Hugh's reading, pictures and stray thoughts in 2016

Once again, a Hippo Gnu Ear to all -- I won't repeat the pictures, but may well resume the habit of posting a weekly picture when I have something interesting.

Sadly, on the reading front, I seem to be going to start on another DNF: the unfortunately but possibly aptly titled Folly by Alan Titchmarsh.

>2 hfglen: You're up and running and while you may think a DNF counts against you, in my view, it means you've still got the wherewithal to recognize that something's not working for you. Good Health and Good Luck in the New Yearl

I agree. DNF is a perfectly sound decision. I'm a firm believer in the Pearl Rule.

Happy New Year, Hugh, and a Happy New Reading Thread for 2016, DNFs and all.

>2 hfglen:

If its going to be a DNF, don't start.

Hoping to see lots of hippos, gnus, and ears from you this year, Hugh! As well as elephants, birds, plants, and awe-inspiring scenery. Oh, and books, too!

I often wonder if Tim, when he started LT, could have imagined all the benefits of friendship (and advice) that would develop.

>2 hfglen: If you want to read a really good novel titled Folly, try the one by Laurie R. King.

Happy new year! I look forward to following your reading and travels this year.

>9 Esta1923: I wonder that as well! I frequently tell friends in the publishing industry, LT is my most frequently visited and cherished social network...

>9 Esta1923: and >12 jillmwo: it has been a treasure of a find.

Wishing you a great year with plentiful books and other enjoyments. I shall be following along (although likely in lurker mode!)

Many thanks to all for all the good wishes!

Here are some gnus specially for Sylvia. They were in the Hlane reserve in Swaziland.

Phew! After three DNFs in a row, it was a relief to turn to the ever-reliable Jose Burman. He writes about various historical features of the Western Cape, and his success or otherwise in retracing the courses of disused major routes, or the steps of major figures, or the stories they don't tell in high school history. So I was pleased to find In the footsteps of Lady Anne Barnard in the library.

In 1795 two events of importance to the history of the Cape happened more-or-less simultaneously: the Dutch East India Company collapsed, and the British moved in to keep the French out at the start of the Napoleonic Wars. At that time the Cape was a very necessary halfway-house on the way to India. Lady Anne Lindsay was the eldest child of the fifth Earl of Balcarres, and so nobility in her own right. In due course she married a man called Andrew Barnard, whose career she advanced as and when she could, which turned out to be through her friendship with Henry Dundas, Lord Melville. And so Andrew Barnard was sent to the Cape as Colonial Secretary, and Lady Anne was "asked" to keep Dundas informed of Cape matters in an unbiased way. Which she did, in a stream of letters that are still in existence. Now it so happened that both the civil and military governors were single, and so Lady Anne was de facto First Lady of the Cape, which meant she got to meet everybody who was anybody, and Dundas got first-hand accounts of them, and 200 years later so do we. Fast-forward to May 1798, when Andrew Barnard managed a month's leave (in the depths of low season) and the use of a horse-drawn wagon. They set off to explore all the then-known parts of the Cape, with Lady Anne reporting. (Just to add to the confusion, there was another Anne Barnard in the party, a relative of Andrew's, who appears in the letters as Jane.)

Burman retraced their route in 1990, and in this book traces their every step, as far as possible, which is amazingly far. Some of the farmhouses the Barnards stopped at have vanished, but as many are still there, some in the hands of direct descendants of the Barnards' hosts. Some of the passes they used have fallen into desuetude, and can now only be accessed by hikers; here it is possible to see the actual wheel ruts they would have used. Elsewhere the roads have been upgraded, with or without re-alignment. One farm they stopped at is Meerlust near Stellenbosch, which has been in the hands of the Myburgh family since the early 18th century. The present Myburgh, 9th in line of descent, still makes excellent (and expensive!) wine, just as his ancestors did. The house has been restored to its 18th-century splendour, and though it was for a long time closed to visitors, I believe it is now open to tourists.

Lady Anne was definitely a people-person, and so we are fully informed about her various hosts; about the scenery, which includes some of South Africa's best, not so much. But still, it was good to read this one and think "been there last year; it's still like that" or "it's changed in this or that way". A good read, but only if you have been to the Western Cape or are planning a visit (a good thing to do).

>16 hfglen: Love that write up.

>16 hfglen: That sounds fascinating! OK, a fair hit.

>15 hfglen: It's always nice to have some good gnus!

An, but Sylvia, surely you know that gno gnus is good gnus ;)

That's the end of the gnus. Now for the weather forecast!

All I can picture -

That's a gnu one on me!

gnu to me too

Who gnu?

Accidents of Fortune by Andrew Devonshire, aka the 11th Duke of Devonshire. A short read (127 pages), but satisfying. Vignettes of an unimaginably wealthy life.

By the way, I've been going through the authors' gallery associated with my collection, and find at least a few dozen cases (among 2900 authors, so not a vast proportion) where clicking on the author's name brings up a page assuring me that LT, or at least my collection, has no books by the author in question, and yet when I go to "Your Books", I can trace one or rarely more books by that person -- usually pretty obscure, admittedly. An example is Renate Wagner Wittula, author of the rather entertaining Imperial Austrian Cookery -- touchstone doesn't work, unsurprisingly, but here is the LT record, indicating that no fewer than 11 members have it. Is this a known bug, or should I report it?

>26 hfglen: Is that the Duke who was married to Deborah Cavendish Devonshire, the youngest of the Mitford Sisters? In which case I may have just been side-swiped by a passing book bullet...

>27 hfglen: Definitely a bug and definitely you should report it. (Yes, they may know of it, but there's no guarantee and someone still has to ultimately go in and fix the bug.)

Also when you note in passing that the book consists of vignettes of unimaginable wealth, I had been under the impression that it was the Duchess who restored the family fortunes and revived Chatsworth. Was that not the case? Was he ALWAYS wealthy?

I'll have to look for Accidents of Fortune. It sounds like a nice addition to the books that I've read by and about his wife and her family.

>27 hfglen: - Her name was hyphenated in most copies of the book, and the nonhyphenated version wasn't combined. I combined them, so your version should link properly now. Probably something similar is happening with the others.

>28 Peace2: The very same. Debo is mentioned often in the book.

>29 jillmwo: He was saddled with death duties amounting to 80% of the estate when he inherited the title, but the land surrounding Chatsworth is still 72 000 acres, and that is by no means the only property nor their only form of wealth. Debo certainly revived Chatsworth and turned visitors into a source of income, but there was much help from legal and financial advisors in London.

