relate to its predecessor 'The Perfect Heresy'?
SOS: While not a sequel, it should be considered a companion volume. TPH concentrated most on the rise of the Cathars, the Albigensian Crusade and the events leading to Montsegur -- the last half of the twelfth and the first half of the thirteenth centuries -- and only touched on the final suppression of the Cathars in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth. So The Friar deepens our understanding of the spiritual and material milieux in which Inquisitors, Cathars and Spirituals fought it out to the bitter end, with Bernard as a linchpin of sorts.

General Questions
CD: Do you have any connection with snails?
SOS: Funny you should ask. When living in the countryside for a few years outside of Perpignan (in the Roussillon), we first noticed that after a rainfall it became particularly dangerous to drive the narrow country roads, as there were so many people in the fields and on the shoulder of the roads picking things off the ground. We soon realized that it was snails.

The Catalans there love a cargolade, snails roasted over dried vine cuttings (sarments), then dipped in various aiolli and romesco sauces. As we became integrated in the rural community, we had many a cargolade with our farmer neighbors. Delicious... So much so that we decided to do one ourselves for all the neighbors. So after it rained one spring day, my young daughters and I dashed out into the surrounding fields and collected perhaps 500 snails. We put them in an enormous basin, added a sprinkling of flour (so that they could eat and purge themselves over a two or three day period). We punched minuscule airholes on the sides of the basin and covered the top with tiles so that none could escape. We went to bed, content with our labors.

The next morning we went outside to see how our charges were doing. One of the heavy tiles was slightly askew. Puzzled we leaned over, lifted the tile up. No snails. There had been a massive jailbreak!! Not only that, but to budge that tile must have taken dozens of snails putting their shoulder (or shells) to the task, simultaneously. We stood there, awed. And then decided that maybe we should stick to sardinades.

CD: What is your proudest moment?
SOS: Hmmm. I'll be perfectly honest. When I first received finished copies of my very first book, Back to the Front. I was pleased, uber-pleased, in a very private way (which is puzzling that I am now sharing this with your readers)

CD: Have you ever had a life-changing event - if so what was it?
SOS: This is VERY trite, but it is also very true. When I first walked the streets of Paris, on that very first day at the age of 25, I realized that the city would play a very large role in my personal, cultural and intellectual life. And it has.

CD: What is the saddest thing you’ve ever heard of or seen?
SOS: Headstones engraved with the Star of David in German World War One cemeteries along the Western Front. That these men gave their lives for a country that would turn on and destroy their descendants barely two decades' later... The sight was profoundly affecting and sad... perhaps the saddest gravestones I've ever seen.

CD: What is happiness?
SOS: Don't want to sound flip here, but I believe it to be the absence of unhappiness, and that it is best attained by working at something you love. It doesn't come from others -- they just amplify it.

CD: What is the first thing you do when you get up?
SOS: On waking? Curse the alarm clock. On getting up? Say to myself, "It gets better... it gets better..." And it does, after I've showered

The Friar of Carcassonne by Stephen O'Shea

2011-10-03T08:15:00.006+01:00

In May, after our son's wedding, we travelled for a short while through Languedoc, past signs proclaiming we were now in Cathar country, to the stunningly preserved medieval city of Carcassonne. I came across the Cathars again in my research on the silk road (they were reputedly the descendants of an early Christian sect called the Manicheans which was dominant on the Silk Road) and read how they were persecuted, and have wondered how and why.

Stephen O'Shea's The Friar of Carcassonne is about the end of the Cathars. History is never more interesting than when it is concentrating on the personal stories of historical figures, especially exceptional heroic ones like Bernard Délicieux. Even his name is enticing. But it is the writing of The Friar of Caracassonne that makes the period and the man come alive. Without straying from the facts, Stephen O'Shea manages to portray both man and city so vividly I felt I knew them a little - rather like the main character and setting of a novel.

France in the fourteenth century was just establishing itself as the country it is today. The pope had just finished dealing with the German emperor Frederick II, and this had proved to be so distracting to the pope that France had been able to quietly undergo an expansion. Now the German had died, France was again under scrutiny. The king of France was consequently having to tread a careful path keeping Rome at bay (and appeasing the inhabitants with their own religions) without going so far as to risk total excommunication from the Vatican.

Carcassonne was a city on France's borders that was proving difficult to control. There had been unrest and then an appeasement which involved a secret list of Cathar sympathisers, some of whom had been thrown into a notorious jail called the Wall. Enter Friar Bernard, a liberal Franciscan monk, and a charismatic speaker who objected to the injustices meted out to his countrymen. For the French King Philip the Fair (named thus for looks rather character) things were about to become even more difficult.

After giving a comprehensive and fascinating account of the background to the Friar's life and times, the main part of the book gives a year by year account of the Friar's career. It is exciting and unexpected, and I learnt a lot about medieval France, the general geography of the southwest France. Of course it comes to an end, but even that holds surprises. It then goes on to consider the implications of Bernard's life and what it reveals about Bernard as a human being.

Stephen O'Shea's book is based on contemporary chronicles and recently translated transcripts of Bernard's trial, and forms a companion volume to his best selling The Perfect Heresy: The Life and Death of the Cathars - which I is another one for the wishlist. It makes me want to revisit Carcassonne because I think I shall see the whole of Languedoc now with great new insight.

Thanks to Profile Books for the review copy.

Seren's 30th Birthday Party

2011-10-02T14:08:00.020+01:00

Yesterday was my publisher's, thirtieth birthday,

and the sun that had been out for almost a week, stayed out.

Tony Bianchi: author of Daniel's Beetles

It was a weird heat for the first day of October,

but a lucky one because Seren had planned to celebrate with a street party.

It didn't take long for Freeschool Court to be packed with people

book browsing

book buying (this discerning lady showed exquisite taste by selecting that marvellous-looking book in the carousel above)

listening to readings

in the open mic session

introduced by novelist, short storyist and poet Robert Minhinnick (in the courtyard on the opposite side of the street ).

Meanwhile, editors Penny Thomas (on the right above) and Amy Wack (who I didn't mange to photograph) spoke to potential authors in their office upstairs

above the stock room

and Vicky Humphreys (right) looked after the VIPs from politics

and the Welsh Books Council (with Mick Felton (left) and writer Tony Curtis (right)).

Sadly, Dannie Abse was unable to attend through illness, but the poet Tony Curtis ably filled in with wonderful words (both his own and Dannie's), and it was a pleasure to meet Mavis Nicholson. Seren has recently published her book What did you do in the war, Mummy? - a collection of interviews on women's experiences in the second world war (which I am determined to read very soon).

Altogether, a great success. (I tried to get all of the six Seren staff here, but a couple of editors had escaped down the pub).

During the last thirty years Seren has been hugely successful. Primarily it is a poetry press and has had shortlistings for the TS Elliot Prize, the Whitbread and the Costa; (and for prose) for the Ondaatje, as well as quite a few wins. It can now include a longlisting for the Man Booker too. Originally it produced a 'modest four page A5 catalogue', but now it has a website full of books with much to celebrate.

Congratulations Seren!

A talk at Whitchurch Library

2011-09-29T21:56:00.006+01:00

I had a great time in Whitchurch Library tonight. Whitchurch is such a pretty place: narrow ancient streets, a market town, history exuding from every wall, it seems. According to Wikipedia it was founded by the Romans - a settlement in the middle of the plain between Wroxeter and Chester. Then it was called Mediolanum, the 'Whitchurch' came later, named after the White Church (replaced by a red stoned one in the early eighteenth century). The more I read the more interesting this all seems. Unfortunately, I was running late and didn't have time to take a photo, so I am going to have to come back.

The librarians had gone to a lot of trouble to attract people to my talk and there was a good audience. I got a lot of interesting questions, and one lady turned out to be a descendent of Michael D Jones's sister (one of the main initiators of the Welsh in Patagonia emigration). I am sure I have met some of her distant relatives in Patagonia and intend to put her in touch with them.

I also discovered almost-a-fan of my work, 'My wife's read your other two books,' he said. (This makes her almost unique, I have to say). 'She liked one, but hated the other.' Excellent. This makes me smile each time I think of it.

At the end Kate Woodward (on the right above) - a rather attractive English name which could easily have been around before Whitchurch's red church was built - gave me not only this gorgeous bunch of orange roses in blue paper,

but a sweet little pottery snail too! I shall treasure it. Thank you! And thank you for asking me.

The Testament of Jessie Lamb by Jane Rogers

2011-09-27T08:25:00.005+01:00

The Testament of Jessie Lamb deprived me of sleep. I read most of it in one sitting, then since it was late, went to bed, but then I couldn't get to sleep through thinking about it, so I just had to get up and finish. It was worth it because the ending was perfect - open without being unsatisfying - and also rather beautiful.