>31 NorthernStar: Many thanks. I suspect there are some records where Jill is right and we have a bug hitting names with a single forename and a one-word surname. And my book now works, thank you. (Will have to look into the others.)

It's taken a long time, but at last, a book finished. My excuses are twofold: firstly, I've been setting up the Railway Society's library (@Railwaysoc here on LT), which is taking for ever.

Secondly, the book. The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss. A veritable brick, at (just) over 1100 pages. I read The Name of the Wind 4 years ago, and remember it as an immensely long-winded brick in which nothing happens. At great length. This one is an extended flashback; next to nothing happens in the frame. And even in the story Kvothe tells of his youth, there seems to be an immense amount of material one probably doesn't need. O for editorial pruning shears, though I suspect a machete might be a more useful weapon. I see I read both volumes at about this time of year, when other readers have almost totally denuded the library of readable books, which may say something about the enthusiasm with which I like (or avoid) this series. I gather there's another installment. Will it take me another four years to reach the level of desperation needed to check it out (if the library even has it)?

>33 hfglen: After The Wise Man's Fear, I'm pretty much OK with not reading more. :) An interesting world, but as you say, very slow and large.

>33 hfglen: & >34 MrsLee:

I have not read any of Patrick Rothfus's works but I have to admit my daughter and her husband like his books. I suspect there could be some bias due to the personal link between my son-in-law and Mr. Rothfus. Patrick Rothfus bought and lives in my son-in-law's family home.

They also like long, winding fantasy novels so the could also be part of the explanation.

>33 hfglen: >34 MrsLee: The Name of the Wind is on my TBR pile, but I think that was just the sound of it an avalanche and it may just have been buried further down.

>8 SylviaC: some awesome scenery for you:



The Amphitheatre at Royal Natal National Park, taken by my father in about 1965. The Sentinel (on the right) is well over 10 000 feet, and was for a time thought to be the highest point in southern Africa.

The Marginal Safari by Justin Fox. Interesting idea. Go all the way around your country tracing the border (or coast, as appropriate), come home and write a book about your experiences and thoughts on the way. So he set out from Cape Town and went up the coast to Kosi Bay (any further and he'd have been in Mozambique). Then inland, around Swaziland and up the length of Kruger Park to Crooks Corner. Up the Limpopo contemplating the unending flood of , er, immigrants from Zimbabwe. On up the Limpopo along the Botswana border, and so down the Molopo (up which Harold Wilson once volunteered to send a gunboat, causing much ribald speculation as to how it would need to be dug out -- evidently nobody told him that except for about 10 minutes after the heaviest rains in a century, there is only sand in the Molopo.) Up to Union's End in the Kalahari, down to the Orange, now Gariep, River, which does have water, to its mouth at Alexander Bay. Then down the Atlantic coast back to Cape Town. Somewhere before Kosi Bay we learn that his father was dying of cancer (he lasted about 3 months after Justin got home), and locals may deduce somewhat further on that the father was the celebrated architect Revel Fox, no less.

>37 hfglen: Wow! That is stunning! Not just the scenery but the intense blue sky.

>39 Sakerfalcon: Almost, a standard-issue high-altitude winter sky (this is a summer-rainfall region, so very little rain and no cloud when the picture was taken. Which said, I can only agree with you that it is attractive. I wish I could remember the name of the Serbian humorist who likened a contrail in a sky like this to a toothpaste smear on a pretty girl's cheek. It seems somehow appropriate.

That's gorgeous! (And gorge-ous.) What amazing colours--especially in a 50 year old photo. Thanks!

When was The Marginal Safari written? It's a neat idea for a book.

That is an amazing photo! The book sounds interesting, too.

>41 SylviaC: The expedition was in 2004, and the book came out in 2010.

>41 SylviaC: >42 catzteach: Thank you both! (One good thing about old Kodachrome: it often doesn't fade.)

Further to # 40: his name is Dušan Radović; LT has none of his books, sadly.

A People's History of Britain by Rebecca Fraser -- evidently called The Story of Britain in the U.S.

Humph. Cameelious humph. The author is the daughter of the respected historian Antonia Fraser, leading one to expect excellence. In all conscience, this isn't it. She says this book was written for her (schoolgoing?) daughters. Poor girls; this is an 800+-page brick. If I'd been set this as a school text, I'd have been even more bored even faster than I was by the b-awful Europe and South Africa (dud touchstone, which is no loss). It rushes over the good or interesting bits and goes into tedious detail on stale politics. Every few pages there's a painful typo to keep the reader awake. And in the last century or so her prejudices do rather begin to show. For example, she completely omits any mention at all of the only empire resident who was a member of the British War Cabinet in both world wars, and went on to draft a significant part of the UN charter (Jan Smuts, if you don't know already). Which country's soldiers were present in large numbers in the Abyssinian campaign, later in the 8th Army in Egypt and Italy, and, unlike Kenya's, are totally ignored? She would not, of course, mention (much less use) the famous picture of Major McLachlan of South Africa escorting Haile Selassie home into Addis Ababa. And 40-50 years on, her narrative sounds like a stale current affairs script. Acceptable as a quick and superficial reference on mediaeval -- Renaissance politics, but keep the salt handy. (Incidentally, under the previous government the SABC produced a truly dire propaganda series called Current Affairs. The echo above is intentional.)

>44 hfglen: Thank you for suffering through that so we don't have to. Hope there is a really good read in store to refresh you.

Thank you, Lee. The next one was indeed better. The background is that I recently rebelled against DD, and said that although this year's holiday is already (regrettably) booked, there is more to our mad and sunny land than Kruger, and I want to see some of it OUTSIDE Kruger. I seem to have won one ally, and so we can start reading up about the Cape and the Karoo. Now read on.

Footprints in the Karoo by Joan Southey. The author says that when she was little and an only child in London, she dreamed of living with lots of pets in a house with a garden and a large family. So in due course she married a member of the immense Southey clan of the Eastern Cape Karoo. Quote: if you throw a stone into a bush in the Karoo, either a hare of a Southey will jump out. The book alternates chapters on the history of particular Southey farms and the branch of the family that made them, with others on themes of farm life -- the manual telephone exchange, Bushmen, sheep and suchlike. Not quite what I was hoping for, but a good comfort read. And one chapter caused me to Google and find out where the Sydney Rubidge collection of fossils is at present, and what you have to do to be allowed to visit it. Rubidge married a Southey (inevitably) and discovered the first mammal-like reptiles in the Karoo; later discoveries in this group provided crucial evidence for continental drift. And lo! the collection is on the original Rubidge farm, and you have to stay over in their guest cottage to be allowed in (see here). And the farm is conveniently halfway (half a day each side) between two places i very much want to see. So far from being a dead loss.