Jane Rogers manages to portray the adolescent I was. I'd forgotten the ideological smugness, and the feeling that I'd make a much better job of things than my parents had managed. I'd forgotten how I'd noticed and thought about the world around me, such as this about people in a crowd: 'It was weird to imagine there was no possibility, ever, of getting to know even one of those strangers'.

I also liked the fact that the novel is based locally in the northwest of England. When stations and cafes were mentioned I knew exactly the ones she meant.

The narration is suitably simple but convincing. Jessie, the first-person protagonist, is a serious girl, somewhat self-absorbed, and as she considers and comes to a quite unreasonable conclusion about what she must do, I felt as frustrated as her parents. Like them I would have felt desperate enough to imprison her, but such was the skill of the writing that I could see the dilemma through Jessie's eyes too, and could see exactly why she was doing what she was doing.

I had just finished listening to Margaret Atwood's 'Onyx and Crake' on audio, and also watched the film version of Kazuo Ishiguro's 'Never Let Me Go' on DVD, and I know this is just a question of taste, but to my mind, certainly in terms of form, 'The Testament of Jessie Lamb' was superior. Jessie Lamb is shorter and so there is less packed in, but this allows greater emphasis on the important point of the novel: the motivations and pivotal moments of the characters.

On Glan Clwyd Radio with Jo Fino

2011-09-26T08:52:00.009+01:00

Last Wednesday I was interviewed on Glan Clwyd Hospital radio by Jo Fino.

It was a version of 'Desert Island Discs' so I had to select about eight tracks to talk about, and so selected not necessarily my favourite songs, but easy-listening music I thought most people might enjoy, and which also represented my life.

Under the Moon of Love - Showwaddywaddy (because one of them lived at the bottom of my garden when I was a child).

Fast Car - Tracy Chapman (because I remember listening to this soon after I got married).

American Pie - Madonna (because I used to listen to this when driving to work).

Me, myself, I - Joan Armatrading (because it seems to me to be about women and their different roles and fist starting to write my first novel alongside doing everything else).

Distant Shores - All Saints (exotic places and beaches in Greenland and my first novel for adults about Alfred Greenland).

Never was a Cornflake Girl - Tori Amos (my research into madness for my second novel for adults)

Men of Harlech - Welsh Choir (the Welsh in Patagonia novel research).

Nightswimming - REM (current research in China and swimming in the night in a pool in Hong Kong - something I had long wanted to do).

Jo, who is a writer too, hasn't been a volunteer at the radio for long, and I was her first interviewee. I thought she did a grand job. I enjoyed myself very much and hope the audience did too. Thanks for asking me Jo! (And thanks to Chris the Radio Manager who manged to find the songs I'd half-remembered).

The God Species by Mark Lynas

2011-09-25T15:32:00.012+01:00

The God Species is an unusual book: a review of the environmental challenges ahead of us that manages to give a balanced and optimistic approach. In God Species he moves on from the general prediction of doom in Six Degrees (reviewed here) to taking a look at what can be done. Some of his conclusions are surprising.

His approach is in terms of boundaries. These are limits that scientists have estimated we must not exceed in order to prevent ecological disaster (or, in fact, planetary catastrophe).

The first boundary is biodiversity. Mark Lynas says that the 'Anthropocene' (caused by man) Mass Extinction 'and the death toll will soon rival that at the end of the Cretaceous, when the dinosaurs (and of the half the rest of life on earth) disappeared.' The solution is to put a value on ecosystems as places of recreation, clean water and air and bring them into the marketplace.

Quite often Mark Lynas advocates using capitalism to solve our problems. As he says, preserving biodiversity makes economic and scientific sense. Once an animal becomes extinct the ecosystem to which it belonged falls apart - usually irretrievably. As well as having dire economic consequences to humans that depend on components of that ecosystem, unique resorces are lost forever.

Climate Change is next on the list. In some ways the effect of global warming did not feel quite as catastrophic as in his previous book, although clearly it is something we need to urgently address. He points out that the release of methane hydrates from the ocean and the permafrost of Siberia is not thought to be imminent, for instance. However, his boundary for carbon dioxide concentration is revised downwards from 400ppm to 350ppm. Only with this concentration is the climate likely to stay similar to the one in which human civilisation developed and grew.

He says we cannot do this by reducing population (it would have to go down to just one billion) or reducing growth (because most people want and have a right to an improved standard of living). Instead it must be through reducing the carbon emitted by use of nuclear energy and renewables (solar, wind and HEP); and also research and development in these areas as well as cutting down on energy waste.

I found the chapter on the nitrogen boundary particularly interesting, despite the slight typographical error at the beginning: elemental nitrogen has triple bonds not double. It described the importance of nitrogen fertiliser, and how this averted a Malthusian disaster at the beginning of the twentieth century. It, more than anything else, has allowed the population of the planet to grow, and so, in a way, is responsible for many of the other ecological problems today.

Artificial fertiliser has led to direct problems as it is washed off the land and produces algae blooms in rivers and the sea. This growth deprives water of oxygen and it becomes a dead zone where nothing else grows. Overall the production of artificial nitrogen fertilisers should be reduced to 35 million tonnes a year from 100.

Mark Lynas lists some possible solutions: NOx boxes on car exhausts, maintenance of wetlands which foster denitrifying bacteria, removal of nitrogen compounds from sewage, avoiding excessive use of fertilizer, use of nightsoil, improving nitrogen uptake efficiency in crops using genetic engineering (convincing argument for this, and he is a recent convert), getting crops to become leguminous (i.e. fix nitrogen themselves using microbes).

The next boundary discussed is that of land use. It is important that land is kept in as close to natural state as possible, otherwise the biosphere is likely to collapse. No more than 15% should be converted to cropland to protect the earth system as a whole.

He advocates city living as environmentally friendly as the wilderness areas are then left alone, and tends to decrease population growth. This 'rewilding'of rural areas, he says, is already taking place.

In discussing the freshwater boundary he presents some surprising statistics. 60% of the world's largest rivers have been fragmented by man-made structures such as dams, and two large dams a day for the last 50 years.

Freshwater is essential for human health and cleanliness and also agriculture. Damming water has provided water irrigation, but at the same time threatens biodiversity, changes local climate, and some rivers, such as the Yellow River in China are closed - with no water flow along some of its stretches at all. This may cause cities built on their deltas to sink.

The limit to human consumption of water at 4,000 cubic kilometres a year has not yet been exceeded, but where this water is taken from is important. He recommends that unnecessary dams be removed and rivers serving ecological disaster areas such as the Aral Sea, are restored. This will mean cotton crops in arid regions are abandoned but they are unproductive anyway.

Schemes such a China's Three Gorges Dam present more of a conundrum since the ecological and social effects must be balanced against the advantages of a renewable source of electricity.

Another surprising conclusion is that he advocates food is grown where water is more plentiful and transported. He is also in favour of water privatisation as a method of controlling water use, and necessary because public companies are not doing a good enough job.

The Toxics Boundary includes non-biodegradable plastics which are contaminating each part of the globe including the middle of the Arctic and the Pacific; hormones and molecules that have been found to effect marine and river life; and insecticides do not break down and are concentrated in the food chain, particularly in the Arctic.

Chemicals already known to be toxic are already regulated. By 2018 new chemicals are to be tested and registered in the EU, with similar legislation in the US.

Radiation toxicity is discounted because in areas where there is high natural radiation the cancer rates are no higher (except in areas where radon is emitted which increases the incidence of lung cancer). Effects of Chernobyl although devastating have turned out to be short-lived and less than feared. With the exodus of humans the ecosystems are flourishing. Listed against mine and oil refinery disasters the number of fatalities in the worst nuclear disasters are small. Dealing of waste is also manageable. He considers the Greens' opposition to nuclear energy has been a big mistake, and may have contributed to global warming.

The colour of the sky is now more milky due to aerosols, and these form another boundary. The effect on global warming depends on the sort of aerosol particle and where it is. For instance a white cloud shielding the dark ocean will reflect more light and have a cooling effect, whereas a dark cloud over the poles will warm. Although the effect of aerosols is temporary it can have profound effects: for instance the brown cloud over India has diminished the Monsoon, and the smoke stacks of the northern hemisphere caused drought in Africa.

Black carbon is mainly produced by developing countries, and is one of the easiest to address. Filters on diesel cars, scrubbers on ships, modernisation of coal-powered power stations in China and home stoves in India are the main solutions. In order to accomplish the latter he suggests the use of carbon-offset tariffs.

As far as sulphur-based aerosols are concerned he describes Nobel-prize winner Professor Crutzen's idea to inject a2-4% of the 55 million tonnes that are produced each year into the upper atmosphere. These will reflect sunlight and yield a cooling effect which may temporarily ameliorate the effect of global warming. This is highly controversial.

In the geological past, acidification of the oceans (another boundary) caused by increased vulcanism has caused mass extinctions. Although coral seems to have continued to flourish this is thought to be because of the neutralising effect of the the lower levels of the ocean. However, for this to happen there must be mixing, which requires over tens of thousands of years. Humans are producing carbon dioxide an order of magnitude more rapidly than the biggest super-volcanic eruption of the last billion years; the change may be too fast for the oceans to adapt and for life to evolve.

The boundary for the preservation of corals and marine life is in terms of the concentration of aragonite (the form of calcium carbonate used by corals to build shells) and this should not dip below 80% of pre-industrial levels. As long as the carbon dioxide level does not rise above 500ppm this should be okay.

He argues against Matt Ridley's assertions with regards to ocean acidification in the Rational Optimist, pointing out that a small change in pH is actually a large change in acidity because pH is a logarithmic scale.

He tells a very interesting and optimistic story about the hole in the ozone layer (the last boundary) and how politicians led the way in legislating for scientific and hence environmental change. This led to the banning of CFCs in the Montreal agreement of 1988 and consequently the hole in the ozone is now slowly recovering.

However in Kyoto 1997 which hoped to do for climate change what the Montreal Protocol had done for the ozone layer there was failure because the USA refused to ratify and it also set the rich and poorer countries against each other.

Mark Lynas was actually in the room when the Copenhagen treaty failed to agree targets in 2009, and his account is dramatic and depressing. China was flexing its muscles and establishing its new position in the world. Without China's agreement nothing was possible.

However, China is now leading the way in many respects post-Copenhagen. Although its emissions may be rising it leads the world in its investment in low carbon technology, and the US is losing ground.

There is a very interesting section discussing why the 'libertarian right' tend to oppose climate change arguments. It is, he believes, because they are forced to 'confront the necessity of of respecting planetary limits'. He is equally dismissive of Green 'dead-end ideology' which advocates the adoption of a wartime rationing to combat climate change. He says that both camps tend to ignore scientific evidence to make their case.

He believes that we can keep within the boundary limits even with economic growth, and thinks it is only fair that developing countries achieve the same standards of living as people in the west. He envisages a world economy that enjoys constant growth with lower material use if we recycle and use sustainable energy.

I was cheered by reading this book because it makes change seem possible. As he says, the pessimistic approach seldom works, and he is honest in that he admits to have completely revised his opinions on nuclear energy and genetic engineering. I am not sure I agree with everything he says, but it has made me think and consider things in a different light. As Mark Lynas says: The truth is global environmental problems are soluble. Let us go forward and solve them.'

It is a worthwhile book, very well written, bringing together much peer-reviewed scientific information, so that the general reader is brought quickly to speed. I recommend it to anyone interested in a hopeful viewpoint on 'how the planet can survive the age of humans'.

This review is also published on Brian Clegg's Popular Science Website.

The British Society of Literature and Science

2011-09-24T23:46:00.002+01:00

Thanks to Paul Halpern who commented that he was in a Conference on Literature and Science, I duly searched for the terms, and found there was a British version. I am going to sign up for this next week. It seems that this has been going since 2006. Obviously, I am out of the loop.

The Profile Books Catalogue

2011-09-22T18:24:00.010+01:00

Today cometh the Profile and Serpent's Tail catalogues. I spent a long and happy time looking through the Profile one. It struck me that there was something missing, it took me a little while to put my finger on it: not a single celebrity book. How refreshing! A classy imprint, then, and most of them very interesting. For instance, there is one on The War on Heresy by R.I.Moore. The 'action'in this book is around 1000AD in Europe. It concentrates on the motives of the people involved, their beliefs and why exactly those persecuted were judged to be such a threat. It is a part of history I know little about, and would love to learn more.

Related to this, perhaps, is the book on the Cathars: The Friar of Carcassonne by Stephen O'Shea which has the sub-title 'Revolt against the inquisition in the last days of the Cathars'. This is new in paperback. I think my mother may well find this in her Christmas stocking (just so I can borrow it from her).

Then there is a book called The Buddhas of Bamiyan by Llewelyn Morgan about the Buddhas carved into the rock in Afghanistan, and destroyed by the Taliban. Ever since reading about this in my Silk Road research, and then listening to the Kite Runner, I have been fascinated by Afghanistan. One day I plan to go there.

But there are lots of other books in there too that sound equally interesting: The Origins of Political Order by Francis Fukuyama, for instance, or The New North by Lawrence C Smith on how the world may look in 2050; then there's a book on the future of Africa by Duncan Clarke (an area of the world I know lamentably little about, and really should know more); another on the London Underground by Andrew Martin and then there's one by Daniel L Everett called Language and follows on from his absorbing account of his adventure with the Pirahas, which I read a couple of years ago.

Ah, so many wonderful-sounding books! And that's before I even start on the Serpent's Tail catalogue.

BBC Short Story Shortlisters Favourite Short Story collections

2011-09-20T15:18:00.005+01:00

The BBC Short story shortlisters have described their favourite short story collections here.

I have summarised their lists (as much as I can) below (for future reference):

MJ Hyland.

Nikolai Gogol: Madmen and other stories.

Flannery O'Conner: A Good Man is Hard to Find.

Vladmir Nabakov: Dozen.

Joyce Carol Oates: (generally)

Alison Macleod

Angela Carter: Burning Your Boats.

Jon McGregor

Raymond Carver: Short Cuts.

Lydia Davis: Collected Stories.

K J Orr

Ethan Canin: Emperor of the Air

D W Wilson

Tim Winton: The Turning.

The End of Publishing?

2011-09-18T21:25:00.008+01:00

I came back from the Society of Authors in Scotland Conference tonight (which was excellent) and just want to post this clever video which was shown to us by Rob McDevitt of Hachette Scotland.

An Interview with Professor David Crystal

2011-09-18T19:05:00.013+01:00

I gave Professor David Crystal a selection of questions in connection with his latest book The Story of English in 100 Words, and asked him to choose seven to answer for this interview. He has been kind enough to send me these - together with his answers to the general questions I ask everyone.

Questions on Words.

Clare Dudman: Do you have a favourite word? If so what is it and why.
David Crystal: That's like asking 'Do you have a favourite child?'. No, I love them all equally. Each word has a unique history and use, and is just as fascinating as any other. Every now and then a new word arrives that is so original that it draws attention to itself, so I suppose it's temporarily a favourite. 'Twitterrhoea' is a current example - what someone who tweets too much is suffering from.

CD: Is there a word you dislike or would never use? Why?
DC: See above. There are of course offensive words that I would never use, except as part of linguistic study. Racially insulting words, for example. But I don't react to words in the way some people do, when they say such things as 'I can't stand the word such-and-such'.

CD: How did you become interested in the English Language?
DC: By being introduced to it as an undergraduate at University College London, where I read English and was much inspired by Randolph Quirk. I'd been interested in languages as long as I can remember, which is why I opted for a degree course which had a strong language component in it, but I didn't appreciate what was involved until I encountered the range of the subject there.

CD: Do you think living in a Welsh-speaking part of Wales give you a different outlook on the English language? Are there any advantages or disadvantages to living where you do?
DC: Growing up in a bilingual area sharpens your curiosity about language and languages, and I am sure this was an important factor in my becoming a linguist, in the broad sense of someone who does linguistic research. My main field is English, but I have also been much involved in more general linguistic topics, such as language endangerment and death. Living in Wales has been immensely helpful in relation to that topic, as one experiences the issues at first hand. The only disadvantage I can think of, living in Holyhead, is the amount of time I have to spend travelling to get to venues and airports!

CD: What, would you say, is the best feature of the English Language?
DC: The word 'best' makes no sense to me when talking about languages, any more than a doctor could make sense of the question 'What's the best feature of malaria?'. If you replace 'best' by 'distinctive', then I can answer it. Each language has its distinctive features. Each is unique. For English, I would cite its global character, which gives it a fascinating dialectal diversity, and its kaleidoscopic vocabulary, arising out of its thousand-year history.

CD: And the worst?
DC: See above. Languages don't have best and worst features. They are what they are. The world is a mosaic of languages, each expressing an individual vision of what it means to be human, and each having its own validity. From a linguistic point of view, languages (and their features) aren't better or worse than each other. They are simply different, and equally fascinating.

CD: Have you ever invented a word? If so, what was it?
DC: I often invent words. We all do when we need to say something a little unusual. Think of all the words to which the 'un-' prefix could be added, for example - 'unWelsh', 'unspooky', 'unphoneable'... 'Unriotlike', I heard the other day. Most of these will never get into a dictionary: they are nonce-words, created to express a 'thought of the moment'. But I must say that some such creations do deserve to have a permanent place in the language, and my favourite here is the one I discuss in '100 Words': 'bagonise', to express the feelings one has when waiting for one's luggage to arrive on an airport carousel.