Milligan's Meaning of Life, assembled from the writings of Spike Milligan by Norma Farnes.

"Of sorts", indeed. Two complete Goon Show scripts, a quantity of poems of immensely variable length and quality, some letters from Milligan to notables who should have been able to right wrongs, with a few replies, and numerous fragments describing moments in a fascinating, hilarious and far from stable life. A most entertaining blend, selected, seasoned and simmered to perfection by Norma Farnes. Recommended.

If I were to title this post, it should undoubtedly be headed "Two Biographies", for that is what I am currently reading.

In one corner we have Vinnicombe's Trek by R.N. Currey, for which there is (unsurprisingly) no touchstone. Tom Vinnicombe was born in Devon, grew up a musician, and came to Natal in 1849. He worked in an organ-builder's shop in Pietermaritzburg until that burned down, then as a builder (and, later, British spy) on the Eastern Highveld of the Transvaal Republic. Which would have been mildly interesting, but his great failing was that he existed under the delusion that he could write; in particular, that he could tell his story in verse. And his adoring granddaughter, suffering from the same delusion, patched his doggerel and occasional prose (just as dire) into a more-or-less coherent book, which she persuaded the local uni to publish as a Historical Text. Oy Vay. It's heading for DNF status and a return to the library -- thank goodness I don't have to offer it a permanent home.

In the opposite corner we have Tigress of Forlì by Elizabeth Lev. A proper biography by a trained historian. Of a feisty lady with a memorable story to tell, and well told. Suffice to say that she made her presence felt throughout northern Italy from the time of her marriage (at 13!) to her death 33 years later, and in that relatively short time packed in enough adventure for any 3 normal people. And left the world her grandson, Cosimo de'Medici (the famous one). What a contrast!

>48 hfglen: When I get ahold of a bad biography, I use Google and Wikipedia to fill in the high spots and then toss it out the door. Now with your second book there, that sounds very much like a bullet whizzing close to my head, if not a dead on hit.

>48 hfglen: and >49 MrsLee: I agree with MrsLee in that the Tigress of Forli seems intriguing. I snickered out loud however over your commentary, Hugh, on the granddaughter responsible for inflicting and further memorializing her ancestor's bad verse. (At least, during my lifetime, I've tended to believe that bad verse usually dies out of print quite rapidly if left severely alone.)

Beyond the Blue Horizon. The author, Alexander Frater, fell in love with flying boats at an early age. (I can sympathise; my grandmother once flew to London on the Africa service, and made it sound wonderful.) Much later, he managed to locate an Imperial Airways route map from the year he was born and a then-current ABC World Airways Guide, and used a period of sabbatical leave to re-create the journey from London to Brisbane (Qantas's Australian terminus in 1937) with as many of the original stops as possible in the correct sequence. Of the 35 scheduled stops, only two (Gaza and Rutbah Wells) had ceased to exist (and some Australian bush strips used in emergencies are no longer there). And so he went to a travel agent friend who claimed to enjoy a challenge, and booked what the friend claimed was the longest ticket ever issued by BA, and off he went. And published this book a couple of years later. Internal evidence suggests that he made this epic journey in about 1984, and for that reason the story is beginning to assume the patina of a historical document. Item: the ticket aforementioned, printed on a stack of forms "the size of a paperback novel" -- today it would be all-electronic, which might have given him even more problems than he records having with Indian Airways. Item: trying to exchange a travellers' cheque (remember them?) for lire (remember them?) in Italy. Sadly, most of the war zones he skirted in the Middle East are still there. Nevertheless, this must have been the most marvellous adventure, and those of us not blessed with the infinite cash and time needed to go and do likewise can at least enjoy the ride vicariously. His style is mostly a joy to read, and typos are mercifully few. The one thing that grated after some discussion here was the sometimes excessive detail of who made what bits of the planes he was flying on: granted he's a flying nut, but do I really want to know the brand name of the aircon on an HS748? However, his delightful sense of humour often breaks through, as on a grim evening at the government rest house at Gwadar, where one of the other residents was watching a Bollywood epic on video (no DVDs yet!) "A chorus of female singers with voices like police whistles was singing in Hindi ...". Much enjoyed, and I believe several Dragoneers would, too. I wonder if one could do the same recreation of the Imperial Africa route?

Couldn't help adding this picture, which says it all about the Railway Society's steam open day today:



Two retired gents discussing a 1/4-size working model of a Bolton & Watt (1788) beam engine.

>52 hfglen: Boys and their toys. :D Same the world around, I think.

I've seen that type of scene often!

>44 hfglen: I've been plodding along with Rebecca Fraser's The Story of Britain: From the Romans to the Present: A Narrative History for a while now and am a bit relieved to see your comments because they pretty much let me off the hook.

Being an American, I didn't cover much British history in school. I've read so much British fiction of the past two hundred years and seen so many BBC and similar period dramas that I've absorbed a great deal of it over time. I probably know a lot more about certain kings and queens of England than I do about American presidents. But I thought it would be good for once to get them all in order, with the blanks filled in.

So now I'd like to know if there's a better resource than Fraser to recommend, one that does what this was supposed to do. Any suggestions?

>55 Meredy: Hmmmmz. It depends. Mostly on what the question of the moment is. When I only want to know who came before or after whom and if so when, I often use an elderly and well-thumbed copy of B.A. Seaby's Standard Catalogue of the Coins of Great Britain and Ireland, oddly enough. It's arranged chronologically, and the pictures give an indication of the economics and technology of the time. (So for example King Stephen's coinage is awful even for the time, and it comes as no surprise to learn in the Brother Cadfael books that this reign was marked by several years of civil war and chaos.) You might also consider Trevelyan's Illustrated English Social History, published in 3 volumes yonks ago by Pelican, and/or another multidecker, The Pelican History of England -- I have 5 volumes, all by different authors. Further than that, I'll keep an eye peeled for you when I go to the library on Wednesday.

>55 Meredy: For readability, I recommend Winston S. Churchill's A History of the English Speaking Peoples. Probably not a go-to reference book though.