General Questions.

CD: Do you have any connection with snails?
DC: Apart from the occasional garden moment, my only encounter with snails has been etymological. I love some of the old words which have derived from 'snail', such as 'snailery' (a place where snails are bred or eaten) and 'snail-horn' (for a snail-shell). And I'm impressed by the way 'snail-mail' has caught on.

CD: What is your proudest moment?
DC: I don't think of my own life in these terms. I feel proudest when my kids do something really special, as they all have, from time to time.

CD: Have you ever had a life-changing event - if so what was it?
DC: Without a doubt, deciding to leave the full-time academic life something that happened in 1984 - in order to make it possible to develop as a writer.

CD: What is the saddest thing you’ve ever heard of or seen?
DC: The death of my third child.

CD: If there was one thing you’d change about yourself what would it be?
DC: An uninteresting thought, when there is still so much I would like to do with what I've already got.

CD: What is happiness?
DC: These days, a whole week at home. (My wife and I find ourselves travelling for lectures and other events for more than half the year.)

CD: What is the first thing you do when you get up?
DC: If I'm at home, make the tea. If I'm travelling, drink the tea someone else has made.

Weekend books for Edinburgh

2011-09-15T17:56:00.005+01:00

I am going to the Society of Authors Conference in Edinburgh tomorrow. It is strange how often this happens. I never go to a place in my life before, and then find I go to it twice in a year. In May I passed though Edinburgh station, and now I go again.

Today I have been trying to do some work, do some chores and am now packing. It is all made more complicated by the fact that it is a Chester Writers meeting tonight. I feel rushed because I always leave things until the last minute.

However, as I charge my macbook, iphone and camera I have just time to mention the two books I'm taking: chosen because they are both small and yet will keep me occupied, fiction (BBC National Short Story Award shortlist 2010 edited by James Naughtie) and non-fiction (Choice by Renata Salecl).

I also have Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake on my ipod, so I shall be happily entertained.

SoA Short Story Tweetathon (#soatale)

2011-09-14T07:56:00.003+01:00

Today, at 11am, the Society of Authors Tweetathon starts. A well-known author will tweet a line and you are invited to continue the next four sentences. It will finish at 4pm and will be repeated on five consecutive weeks. Full details are here.

Short Story Collections

2011-09-13T22:44:00.008+01:00

I have decided to take a look at a few short story collections I have had in the pile for some time (having only read a couple of stories from them previously).

The first one I picked up was Words from a Glass Bubble by Vanessa Gebbie (published by Salt Books). I particularly like the cover of this one and reminds me of the StartRite shoe logo from when I was a child. The stories inside turned out to be just as appealing, with a subtle fantastical feel about them. Several were strongly Welsh, whereas others were set in a run-down English coastal resort.

Vanessa Gebbie is particularly good at evoking the voice of the poor, ill-educated and disadvantaged. Inside these pages are drug addicts, orphans, and men and women who have lost something: a child, a lover, a wife, their virginity, and once, most memorably, the entire contents of a digestive tract.

Most of the stories have dramatic revelations at the end, and there is something in the style that reminded me of Angela Carter and, once or twice, Dylan Thomas. The pervasive themes are isolation and detachment which lead to the fantastical feel described above. My particular favourites are 'The Cactus Man', 'The Kettle on the Boat' and 'Harry's Catch'. They are intensely moving but without being at all mawkish.

The second one was Leading the Dance by Sarah Salway (published by BlueChrome Books). This is another strong collection. The stories are quirky and witty and hugely enjoyable. I started making a list of the ones I thought were particularly brilliant, but in the end found I'd put down most of them. They tended to be about the fragility of human relationships, and although there are sometimes twists and revelations this is not the main point.

I think the reason I found them so addictively readable is that they explore what makes us all human. I suppose the ones I found most memorable are 'The Fabulous Button Sisters' (about infatuation), 'Keeping the Rules' (a particularly convincing inhibited male viewpoint) and 'Leading the Dance' (a subtle study on control) but they were all excellent. Some of the writing reminded me of Alan Bennett's, and some of Anne Tyler's. I highly recommend both collections.

A Matter of Life and Death and an Interview with Sue Armstrong

2011-09-12T12:36:00.006+01:00

The Body Farm starring Tara FitzGerald starts on the TV this week. The character, Dr Eve Lockhart, is the usual type of TV pathologist - the sort that solve crimes using medical detective work. However, there is another Body Farm - a real one run by a man called Bill Bass - that features in Sue Armstrong's book A Matter of Life and Death. Interestingly, his official job title is 'forensic anthropologist', but he does much of the work the TV pathologist tends to do: he is an expert on how human bodies decay, and how this enables scientists to determine cause of death. How he does this is even more fascinating to read about than to see dramatised on television.

Sue Armstrong makes the point that there are many other sorts of pathologists. The hospital pathologists, for instance, are the doctors most likely to categorically determine why a patient is unwell. They tend to work behind the scenes. Some, like Sebastian Lucas and Jeffery Taubenberger, are experts on viruses such as AIDS and flu; others, for example Juan Rossi and Christopher Fletcher are experts on various cancers. They each have surprising things to say about what causes illnesses, and how diagnosis is not always straightforward. Some, like James Ironside and Nicholas Wright are on the forefront of scientific research, and I found what they both had to say on stem cells - cells that can change into other cells - particularly interesting.

But it was not just fascinating facts that Sue Armstrong extracted in these interviews, but moral and political aspects of their work too. Derrick Pounder and Sue Black, for instance, described how they coped with dealing with the aftermath of Sarajevo and Kosovo; while there were equally moving revelations from Helen Wainwright and Patricia Klepp about working in South Africa. The interviewer also encouraged the doctors to talk about how they dealt with issues such as race - for instance Kumarasen Cooper described finding himself as the first professor 'of colour' leading a team of white consultants. Another issue frequently addressed is motherhood, andin this context Waney Squier's interview is particularly impressive, since she described with great honesty her part in the 'shaken baby' diagnosis, and the effect of a wrong diagnosis on the family concerned and the doctor herself.

David Levison described another example of overcoming medical dogma, in this case the role of Helicobacter pylori in stomach ulcers, and also, most interestingly, how he feels when making that 'first cut'. It was this question which I think must be the most testing one for an interviewer: 'how does it feel to be a pathologist?', and Sue Armstrong succeeded in getting some varied and thought-provoking answers. Irene Scheimberg is always aware that there is a person behind the slide, whereas Francisco Gonzalez-Crussi prefers to cover the head otherwise he feels he risks 'restituting the humaneness lost through death.' I learnt a lot by reading this book. As Val McDermid says, it is a 'must-read'.

Sue Armstrong has kindly agreed to answer a few questions about the book (and the usual general matters) below, but first the biography.

Biography
Sue Armstrong is a science writer and broadcaster. As a foreign correspondent based in Brussels and then South Africa from 1983-96, she worked for a variety of media including New Scientist and BBC radio. Since 1981 she has also worked regularly for the World Health Organization and UNAIDS, writing about women's health issues and the AIDS pandemic, often reporting from the frontline. She has worked on a number of oral testimony projects, including one with the Bushmen of southern Africa; and another with Namibian liberation fighter, Andreas Shipanga, which resulted in the book, In search of Freedom.

Interview
Questions About A Matter of Life and Death

CD: Were there any other pathologists you would have liked to have included and why.
SA: I would like to have included interviews with Robin Warren and Barry Marshall, who won the Nobel Prize for medicine for their discovery that the cause of stomach ulcers is not stress and acidity, as was commonly believed right up til the 1980s, but the bacterium Helicobacter pylori. Their breakthrough was reminiscent of the discovery of penicillin, and they had an equally tough time at first trying to convince a sceptical medical establishment. I ran out of time and budget to include them – they live in Australia!

CD: Would you say that pathologists have something in common (different from other doctors)? If so, what is it?
SA: Typically, pathologists are more interested in understanding diseases and disease processes than in treating actual patients.

CD: What was the stand-out surprising fact you found out about pathologists?
SA: That these ‘backroom boys and girls’ are the lynchpin of any health service – when you or I get sick, diagnosing what ails us requires the specialist services of a pathologist in the great majority of cases.

CD: Did any of the interviews affect you particularly? If so, what?
SA: Oh goodness, so many affecting stories! Among them: Sue Black and Derrick Pounder’s heartrending descriptions of trying to identify victims of massacres in the Balkans and Palestine, while their families waited patiently nearby; South African paediatric pathologist Helen Wainwright’s descriptions of the dreadful, lasting effects of alcohol on the babies and children of mothers who drink in pregnancy; Kumarasan Cooper’s personal story of trying to study medicine in apartheid South Africa; Sebastian Lucas’s description of the early days of AIDS in London and Uganda, when so many died and everyone was scared to treat patients with HIV; David Levison’s story about the sudden death of his young wife from a cerebral haemorrhage; and Irene Scheimberg’s of the devastating effects of the Alder Hey controversy on the morale of paediatric pathologists like herself who were demonized by the media.

CD: There seem to be many pathologists from Argentina and South Africa as well as from the UK and the US. Is there a reason for this?
SA: I wanted to get as wide an overview of pathology practice as my budget would allow, and my interest took me naturally around the UK and USA -- and to South Africa where I lived and worked for more than ten years. It was pure coincidence that a fair number of my interviewees were originally from Latin America (two from Mexico and three from Argentina).

CD: There also seemed to be a fairly large proportion of women, and/or come from poor backgrounds. Is this representative of the profession or did you select, and if so why?
SA: As one of my interviewees said, pathology is a good specialism for women as the working hours fit more easily with family life than do many other branches of medicine. I selected people with specially interesting and unusual stories to tell of their personal journeys through life, so perhaps it is not surprising that those who have struggled with poverty and disadvantage and achieved a great deal should feature strongly.

CD: Have you had any interesting feedback post publication?
SA: I have had lots of great feedback. One of the most touching emails came from David Levison’s son who said that reading his father’s words about the sudden death of his young mother had reduced him to tears, and he felt so proud of his dad for how he had handled the tragedy. The boy had been too little to understand then what was going on. A propos the question and answer format, one reader commented that I always seemed to ask exactly the question that had formed in her mind as she read – a comment I found very gratifying.

General Questions:

CD: Do you have any connection with snails? (or anecdotes, memorable encounters..etc.)
SA: Some years ago, my younger sister Julie gave me a tiny snail made of pewter, and this brave little character sits among a motley collection of treasures on my office windowsill.

CD: What is your proudest moment?
SA: Without question, the births of my two boys.

CD: Have you ever had a life-changing event - if so what was it?
SA: Cutting my wrist on a broken pudding basin while making Christmas dinner – with my arm out of use and unable to write, I contacted a friend at the BBC who gave me a tape recorder and sent me off to do some radio reporting. I have never looked back, and broadcasting remains one of my great loves. It has taken me to some extraordinary parts of the world.
CD: What is the saddest thing you’ve ever heard of or seen?
SA: Scores of fresh graves among the banana palms in homesteads around Lake Victoria at the height of the AIDS pandemic, and in particular one home in which a grandmother was struggling alone to raise 25 grandkids orphaned by the death of her sons and daughters from AIDS.
CD: If there was one thing you’d change about yourself what would it be?
SA: I would love to be able to dance and sing – I am hopeless at both!

CD: What is happiness?
SA: Sitting by a campfire under a huge canopy of stars in the African wilderness.

CD: What is the first thing you do when you get up?
SA: Make a cup of coffee and climb back under the duvet to drink it.

Balmy winds, fine wines, kind words.

2011-09-11T20:48:00.011+01:00

This weekend Irene, a tropical storm tempered by its journey over the Atlantic, blew on us with its balmy breath, while in Manchester's Central Station we sipped reminders of summers warmer than our own.

In the newly-weds' flat we ate quails' eggs and lambs' lettuce. 'Just because I'm French it doesn't mean I can cook,' Hodmandod Majorette had warned us, but she can, she can!

At Crewe, a train was miraculously delayed just long enough for us to leap upon it, and then arriving home, I discover the present of a kind review of my Patagonia novel on my publisher's website. Thank you Sarah Bower. You have understood what I was trying to do exactly - and made what was already a good day even better.

The Global Warming Survival Kit by Brian Clegg

2011-09-10T16:14:00.009+01:00

At the start of The Global Warming Survival Kit, Brian Clegg describes how off-duty aircraft employees case out the fire escapes in new hotels. I usually just note the plan on the back of the door; but a better thing to do is to actively trace out the route noting the direction, how many doors along, and how exactly you might get out of a strange building that is dark and maybe smoke-filled, and you are groggy with sleep. This idea of preparedness is the main principle of this book. As it says on the back: 'make no mistake, climate change is upon us' and this book is a guide how to cope.

The first section is a clearly written summary of what is covered in 'Six Degrees' (how climate change is likely to impact on the earth in the next century or so). The second section leaps straight into the dark: dealing with power cuts, and includes something I'd never thought about before - how to get out of a strange building like an office that is suddenly plunged into darkness. Since power cuts are likely to be a more important feature of life on a warmer planet, Brian Clegg advocates making adjustments for the long term now. For instance he suggests a good investment would be a pedal powered generator that charges up a battery. This could then be used to light in the evening.

The third section deals with the basic essentials for life, and keeping cool when there is drought and soaring temperatures around you. When things get hot he advises less talking and less eating since both of these lead to loss of water. The section on food is entertaining. He advocates foraging and recommends how to prepare meals of worms and snails. But foraging like this is an emergency measure. For complete self-subsistence an average family requires at least five acres of land with two people farming it as a full-time job.

Since there are likely to be extremes in weather as the world heats, there is a section on this too, including advice on house purchase (location and structure) and how to cope with natural emergencies such as being caught in wildfire. He points out that reality is often very different from the lore of the movies. For instance in a wildfire it may be safer to stay inside a car rather than run for it, as fuel tanks of cars are less likely to explode than is commonly represented.

After attack from the weather comes attack from animals and humans. The advice there is to keep as low a profile as possible. Weapons should be avoided since they can so easily be used against you, and the best policy if a building is under attack to try to escape as inconspicuously and as safely as possible - from the ground floor rather than making any death-defying leaps from one building to the next. They are likely to be unsuccessful.

The final chapter is unexpected, but equally interesting. This is on the psychological effects of stress incurred by climate change. Brian Clegg, who is an expert on creativity advotaes the following: build up self-esteem, foster a spirit of optimism, exercise, establish a ritual, and list the anchors that you can depend upon when everything is changing around you. In a powerless world the art of story telling and various other forms of art and creativity will become more important than ever to our psychological well-being, and reassuringly, a library of print books is likely to come into its own.

Complete with essential checklists at the end of each section, and sturdy water-resistant covers, this book seems to be a great little resource for the possible years ahead, and one I intend to keep handy.

Gate: a Norwegian Connection.

2011-09-09T14:01:00.009+01:00

Hodmandod Senior has just come back from Norway with this hat.

He told me that people in Norway have a certain musicality to their names. He was also interested in the fact that their streets, like the ones in Chester, are called something like Gate. So we have Northgate and Watergate (although we add 'Street' to that to make sure in Chester), whereas in Norway there would be Skolegate (the street with the school) or Storgata (street with the shops). In Chester the Northgate also led to the North Gate in the city walls, and I am wondering if that is how the word 'gate', meaning an outside door, appeared.*

I expect David Crystal could tell me. He is the author of The Story of English in 100 Words which came through my 'house-gate' this week from Profile Books. I am a fan of Professor Crystal. As well as writing really interesting books on the English Language, he is an equally entertaining speaker. Chester was packed for his last talk in the Literature Festival, and he is coming to Chester again this year.

His latest little book is a gem of an idea. Using examples, he describes the history of the language from its huge variety of sources: from the first word written found inscribed in runes on a piece of deer bone dating from the 5th century 'roe', to the more recent 'twittersphere', with which I expect anyone reading this blog will be much more familiar. Inbetween there are a host of little oddities like 'Dude' (a cool usage) and 'Fopdoodle' ( a lost usage) - a treasure house for any lover of words.

* A search on the origin of the words show that the 'gate' meaning street does indeed come from the Norse (and presumably arrived with the Vikings, only appearing in writing dating from the 13th century- other examples in David Crystal's book are 'skirt' and and 'take away'); whereas 'gate' meaning door in a wall comes from the Anglo-Saxon and are therefore Germanic and appear much earlier (other examples include 'roe' as before, and also 'and', 'out' and 'what').

Audible Interviews

2011-09-08T18:07:00.006+01:00

Today I was interviewed by Diana Bradley who is taking a PhD in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University.

I was interested to hear about how she, and a few other alumni from the Manchester Met MA in Creative Writing (Alison Leonard and Judy Franklin), are having their work first published by Audible.

I enjoy listening to my audiobooks, and am looking forward to hearing Capuccinos by Diana,

Flesh and Bronze by Alison

and Judy Franklin's book after their launch in October.

Dystopian Realities

2011-09-07T16:29:00.008+01:00

I finished The Last Thousand Days by Patrick McGuinness on Monday night, but have read little since. It is the sort of book that is so powerful that I feel I need a gap between it and what comes next; a space to think and let my thoughts settle before I embarked on anything else. The last half of the book turned into a thriller, with everyone in the pocket of everyone else, and there was an overwhelming sense of things falling apart. I found it unsettling, and I kept comparing what happened in Romania in 1989 with what happened in London in 2011.