>56 hfglen: What a terrific idea! I was sorting out the change drawer at work yesterday and had a small collection of Canadian coins to get rid of (bank won't take them, don't want to confuse them with legal American coinage for customers). I happened to look at them a bit closer than usual and noticed that there were three phases of Queen Elizabeth portraits. Each very identifiable, her youth, middle age and old age.

>57 MrsLee: So did Victoria; George III had 4 different busts as he aged, and George II had 2. I don't think other royals stayed around long enough or had consistent enough coinage or well-enough drawn portraits to be seen to age.

The Renaissance by Paul Johnson. A short history, indeed; only 155 pages. But interest does not flag, and one could wish it longer. In particular, one could wish it twice as long, most of the balance being pictures of the items mentioned here. Because this book's greatest fault is that it includes not a single illustration of any description, and yet most of the text deals with art and architecture. Tut, tut.

>59 hfglen: One of those books that you have to read with a computer close at hand to search for pictures.

>55 Meredy: Saw these in the library today, which might answer your need, and all of which I have read and enjoyed -- in no particular order:
1. Secret Britain: the hidden bits of our history by Justin Pollard
2. Lives of the Kings and Queens of England edited by Antonia Fraser -- which comes in at least 3 different editions; there is also a more pompous offering with almost the same title, by the splendidly named Plantagenet Somerset Fry
3. The History of England, a multi-part series by Peter Ackroyd, of which the library only has parts 1 and 3.
4. England: 1000 things you need to know by Nicholas Hobbes -- conceivably you might just find the factoid you want among the highly entertaining trivia.
And finally, it's just dawned on me that 1000 years of annoying the French by Stephen Clarke may be due a re-read.

Hope that helps.

>61 hfglen: Thank you! That sounds like a choice selection. For some reason your afterthought strikes an especially appealing note. Why is it that virtually everyone seems to love being just a little bit naughty?

...and there you go: first book bullet of the day (or of my day, at any rate).

Mega Structures and Master Minds by Tony Murray. A beautifully illustrated selection of major civil engineering structures in southern Africa, from the Cape Point lighthouses (south-west) to Kariba Dam (north-east). Why lighthouses, plural? Because the Victorian consulting engineers sitting in their offices in London didn't know the Cape Point weather, and put the first lighthouse so high on the point that it was shrouded in fog three months each year; the present one is in a very scary location halfway up a cliff, and shines below the clouds. Incidentally, much mine housing (and the art gallery) in Johannesburg faces the "wrong" way for the same reason -- the London architects couldn't grasp that in the southern hemisphere you need north-facing buildings if the inhabitants aren't to freeze in winter. Back to the book: historically, the structures range from the early 19th century (Sir Lowry's Pass) to this decade (Shark Rock Pier, Port Elizabeth and the rebuilt Chapman's Peak Drive, Cape Town). Each essay is a few pages long, with a handful of pictures. Recommended bedside reading for intending tourists.

Here is the western entrance to the Huguenot Tunnel (near Paarl, Western Cape) from Du Toit's Kloof Pass. Both structures are in the book mentioned in #64 above.

>64 hfglen: You'll have to work some of that into the tour you'll be giving after that big lottery win that allows us to have our South African GD meetup.

>66 SylviaC: Now that's a good idea. Get the Dragoneers to fly in to Cape Town (New World residents would need to change in London, Frankfurt or Dubai), and -- if we can get a booking -- take over the Old Washhouse for a few nights. Sounds awful, but it's SANParks's comfortable self-catering accommodation in a historic building in Table Mountain National Park overlooking central Cape Town. Then a day trip to Cape Point (from here on a * indicates a structure in the book in #64) out along * Chapmans Peak Drive -- Pete would enjoy the geology, look at * the lighthouses (beware of the baboons -- they're even more creative nuisances than the Durban monkeys) and back over * Ou Kaapse Weg. Hope for a stop at Klein Constantia to buy Vin de Constance, much enjoyed by Napoleon and Jane Austen. Next day, hit the bookshops in Long Street and, if possible, the Neighbourgoods Market in Salt River, source of artisanal CHEESE and other goodies. There are gazillions of other things to do in Cape Town, but those'll do for now. Then off to Stellenbosch, over Helshoogte (Hell's Heights) / Banhoek (Fear Corner) to Pniel (great car museum on a wine estate), and up to Paarl to join the N1 for the *Huguenot Tunnel to Goudini Spa (reasonable accommodation, hot spring, next to a wine estate, across the road from another). Two day trips, but unfortunately one involves retracing our steps: 1. down *Du Toit's Kloof to Paarl (goats, CHEESE and wine at Fairview) and back through the tunnel. 2. Over *Bain's Kloof to Wellington (dried fruit, leather goods), back to Tulbagh (good food, magnificent restoration after an earthquake in 1968) over Nuwekloof (New Pass -- original pass to the interior). If we get the calendar right, there's a restored railway line from Ceres to an estate near Wolseley; more wine. Then through the Little Karoo -- refreshment stop at Ronnie's Sex Shop (Originally Ronnie's Shop, until some of his "friends" added the middle word) -- compulsory if @MrsLee is with us ;) to Calitzdorp, South Africa's "Port" capital (hot spring, 5 wine estates). Next day, over * Swartberg Pass to Prince Albert, where they make CHEESE, wine and olive oil all in about 6 blocks. Up to Karoo National Park if anybody is desperate for wildlife. Otherwise back to Meiringspoort (where I get to explain C.J. Langenhoven), to Oudtshoorn and (Outeniqua Pass) George. Stay in this area as long as possible; it's lovely, and Knysna -- 60 km down the road -- has a used-book store, a micro-brewery and farmed oysters. Back towards Mossel Bay along the * N2 (2 or 3 sites, and it's worth stopping at the museum to see the full-size replica of Bartolomeu Dias's flagship (1488) -- it's tiny! On to Cape Agulhas, which is where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans really do meet, and the true southernmost point in Africa. Finally (snf!) down * Sir Lowry's Pass back to Cape Town.

>67 hfglen: Oh, heck. Now I'm drooling. It doesn't help that we're in the middle of a blizzard here, and need to go out in it later to retrieve an offspring.

My husband and I would be in, Hugh. Seriously.

My husband and would be up for it, too! Sounds like exactly the kind of trip we love. I can fairly guarantee that @NorthernStar would go for it, too - I know my sister pretty well :)

Sounds like an awesome trip! Wish I could say I'd be able to go. I would if I could.

>67 hfglen: That sounds amazing. I'd would be up for it, especially the optional wildlife extension.

>67 hfglen: I did not know that Napoleon traveled with Jane Austen! Mind blown! ;)

Wait, what goes on at Ronnie's?

So now all we have to do is win that lotto ;-)

>73 MrsLee: Not quite. Constantia (not yet divided) exported barrels of the stuff to St. Helena and, separately, England.

Ronnie's started out as a roadside fruit-and-veg stall in the middle of nowhere-in-particular. It then morphed into a pub with an extensive drinks-list and limited food menu. The web site mentions a small pool and basic accommodation as well. Pictures in, for example, Go! magazine indicate that the main decor item in the pub is a vast collection of autographed ladies' underwear. (Notes to the link: 1. Be patient; there is a picture of Ronnie's that comes up eventually. 2. I tried the link to the shop's site; it timed out.)

Sounds wonderful!

>67 hfglen: and 74 Who is speaking of Jane Austen without allowing me my share of the conversation? More seriously, how do you know she drank Vin de Constance, even if it was exported to England? Enquiring minds want to know.

>76 jillmwo: You were going to get a rather arm-waving response, but by sheer good luck the book I was reading while consuming breakfast this mornning laid our chapter and verse, from the POV of the estate.

The Klein Constantia account books show that among the VIPs who were regular customers one finds Napoleon, Louis-Philippe of France (!), the Kings of Prussia and Bavaria, and Bismarck. Jane Austen writes about it as one who knows whereof she speaks in Sense and Sensibility; it also makes a cameo appearance in Dickens's Edwin Drood -- and probably elsewhere too, for ought I know. The estate was named at the Landscapes of Wine exhibition in Bordeaux in 2000 as one of the world's nine mythical vineyards (which may be the wrong adjective; it's there in the Cape Town streetfinder, and the website lists opening times and prices).

>77 hfglen: well, now I must go see what I can find in S&S. Aren't you the phenomenal information source!!!

Finished Cape Town Stories by Madeleine Barnard, the book I got the Klein Constantia information in #77 from, at last. A delightful collection of legends, eccentrics and places in The Fairest Cape. Well worth picking up, even if you don't live there. The individual pieces are short, so it makes great loo reading.

Those who have been discussing Dorothy L. Sayers in Pete's thread may enjoy this interview with Jill Paton Walsh, who first completed a story that Sayers had not managed to complete, and has taken Peter and Harriet on to middle age in other stories.

(edited to fix spelling)

Been scanning old South African National Society newsletters to OCR, which is by turns boring and frustrating. But all has just been forgiven, with a story from 1959, when a surveyor in the British Colonial Office was able to show that Thabana Ntlenyana in then Basutoland is the highest point in southern Africa, at 11,425 feet. So what? Only that his name was Mr PEAKE.

And from the same source, the following rather arresting half-sentence on the opening of the first bridge across the Umgeni River:
... commenting with a kindly sense of humour on the ceremony with the two lunches and speeches.
Curiously, the dignitaries were Victorians of normal build, not Hobbits.

two lunches and speeches

That happens when you invite two guests of honor to speak as the luncheon keynote and both accept.

Or in this case, where you have two organising committees, one each side of the river, with rampant egos determined neither to co-operate nor to be second-best.

Wow hfglen, you really do read mostly non-fiction, don't you? Maybe that's why the Rothfuss books do not agree with you. :o)

>85 clamairy: Happen you're right :) That does imply that I need books that make sense, and where something happens occasionally.

... And here's another that doesn't cut the mustard, and is about to be declared a DNF. Particularly as, when I saw an Ellis Peters I wist not of in the library. The Will and the Deed was certainly not a Brother Cadfael; was it then an Inspector Felse? No; it's a standalone. Closer inspection reveals a first-publication date of 1960, so I deduce a student piece before she got the hang of it. Nevertheless, this one doesn't require disbelief to be suspended but rather to be nailed to a tree far out of the way. Essentially it's a locked-room mystery, and as such could be plausible and almost good. But ... the suspects are marooned in an Alpine village by reason of being blown off course by a storm on a charter flight from Vienna to Zürich. Now my recollection of air-navigation maps of the back-end of Africa (South Africa 1: 1M, to be precise) is that they have air lanes clearly marked on them. Also, the pilot would surely not have been allowed to leave Vienna without filing a flight plan, and I'm quite sure that the permitted route wouldn't involve going anywhere near the Vorarlberg (Vienna - Munich - Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance - Zürich, more like), and surely even then he'd have been watched the whole way by radar, as at least some of the route was, er, politically sensitive. So I don't buy the idea of putting the plane down on the side of a mountain in a snowstorm with no casualties for starters. The best that can be said of it is that she improved later. This one could have been improved if she'd taken a trip to Mr Stanford's celebrated emporium and looked at a map or 3 before starting planning.

>87 hfglen: I couldn't get through that one either. I don't think your theory about student work holds water, since she started publishing in the 1930s. I have a perfectly good novel that she wrote in 1942. I guess this is just one of her duds.

Thank you, Sylvia. I stand corrected -- and pleased that it isn't just me being picky.

>61 hfglen: I'm about halfway through 1000 Years of Annoying the French and enjoying it. It does assume that you know the non-France-related English history going on outside this narrative; for example, there's just a passing reference to Oliver Cromwell and the beheading of Charles I. Fortunately I mostly do. So I have you to thank for this book bullet and its lively, interesting slant on a millennium of trouble with the relations.

>90 Meredy: *bows extravagantly* My pleasure. How would it be if you were to return the bullet to the table for re-use?

>91 hfglen: I might indeed do that.

>91 hfglen: With a lot of distractions, it's taken me more than two weeks to read that book, but I finished it tonight and did enjoy it very much. In fact, I gave it a rare 4.5 stars because the author managed the feat of packing in a lot of information, exploring the theme exhaustively, and keeping it cleverly entertaining without any (well, hardly any) dumb jokes.

>93 Meredy: *enormous Restoration bow and flourish*

Talking of absurdities, as we have been in other threads, I've just heard an announcer on BBC3 say "During his lifetime, X composed more than ....". Which leaves me wondering how many pieces he composed after he died. (The sample following is, IMHO, ghastly.)

>94 hfglen: :-)

>94 hfglen:

He composed some of his best work before he was born.