One of the ways the people of Romania first made their views felt was by rioting. They were looting too, but out of desperation rather than greed. The reaction of the police was key, and this was how what happened in Romania was different from what happened in London: in some places the police tried to stop it, in others they looked the other way, and in yet others they joined in. I suppose this was the most obvious sign that law and order had truly broken down. I learnt a lot, and I felt that the soulless and constant struggle for life in this depressing and austere place came over very well. The love stories and deceptions were convincing, and all the more devastating for that.

It ties in with some of what I've read in Six Degrees. Mark Lynas envisions a time when habitable land is diminished and there are climate refugees no longer able to coax any sort of sustenance from the parched soil. He envisions wars, and struggles for territory. I suppose things could be as bad, if not worse, than Communist Romania. Nothing is available. People struggle every day to survive, and they blame - not the people in charge, but the profligate people that went before. That is, us.

Having read all that, it seems sensible to continue my reading with another non-fiction book: The Global Warming Survival Kit by Brian Clegg. I hope it will suggest a way of coping with what now feels like an impending catastrophe.

Herodotus Speaks Again

2011-09-06T19:37:00.002+01:00

I am delighted to report that Debra Hamel (scholar of Ancient Greek and writer) has some exciting news about a forthcoming publication on her blog: a new take on the original unreliable narrator: Herodotus.

It is to be called Reading Herodotus: A Guided Tour through the Wild Boars, Dancing Suitors, and Crazy Tyrants of The History and is published by Johns Hopkins Press. An excellent title, methinks, and I have a feeling this is going to be a fascinating and highly entertaining read too.

Congratulations, Debra!

Optioned!

2011-09-05T11:31:00.011+01:00

I am delighted to report that my latest novel A Place of Meadows and Tall Trees

has been optioned by the actor Cai O'Leary.

(As you can tell from the font size I am very excited about this!)

Many thanks to Kate Pool at the Society of Authors for help and advice.

Sunday Salon: Further Dystopias

2011-09-04T12:13:00.004+01:00

Back in the eighties, when I was studying for my PhD in chemistry, any chemistry paper that came out of Romania has Elana Ceausescu as chief scientist. The woman must have been the world's most industrious scientist. She wasn't, of course, and reading Patrick McGuinness's The Last Thousand Days gives a fascinating insight into the regime that fostered such dishonesty.

Romania, it seems, was George Orwell's Oceania. In 1980's Romania his dystopian vision had, to some extent, actually come true in parts of Eastern Europe, and also some of the rest of the world. Doublethink is entrenched, and for the good of the collective women who miscarry are deemed to be criminals, as are the celibate. The Last Thousand Days is a gruesome (and because of that, mesmerising) account of what went on by an author who was there. It is also beautifully written, with some stunning phrases that make me nod in admiration at their truthfulness and poetry. Here are a couple of examples (I am reading this in Kindle so saving such highlights and sharing them is especially easy):

'The walls were mirrors, smoky from age and minutely fractured. You felt pieces of your reflection catching in the cracks and staying there, like dirt in the grouting.'

'So I discovered forgiveness, and the secret malice of it: people forgive not out of grandeur of spirit but as a way of freeing themselves. The forgiver always floats free, the forgiven slides a little further down the soft shute to hell.'

So that is what I shall be reading the rest of the day. I have also added a few more other dystopian novels and non-fiction books to my collection:

and in addition I am listening to Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood on audiobook ((as recommended by Mary W) and think it up to her usual brilliant standard so far),

I have also, on order, Children of Men by P.D. James (as recommended by Anne S)

and Mark Lynas's recently published The God Species on order (having been impressed by his Six Degrees).

I like to read fiction then non-fiction because I think it works different parts of my brain - rather like wearing high-heels and then flats to exercise the feet.

Six Degrees by Mark Lynas.

2011-09-02T16:21:00.009+01:00

I've just finished reading Six Degrees by Mark Lynas. Apart from feeling thoroughly depressed as a result, I am, after digesting the final chapter, determined to cut down my carbon consumption. I suppose a start would be to do what Ian Hopkinson has done: and utilise greener energy sources. As the book says, it is more important than anything else.

Mark Lynas realised that since he lived near Oxford, he had access to a wealth of information about global warming in the Bodlean Library. He decided to go through all the peer-reviewed literature on the subject, and summarise what scientists have determined would be the possible effects of a one degree rise in average global temperature, and then a two degree rise and so on up to a six degree rise. The first degree rise is inevitable, he says. This will mean we will have fewer species of life sharing the planet. Atolls and other low lying land will disappear, and some of the temperate and tropical mountains will lose their ice. Hurricanes will become more widespread.

At two degrees there is further loss of land from low-lying areas as the oceans rise - including a large number of coastal cities. Loss of ice from South American glaciers and snowpack will mean drought along the western side of the Americas. There will also be increased incidence of lethal heatwaves - as in Paris 2003 when 210,000 people died. The biggest effect will be felt in India as agricultural production will diminish, and the monsoon strengthens and there will be increased flooding. Mark Lynas surmises that 2 degrees will be survivable, albeit with loss of biodiversity.

It is at three degrees that things get bad. Using the model set by fossil evidence from the Pliocene, he predicts superhurricanes with faster, more powerful winds, serious fertility and drought problems in the west of the US, while the eastern seaboard floods. In Europe too, the frequency and intensity of storms will increase, while south of the Alps there will be desertification. The main rivers in Asia (e.g Ganges and the Yangtze) initially flood but then diminish as the Himalayas lose ice. Crop yields start to decline in the tropics due to heat which will bring widespread starvation, so the crop range will shift towards the poles. This will lead to climate refugees and a new philosophy of blame.

Perhaps the most catastrophic thing of all is that at three degrees there could be positive feedback, particularly in places like the Amazon. The forest will produce more carbon dioxide as it becomes warmer which will lead to greater temperature rises, drought, wild fires and eventually desertification of the whole basin. The picture he draws even at three degrees temperature rise is terrifying.

At four, five and six degrees the situation becomes worse. The world is subjected to alternate flood and drought, and as the temperature rises more positive feedback comes into play. At four degrees, stored methane is released from the tundra, which is an even worse greenhouse gas, at five degrees methane hydrate is released explosively from subsea continental shelves causing Tsunamis, and at six degrees even oceanic carbon fixers are dead and there is runaway warming. In each case there is palaeoclimatic evidence from rock strata. The six degree model comes from the mass extinction at the end of the Permian 251 million years ago when 95% of the species on the world were wiped out.

Mark Lynas describes each scenario very vividly, with some sequences read like a thriller, and I have a feeling that Mark Lynas enjoyed writing this book, despite its serious and dismal message.

At the end he says that it is essential that warming is halted at 2 degrees, and for this to happen green house emissions must peak within the next eight years (2015). After that they must decline by 90% by 2050. In order to achieve this he suggests a 'contraction and convergence' agreement so that everyone on the planet has the same emission per person.

Practically, this means halving the distance people drive, increasing fuel economy, increasing fuel efficiency and generally living less consumptive lifestyles. I suppose each one of us needs to look at our lives and see what we can do. However, I think little is going to be achieved unless the government helps, because without their incentive, most of us are going to sit back and do nothing.

I was given this book by an environmentalist in Perth.

"striped worms with legs in mattress"

2011-09-02T07:33:00.005+01:00

Since discovering the stats tab at the top of blogger a few weeks ago I have had hours of amusement discovering how people arrive on my blog. This morning I discovered that someone had arrived here after using the words in the title of this post.

Where was the mattress, I wonder. Who turned it over or pulled back the sheet? Who reeled back? Did they make a sound or did they more quietly draw in air past their teeth? Was it a maid at a guest house, or a run-down hotel, or a guest? Or was it an industrialist with secrets at some smarter establishment, and those striped worms with legs are the sort that crawl under your skin into your mind, sucking up thoughts and replacing them with a set of irresistible impulses: 'pick up the phone, tap in this number, and tell the woman who answers all that you know'.

It's such a good thing he found them first and was able to google himself an answer and it is this: Get out now. Run for your life.

Wall of Days by Alastair Bruce

2011-08-31T16:40:00.012+01:00

André Brink has heaped praise on Wall of Days, and compared the author's writing with J.M. Coetzee and Margaret Atwood, but to me the style is more raw than that. The words are gnawed to the bone to reflect the brutality of its dystopian world. It is more akin to Cormac McCarthy's writing in The Road, or Jim Crace's Quarantine. At first it seems to be about a man relying on his own devices when civilisation is stripped away; but then it becomes an allegory about man as leader and the necessity of lies and deception; towards the end it becomes something else again. This is its final and most magnificent metamorphosis. It becomes a book about guilt: not just the guilt of one man but the guilt of all of us living on the planet today: how some of us live, and by living, kill. It is a story the amorality of us all and our hypocritical attempts to justify it. (Well, this is the effect it has had on me - of course the author might have meant something else entirely!)