Here is a view of the Valley of A Thousand Hills, one of the best nearby beauty spots IMHO. Taken this morning from the train to Inchanga.

>97 hfglen: What a lovely way to spend a day! Thank you for sharing it with us.

>97 hfglen: Beautiful.

Was that the deisel steam engine you were on? ;-)

>97 hfglen: What a magnificent view!

Beautiful!

Valley of A Thousand Hills is certainly a suitable name. Beautiful!

>99 pgmcc: Yes indeedle! Here's the second train of the day arriving at Inchanga:



The steam loco is somewhere (some 2 or 3 wheres) off to the right of the photo. I'm told it'll be back in one piece about the end of June.

Even Better Half immediately spotted that the loco comes up the hill in reverse, which must be a pain for the drivers. The immediate reason is that the engine came down from Pietermaritzburg, and there's nowhere at either Kloof or Inchanga to turn anything around.

By the way, Railway Soc. regulars get a safety message that is essential here, though I suspect (hope) that in the GD it counts as preaching to the converted. Each of the passenger coaches in the picture (there are actually 5 in the consist) weighs about 40 tons, which is as much as the heaviest container truck allowed on our roads. The loco is somewhat more than 3 times as heavy. Which means that a taxibus or anything else that tries to run a level crossing stands absolutely no chance of surviving. So look both ways and listen attentively before crossing the track!

>103 hfglen: I'm always amazed at the people who park on the track while waiting for the traffic to move. Right on a curve in the track, too.

>104 MrsLee: You have that kind of idiots too?! (The Powers That Be have put a "temporary" level crossing at the end of Kloof station while they install a new major city water pipeline. The effect has been to jam the traffic totally for several hours each day. Fortunately the line is only used four times a month, but still ...) More seriously, it might be worth mentioning my numbers in your car dealership, to the extent of making sure the salesmen on the floor all know them. They may just save a life or 2.

>105 hfglen: Something else people don't think about here are large semi-trucks. They also have a very hard time stopping or adjusting in traffic to accommodate smaller and faster cars. In fact, just this morning there was a horrible wreck on the freeway very close to where I work because a little car did not consider that a very large truck cannot stop as quickly without consequences. I haven't heard if there were injuries, but there was a huge fire, and traffic is still stopped.

It's not that I haven't been reading lately, just that I haven't been reading anything worth reporting. But the latest offering from the library is, and may be worth at least some Dragoneers hunting down. (It's as rare as hen's teeth, but shows in two copies on LT plus copies in Harvard, British Library and Library of Congress.)

It's South African Radar in World War II by Peter Brain. The author was head of the KZN Blood Transfusion Service when I met him, and did some fascinating work on immunochemistry of our local thorn trees, among other things. During the war he was an electrical engineer developing the first radar sets to be seen in this part of the world. His brother was C.K. "Bob" Brain, a truly amazing paleontologist at Queen Victoria Museum, Bulawayo, later Transvaal Museum, Pretoria. Seldom has a family had a more appropriate surname; and both bearers of it combined their brilliance with charm and wit. Anyhoo ...

Basil Schonland started gathering the brightest and best into a group to develop radar to help the armed forces, just before World War II broke out. At the time radar was "Most Secret", and so the SSS (Special Signals Squad) couldn't tell the operations people they were supposed to work with, what they were actually doing. Also, although Schonland and the senior members of his team were allowed about 2 hours to study the British plans being sent to New Zealand, they were not allowed copies of them -- understandable, considering our defence minister at the time was a known Nazi sympathiser. Nevertheless, they set up a unit at Witwatersrand University, and had a working prototype by the end of 1939. Not long after, a group went with another JB set to the defence of Mombasa. Problem was, it was so secret that nobody could tell those in Mombasa who needed to know who they were or why they were there. After a start like that, things could only improve, and they did.

A fascinating read, and worth looking out. (I found it in our local library, which is not surprising, as the author lived in the area.)

Presumably I mentioned in the weekend thread c. 18 June that I'd joined a group arranged by the Hillcrest Heritage Society for a guided tour of Mariannhill Monastery. I've at last worked up the pictures that I can use them.



The monastery was founded as a Trappist establishment about 150 years ago, then a day or 2 by oxwagon from the small town of Durban (since then the city has engulfed the place). It remains a haven of peace and tranquillity in a rather rough area. This is the chapel, which is remarkable for many reasons, not least that everything you see, including the bricks behind the plaster (but excluding the tourists!) was made on the monastery property -- they even grew the trees for the timber!

That looks like a beautiful building. The roof looks so much lighter than anything you would see here—I don't think it would bear much of a snow load!

>109 SylviaC: Ah yes, but snow hasn't ever happened in the recorded history of the Durban area. Indeed I've only seen frost once in the 12 years I've lived here, and my suburb is higher and cooler than Mariannhill!

>108 hfglen: it's beautiful! What is "Trappist"?

>111 catzteach: Thank you. The Trappists (from their headquarters at La Trappe, in Belgium (I think) (Edit: Google says Normandy)), are an offshoot of the Cistercians, and have an additional vow of silence. This didn't sit too well in the Mariannhill environment, where it didn't take Abbott Pfanner, the founder, to realize that what was needed where they were in Darkest Africa was a missionary rather than a contemplative foundation. It didn't take an inordinate length of time to sell that one to the Powers that Be, and the rule of silence was lifted. Subsequently they were removed altogether from the Trappists, and now form their own order, with about 11 branch monasteries, mostly in the southern Drakensberg foothills. Hope that helps.

PS The Belgian Trappists are, and have been for many years, noted for the potent beer they brew, notably at Orval, and occasionally sell to the public.

A beautiful building and a fascinating story. Thank you for sharing. Another stop on the LT tour of South Africa ...

Thank you. The outside isn't bad, either, especially considering that every brick was handmade on the spot by monks who didn't necessarily know anything about building. A tourist plus is that they have lately revived the tea garden / restaurant, which does great food these days.



Maybe the GD tour needs to think of taking in one or 2 of the branch foundations as well; the scenery in the southern Berg is spectacular ... Though I must admit I've not yet made it to any of them, due largely to the Resident's Laziness Factor (It'll still be there next time, you know)

>114 hfglen: So pretty, it reminds me of some of our California Missions, with the arches on the walkways and all, but ours are adobe bricks, covered with plaster.

>115 MrsLee: it does look like the California Missions!

Thanks for explaining!

The roof looks more solid from the outside!