The story itself is relatively simple. A man, Bran, has been banished from his community and found himself on an island that is slowly crumbling away beneath him. He counts his days by writing marks on his wall, and also assembling a field of stones. One day he finds his arch-enemy-turned-collaborator, Andalus, stranded whale-like on the beach. This is a clear contravention of an agreement that Bran's settlement has had with Andalus's, and gives Bran an excuse to return to his past. However, when he returns he finds the community that he left has apparently changed. The settlement has a strangeness which reminds me very much of the 60's TV series the Prisoner, and Bran has a similar conviction that all is not what it seems, including, in the end, Andalus. 'Perhaps the man Andalus is gone,' says the new Marshal of the community. 'but we should understand why there is that void, the void where he stands.'

The book was shortlisted for the Best First Book in the African Region for the Commonwealth Writers Prize, and is one of the first published by the new Clerkenwell Press headed by Geoff Mulligan, J.M. Coetzee's editor...which reminds me of the comparison I thought of in the end: not just with Coetzee, Atwood, Crace and McCarthy but also Yan Martell. Like Life of Pi it is, most of all, an inspiring allegory.

Thanks to the publisher for a review copy of this book.

Excellent customer service.

2011-08-30T22:05:00.008+01:00

I have just spent the last couple of hours attempting to download The First Thousand Days by Patrick McGuinness on my Kindle. For some reason, and I suspect that reason is the game addict (AKA Hodmandod Minor) in the room down the landing, my kindle was having trouble maintaining a connection to the Amazon server. So I phoned Amazon.co.uk, and a patient man called 'Carlos F' went through various possibilities with me, eventually suggesting that I either disconnect my router (which would not go down well with Hodmandod Minor) or switch off the connection to my router on my Kindle. He advised me to try the latter ...and lo, The First Thousand Days has landed successfully in my lap.

All day I have been reading a book written in the sparse style of J.M. Coetzee. It is a good book, but after a while it made me long for something richer. Now that I have the McGuinness, I feel as though I have swapped the worthy but prickly sackcloth for sumptuous velvet (even though this is Communist Romania).

Thank you Carlos F!

Mysterious Bird of Prey

2011-08-29T20:06:00.004+01:00

We had a surprise visitor in our garden today: some sort of bird of prey, maybe a falcon*. It sat perched on one leg in our apple tree, coolly looking around with its mean yellow eyes, allowing Hodmandods Senior and Majorette (and me) plenty of time to take a photo.

Hodmandod Majorette's were by far the best and I have posted two of them here.

*with the help of my 'Field Guide to British Birds' by Robert Burton

and this RSPB website, I have come to the conclusion it was, in fact, a young sparrowhawk.

Visions of Dystopia.

2011-08-28T16:03:00.006+01:00

A hurricane is approaching New York; there are reports of a surge of water flooding between sky scrapers. The flood defences have been breeched. The water is rising. There are warnings to stay indoors, to retreat into a room with no glass, avoiding vestibules. It is frightening, even from the other side of the Atlantic, I can empathize - especially as I contemplate my latest reading plan: the dystopian novel.

Dystopia means, I have just discovered, 'a state in which the condition of life is extremely bad as from deprivation or oppression or terror' and for some weird reason, I like to read about such things. I suppose there is a thrill involved of being scared by proxy, not believing in the deep dark heart of me that such things could ever take place. So in 'Wall of Days' by Alastair Bruce the world is flooded, and in the 'Testament of Jessie Lamb' the human race is likely to die out through an act of terrorism; while in 'Six Degrees' by Mark Lynas there is a description of happens when the earth warms degree by degree. This latter one starts with the description of a hurricane, and in contrast ot the others is a work of non-fiction. From dystopian fiction to dystopian fact, then - and in consequence this last is the most terrifying reading of all.

Literary terms

2011-08-22T08:53:00.005+01:00

I was introduced to a new literary term yesterday, and I'm not sure I like it. The 'novelette', apparently, is something between a short story and a novella in length. It fits into the word-length family as follows:

Twitterature: Up to 140 characters^
Flash fiction: Up to 1,000 words
Short story: Up to 7,500 (5,000) words
Long short story: 5,000-7,500 words*
Novelette: 7,500- 17,500 words
Novella: 17,500 - 40,000 words
Novel: Over 40,000 words

according to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. But, as this Wikipedia article points out, varies according to genre. Jane Smiley says that novels are typically 100,000 - 150,000 in length.

What am I writing now, I wonder. It is composed of short stories and novelettes...with a novella infill. Maybe I shall call it a novelomerate.

*Categories in red are a refinement added later in response to Jim's comment.
^Also added later in response to Paul's comment.

Book Browse

2011-08-21T17:12:00.002+01:00

Today Hodmandod Senior and I decided to stock up on books for a trip to a 'mystery destination' this Autumn.

Just for a change we decided to go to a bookshop. Once inside I couldn't seem to find the will to walk our again, until hunger drove me to an adjacent coffee shop. I'd forgotten how wonderful it was to have a good browse with the physical objects (i.e.books) to hand. I was sorely tempted to buy a few more, but luckily remembered the towering TBR pile and managed to restrain myself. It was a near call though.

The top 10 guide is for the actual trip. The Granta City Guide contains some guided walks. The Art and Architecture guide provides some good background information and pictures on the sights. The Oxford Archeological Guide contains a lot more background information. The big rise and fall book is a pictorial history and gives a good overview.

How on earth I am going to get through all these before we go (and learn Italian, and do all the other things I need to do) I don't know, but I am going to have a go.

Spider Silk by Leslie Brunetta and Catherine L. Craig

2011-08-19T10:42:00.007+01:00

I have spent the last couple of days reading an excellent book about spiders. My review is on the Popular Science Book site here.

Thanks to the webmaster of the Science book Site, Brian Clegg, for supplying me with the review copy.

Monkey Bee

2011-08-13T23:11:00.002+01:00

This is one of the songs from the album 'Monkey: Journey to the West'...

I think it evokes the novel perfectly.

Monkey Music.

2011-08-12T13:25:00.007+01:00

Obsessed as I am with the book 'Monkey: Journey to the West', I decided to buy this album with the same name.

It is based on an opera of the same name written and directed by Chen Shi-Zheng, and composed by Damon Albarn, with visuals by Jamie Hewlett.

I am glad I decided to get the CD rather than download because the packaging is a small work of art in itself.

It unfolds like so

and then there is an insert

with some of the words.

The photographs don't do it justice.

Learning Italian

2011-08-11T13:38:00.010+01:00

We are going to Rome for a few days in the Autumn. This gives me a good excuse to try and learn Italian, and for me this means another Michel Thomas course.

This will be my fourth. Each time I start from a position of complete ignorance, so anything I learn makes a huge difference. I took my first Michel Thomas courses in German nine years ago: I started with the 'Foundation' (which takes about eight hours) and then went on to the 'Builder' (about four hours). This was in readiness for my trips to Germany to research for my Wegener and Hoffmann books. Although most of the people I spoke to in Germany turned out to be fluent in English, when I went to what was formerly East Germany there were a few non-English speakers. It was then that the course came into its own, and it gave me a little confidence as I tried to communicate there.

My next Michel Thomas course, in 2004, was in Spanish. The Michel Thomas method concentrates on the South American version of Spanish which was great as far as I was concerned since I was planning on heading for Patagonia. This time I found myself cramming the course into a couple of days. Even so I found that enough of it stuck, and I managed to make myself understood (with hand signals and drawings) in a place where few people spoke English.

In 2009 I did the Mandarin Chinese course. I found this one, using Michel Thomas's method, but with Harold Goodman teaching it, just as entertaining as the courses in German and Spanish. In fact it was my favourite (I think because it was so different). I enjoyed it so much that I did the advanced and vocabulary courses on the flight over - and some of the people I met did claim they understood me. But then the Chinese are famously polite...

So today the Foundation Italian course came.The courses have been revised recently, and now include a couple of review lessons at the end. This is an excellent idea, and something I felt was missing from the original.

So, looking back over the last decade, I am a little surprised to see that I have attempted to learn five foreign languages (this includes Welsh which I learnt in Lampeter). It is a little bizarre since I have no aptitude for languages at all. I suppose the fact that I have enjoyed my attempts, and feel keen to try yet another is all due to the genius of Michel Thomas.

Sunday Salon: Ancient Chinese Tales.

2011-08-07T16:04:00.013+01:00

This cartoon is based on the book I am reading at the moment: Monkey: Journey to the West (translated by Arthur Waley). It starts when a stone monkey hatches from a stone egg which has hatched, in turn from a rock. The monkey is mischievous, rude and bumptious - behaviour one would expect from a simian - but so far, in this book, this behaviour has been amply rewarded.

He becomes king of the other monkeys, he learns the secret of immortality via 'illumination' taught by a patriarch, and he then learns how to combat lightning, a fire that turns the bones to ashes, and a wind that travels upwards into his bowels and dissolves away the body completely.

He also learns how to soar on a cloud, transform himself into 75 different things at will, and also use the method 'Body outside the Body' in which hairs plucked from his body all change in small versions of himself when he orders them to 'change!'.

He can become invisible, can penetrate stone, bronze and water (which cannot drown him), he can grow extra heads and arms, and can lift the colossal iron that smoothed out the Milky Way. It is like the most fabulous cartoon ever seen, and it was invented by one Wu Ch'êng-ên 500 years ago.

The story is based on the adventures of a monk who lived 700 years before that. This monk was a Buddhist called Hsüan-Tsang and, dissatisfied with the sutras available in Chinese, he travelled to India to find the originals in Sanskrit. The monk's travels were described by himself, and then others. I am tempted to read these accounts, but unfortunately they seem to be rather expensive, so I think I shall be content with the adventures of this monkey.

I bought this book from Amazon.

Three short stories from the Tang Dynasty.

2011-08-06T11:26:00.006+01:00

I've been looking at literature from the Tang era today. The selection is composed of poetry, essays and short stories. All the forms are unexpectedly readable. The ideas in the poetry are surprising in that they deal with concerns I would have thought would only belong to the modern era.

For instance in this first one on drinking there are observations on aging and vanity.

From Four Poems on Wine
by Li Po (699-762)

Have you not seen
How the Yellow River, which flows from heaven and hurries
towards the sea, never turns back?
Have you not seen
How at the bright mirrors of high halls men mourn their
white hairs,
At dawn black silk, by evening changed to snow?
While there is pleasure in life, enjoy it,
And never let your gold cup face the moon empty!

This second one is a moving war poem, and was written in a time when there were some particularly vicious wars with heavy casualties.

From a Song of War Chariots.
by Tu Fu (712-770)

...We have learned that to have a son is bad luck -
It is very much better to have a daughter
Who can marry and live in the house of a neighbour,
While under the sod we bury our boys.
....Go to the Blue Sea, look along the shore
At all the old white bones forsaken -
New Ghosts are wailing there now with the old,
Loudest in the dark sky of a stormy day.

The short stories are must be some of the earliest short stories (of the realistic non-mythic type) in the world. I had read that the Chinese did not have a word for romantic love. It is strange then, that each of the following three stories involve beautiful young women to which the hero becomes instantly attached. They have unexpected endings.

The Story of Ts'ui Ying-ying by Yüan Chen (799-846).

Chang is a man who admires beauty and yet cannot find a beautiful woman. One day on his travels, he manages to protect a widow and her young son and daughter. The daughter, Ying-Ying, turns out to be beautiful. However, she cannot show her true feelings. Chang tries to woo her but she appears uninterested. Her maid tells him to try poetry. Ying-Ying seems to respond to this, but when he goes to meet her, she repels him. He does not give up, and eventually she dreamily goes to his bed. These night-time liaisons continue for some time. He then has to go back to the capital to take civil service exams. He fails. he has to stay behind. He writes. She replies passionately, saying how much she misses him. He decides to drop her because he thinks beautiful women lead men astray and make them subject to ridicule. They both marry other people. He goes to see her many years later but she refuses to see him because she has become too thin and haggard as a result of his abandonment of her.

The rituals and style remind me very much of 10th century Japanese books I've read. This is not surprising because Heian court life was based on the Tang Chinese court life. It is told in a straightforward way, and the poetic messages and far less obtuse and easier to understand.

The Story of Miss Li by Po Hsing-chien.

This story starts and ends in the first person giving the reason why the narrator thought it worthwhile recording. A father was very proud of his son and sent him to the capital to study. Here he came across Miss Li who lived with her mother who was low and unprincipled - in other words a prostitute. They fell in love. He inculcated himself into the house, declared his love and stayed until all the money his father had given him had run out.

The mother and daughter then tricked him into leaving. They did this by moving from their house and locking him out, since their house was only rented. He was so upset he almost died and was taken in by first his former landlord , and then the undertaker. He became a professional mourner of some repute, and in competition with another undertaker won with his sad songs which caused everyone to cry. His father happened to be in town, and he was spotted by his father's servant. He confessed who he was, and his father took all his clothes from him and beat him until he was close to death.

Friends rescued him, but his wounds were too troublesome so after a while they left him in the middle of the road. Here he was fed by passersby. He then recovered enough to become a beggar. In winter he passed by his Miss Li's house who took him in, defied her mother, paif her off and lived with him. She paid for him to buy books and study. When he entered his exams he passed first time, and then again with huge honours. This caught the attention of the emepror who promoted him. He then was assigned to his fathers area who welcomed him back.

Miss Li was not going to come with him, but he persuaded her to do so, she was about to go home again when the father insisted she did not and the boy and Miss Li married. They had four sons - all of whom had high rank. The narrator thinks it strange that a prostitute should behave so well, which is why he recorded it.

Apart from the story, there are interesting points of etiquette: the idea of an undertakers' competition enticing crowds of several hundred; the 'six rites of welcome' involved with betrothal, the fact it seems all right for the couple to live together before marriage, the fake modesty which seems to be part of etiquette, just as it was in Japan.

The Curly-bearded Hero by Tu Kuang-t'ing (850-933)

This tale is quite different from the other two. A councillor is left in charge of the captial and become decadent and lavish. He is attended by rows of maidens. He also becomes idle and does not get up for visitors. Li Ching has a spirirted conversation with hi, and chides him. He is followed out of court by a young girl, aged about 18, who says the chancellor is 'corpse in which little breath remains'. She begs to be taken on by him. She is beautiful. They set up house together but find themselves being pied upon. They go on a journey and a curly bearded stranger befriends them. He has the same name as the girl so she defines her self as his little sister. Curly bearded has a human head, liver and heart in his bag; the latter two items they share with some wine.

They find the new leader and get a Tao to interview him. The Tao confirms the new leader but also tells Curly Beard his conquests lie elsewhere. The new leader is installed by Li Chang and Little Sister and curly beard departs to take over in the south-east. Li Chang becomes rich , and Curl Beard establishes his empire.

This tale shows the foolishness of mounting a one man rebellion. Apparently.

Have read, am reading, shall read

2011-08-05T11:44:00.003+01:00

I thought Life of Pi would be a Picaresque; but in truth I think it was not. It was a strange book, a realistic myth, about a boy floating in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with a tiger. At first, for precisely the first hundred pages in fact, I was slightly bored. However, this turned out to be the necessary background to the story, the set-up, I suppose, which made the rest of the story seem quite true. After that the story became absorbing and at the same time convincing, and I read quickly. I especially enjoyed the island sequence, and find it is this that lingers with me because it was so wonderfully weird. However, the part that really made the book for me was the ending. It took an already excellent book one stage further up the scale - to where it now occupies the 'outstandingly excellent' niche. It reminded me a little of Gulliver's Travels. However, it is not a picaresque, because a picaresque involves a lovable rogue visiting lots of different places, and Life of Pi did not contain either of these.

In contrast I read Life Along the Silk Road by Susan Whitworth. This, I thought, was fiction - but I was wrong again. The very interesting tales were based on historical events and artifacts found along the Silk Road, and it read very much like biographical non-fiction or history. Although each tale is based on the information of various individuals and combined, Susan Whitworth brought it altogether skilfully, and I learnt a lot about the people that lived along the Silk Road; it was an appealing way to do so.

Finally, I read another travelogue: Shadow of the Silk Road by Colin Thubron. Colin Thubron's writing reminded me of W.G. Sebald's. It was personal, moving, imaginative, and above all lyrically beautiful. It took me a long time to read, because as I did so it set me thinking about my own experiences in China, and it also enticed me to the internet to find out more about places and subjects mentioned. As well as writing travelogues, Colin Thubron has written novels too, and I'd like to read them one day.

The only Silk Road book left on my pile now is Monkey by Wu Ch'êng-ên which I am intending to read just as soon as I have finished reading the T'ang section of poetry and prose in my Anthology of Chinese Literature which came this morning, and I have started already. And then, after that, I intend to go on to a proper picaresque: Güneli Gün's On the Road to Baghdad as recommended by Anne S.

And then, waiting in the wings (or rather in another pile on my study floor), there are these...(by the end of the month I hope to have read at least some of them).