Ahem. Even though the last post about books was about six weeks ago, that doesn't mean I haven't been reading, just that it's been a slew of re-reads and disasters. But the tide has turned, with The Ark Before Noah by one Irving Finkel, who curates cuneiform clay tablets at British Museum, and clearly loves his job.

One day a member of the public came in with a tablet to ask if it could be read and deciphered. Great was Finkel's delight when he discovered that it was an early 2nd-millennium BC ark-builder's manual. So he translated it, then got a television company interested and went off to build the nearest practical approximation to what it said in the manual. The result was about a 1/4 scale model of what it said, but still the world's largest coracle (if they'd taken the measurements strictly, and he gives good-enough reasons for doing so, they'd have ended up with a monster covering half a rugby field). And they launched it and lo! it floated, and it was steerable and movable, and didn't leak excessively.

The writing may not be quite in the same league as Shakespeare, but is still more than adequate, and his delight in the detective work and the story as it unfolded shines through like a veritable lighthouse. Definitely recommendable to some half-dozen Dragoneers.

The pictures are lovely. I'm enjoying the photo-tour. But the story about building the Ark is really one-of-a-kind!

Years after everyone else, I acquired a (secondhand) copy of The Summer Tree on a library book sale. I already have The Darkest Road, which has been on Mt. TBR so long that it was starting to develop its own vegetation cover. Would the Fionavar Tapestry make sense without the middle volume? Only one way to find out, so I started reading. Summer Tree was (as expected, considering the author) addictive, and gave me sufficient momentum to get some way along The Darkest Road without desperately needing The Wandering Fire. But oh dear, I'm now just over halfway along the road, and it's dragging. I'm sure I read the opinion expressed somewhere that this is Kay's weakest, and I can see a way to agree with that assessment. There are elements that are somewhere between derivative (from LotR) and carbon copies of that esteemed work, and the Arthuriana becomes wearisome. As does the bog-standard plot. It may soon be returned to the shelf, with bookmark (ticket to a car show from a year ago), for future reference.

Drakensberg Ranger by one of the numerous authors called George Hughes. This George Hughes started out as a game ranger at Giant's Castle, one of the most dramatically scenic parts of southern Africa. He subsequently obtained a Ph.D. (with a thesis on marine turtles, which is a large leap, both conceptually and geographically, from the 'Berg), and rose to become Director of the Natal Parks Board when that body was a world leader in nature conservation. The book is his memoirs from his youth in the 'Berg, and these are a fascinating record of "how it was done" 50 years ago. It covers the early days of game translocation (at a time when NPB were still gaining the expertise for which they became famous), the discovery of more than a few San rock-painting sites and the general way of life of nature conservationists of the time -- a lifestyle alas now gone beyond recall. I'd recommend it to Dragoneers but for the fact that the publisher is a small, local outfit not easily found.

Love the photos, as well. Keep them coming!

One good thing about the phone and internet being stone dead for a week: you get to read a lot.

so I've been reading Embassytown -- with difficulty; I'm about 1/3-way through and struggling with the words he uses to express the alien-ness of the community, and whether anything is going to happen in the story

and River of Stars, which is gorgeously written, as one might expect

and How the French won Waterloo (or think they did) -- for those who enjoyed 1000 years of annoying the French, this is like that one but more so, and highly recommended to any Dragoneer wanting a quiet historical giggle.

Also some of the elderly travel books I've just added to the @Railwaysoc catalogue.

>122 clamairy: thank you, clam. Will post whenever I have one worth repeating.

>123 hfglen: Hang in there... stuff does start to happen in Embassytown. I hardly ever do audio but that was a rare instance where I read the book while also listening to it. It took longer but was a great way for me to experience that particular novel.

>125 ScoLgo: You're right. I'm now 3/4-way through and enjoying it. Thank you.

I'm not sure who got me with a book (author) bullet inscribed Lois McMaster Bujold -- @MrsLee, I think. Tracked one dowin with the intention of a pleasant holiday read. Instead, A Civil Campaign was the best bit of a generally unpleasant weekend in hospital, having my appendix removed. Thank you, somebody, for a ray of light in the darkness. I shall definitely look out for Ms Bujold in future.

>127 hfglen:

I'll suggest Cordelia's Honor

>127 hfglen: That makes me very happy that 1. You found a Bujold to read, and 2. You enjoyed it in your distress!

I probably cannot take full credit for the bullet, as there are many here who love her work. Bujold is like a bullet that never stops, it keeps traveling. You have many happy reading experiences ahead of you. :)

Am I to understand that the appendix removal had not been foreseen or anticipated as part of the general weekend activities? Did this involve a thrilling race over dusty country roads to the emergency room? I always wonder about health care practices in other parts of the world. It's not that I think they had you biting down on a piece of leather and swigging down whiskey as your pain management options. But around here, they'd view that as very nearly an outpatient procedure (assuming that the appendix itself had not ruptured which even modern medicine views as a PROBLEM.)

Forgive me for probing, but this obviously was not arranged through proper channels. Does it at least mean that you get to lie in bed and read more? Or are you under orders to get up and move about the room?

Seriously, hope you are feeling better!

>130 jillmwo:

What kind of probe are you using?

>131 suitable1: I dunno. But I can tell you that it has a teeny red blink-y light that appears to zap stuff really well.

>127 hfglen: I'm glad you had something pleasant to read during your unpleasantness. I hope your recovery is rapid, and you can soon return to you previously scheduled holidaying.

>130 jillmwo: It was most definitely NOT planned. But no racing over dusty roads -- all suburban main roads, with tarmac varying from excellent (they only finished widening that stretch six months ago) to "starting to need resurfacing". It probably would have been an almost outpatient procedure if the benighted medical aid didn't hold rigid 19th-century ideas about what they will fund. As for the anaesthetic, family and I were impressed: it was thorough while it lasted, and departed rapidly and completely when the job was done -- so much so that the surgeon tells me that my problem with driving a car already is not dulled reactions but getting into the vehicle!

As for reading time, the answer is "both of these". One does have to disrurb cats and get up for comfort stops and some meals, but essentially SWMBO has decreed a succession of DNBR days. (But I might get to the library tomorrow or Thursday).

Many thanks for all the good wishes; they help recovery, too!

>134 hfglen: I'm glad it wasn't the panicked rush that Jill imagined, though that would make for a better story. I'm one of those who loves Curse of Chalion, so I'm really glad it hit the spot for you.

The library produced Paladin of Souls, which I gather is a sequel to @Sakerfalcon's recommendation. I'm sure I need give neither summary nor review, other than to say I'll keep looking out for Ms Bujold's books.

Having read How the French won Waterloo (or think they did) I decided I needed a re-read of 1000 years of annoying the French; then decided I like Stephen Clarke's digs at the French. (How does he get away with them while continuing to live in Paris?) So I was delighted to find Dirty Bertie: an English King made in France in the library yesterday. I'm 37 pages in and loving it. The book is a somewhat (but no more than somewhat) tongue-in-cheek biography of Edward VII, detailing the problems he had with terminally inappropriate parents, and with a full set of digs at the French, while acknowledging that Napoleon III and the good citizens of Paris nevertheless managed to mold him into the Ultimate Diplomat, and suggests that if he hadn't smoked so heavily he wouldn't have died of emphysema when he did, and so might have averted World War 1 -- for a while at least.

Also found, in @Railwaysoc's library, a series of self-congratulatory guidebooks and "histories" published by the Great Western Railway in the 1920s and '30s. Interesting, and often with worthwhile pictures. (Note for rail buffs: our railways here are "Cape gauge", with the rails 3' 6" apart; Brunel's original GWR was a broad gauge with the rails 7 feet apart. I have long thought that given a good time machine and infinite funds, it would have been interesting to travel from Paddington and Bristol before 1892 (demise of "broad gauge") to see how GWR used the space in their coaches. But the pictures in these books give me a adequate answer: the GWR coaches have very little overhang at the sides, and so are about the same size as South African ones. So they were probably no more comfortable, quite possibly considerably less so, than today's Shosholoza Meyl -- let alone the Blue Train.)

By the way, a stray thought for anybody who's read Jasper Fforde's Thursday next stories. Has anybody noticed any indication of a railway workshop in Ms Next's Swindon? The GWR books suggest that their works are the reason for the town's growth between about 1850 and 1950, and were probably the largest employer in the town at least until recently.

In answer to @clamairy on the "Now and Next" thread, on evolution by Stephen Baxter.

The copy I have out of the library is a 760-page brick, and I appear to be developing the attention span of a goldfish. So I have read only the first 134 pages in order, then read odd chapters or fragments out of order, with some skimming. I'm not sure that causes any great harm, actually.

The story is composed of a large number of sub-stories set in different times and places, adding up to a truly majestic account of the rise and fall of primates generally and humans and their descendants in particular. The first chapter is set a day or 2 before the Chicxulub meteorite impact 65-million years ago. Incomprehensibly, the next is 200-million years ago, then we jump back to the impact and its aftermath, before moving forwards through time, eventually to some 500-million years in the future. The story of the Chicxulub impact is grippingly and on the whole excellently told, but with two unnecessary and distracting (to me, at any rate) errors of fact. Firstly, Chicxulub is not the largest meteorite impact to leave a trace that can be visited today; nor is it the second or even the third. For some time the Vredefort Dome here in South Africa was held to be both the largest and oldest such structure, but it is now known that Canada has one slightly smaller but older, and another larger but younger. (For the record, he tells us that the Chicxulub structure is 90 km across; the Vredefort Dome is the splash cone in the middle of a crater 200 km across, the position of the walls being marked by the positions of the Witwatersrand and Free State gold mines.) Secondly, I doubt very much that his surely fictional "air whale" could exist. For one thing, surely any reptile would freeze to death on its way to the stratosphere -- if you follow the "where are we" channel on any airline flight that has on-board entertainment, you know that the temperature at 10km up is generally about or just below -50°C. And this creature adds nothing other than several superfluous pages to the story.

For the rest though, this is a brilliant concept (which might improve for having been split into two or three books), and an excellent story very well told. Most of the time one can forgive him the inevitable fact that information the book needs only came to light after it was written.

>139 hfglen: Awesome review, and my thoughts while reading this were very similar to yours. In fact when I hit the 'air whale' section I had an eye-popping "whuuuut??!!!" moment, because up until that point he'd stayed pretty close to the facts. I do realize he is a science fiction writer, but I just wasn't expecting that level of invention in this book. After that point I did loosen my expectations quite a bit. My favorite part, not surprisingly, was set in the future when the humans who'd been in a cryogenic pod much longer than planned were awakened to find things not as expected. I wished he'd written a whole book in that world alone. I'm glad you mostly enjoyed it in spite of the erroneous crater data. :o)

>139 hfglen: >140 clamairy: That is a fascinating concept for a book. I see that my library system actually has two copies, so it is readily available. I don't feel like tackling something that big at the moment (I'm still recovering from Seveneves), but I'll borrow it sometime soon. The air whales will probably bug me, too.

>140 clamairy: Many thanks for the kind words and ego boost (I'm now up to p. 246 straight through.). Yes indeedle. One does wonder, after the "air whale", what else is wholly invented. And yet: I can't think of any other account of a major meteorite impact that comes close to this one for making the reader feel the sheer terror that any sentient being would feel while watching. I can't help thinking of the kid on a tour of the Vredefort Dome I was privileged to attend who asked the guide what he'd have seen if he'd been nearby at the time, and got the memorable answer
"You wouldn't have lived to see a thing. Either you'd have suffocated on arrival or been vapourised before it hit." -- Accurate, but not what one makes a story out of. As the impact that made the Vredefort Dome happened 2037-million years ago, there was no oxygen in the air, so unlike Chicxulub there were no fires -- no land life, so so fuel and no oxidant.

I take your point about your favourite scene (which is one of the parts I have read out of sequence). But almost any chapter could be expanded into a standalone book or novella on its own. So maybe my problem is not so much the goldfish syndrome as mental indigestion brought on by too-rapid assimilation of a too-rich diet.

ETA: IMHO this is a rare example of a work of fiction that really, really needs lots of pictures to complete it.

>141 SylviaC: I'll be curious to see what you make of it in due course.

A new self-help book: "Teach your Goldfish to Pay Attention!"

Blood of Dragons by Robin Hobb.

I picked this one off a display at the library, thinking that if I didn't like it, at least I could return it at no cost. But like it I did. Yes, in Durban Libraries' great tradition, it's the last member of a series, and if the others are around, it isn't obvious.

Where to start with a review? The Dragons and their keepers are back, and take possession of their ancient city. But one of their number is grievously wounded, and only just survives to reach the city. Fortunately the original inhabitants filled the stones with memories, some of which turn out to be useful in reviving the wounded dragon. She's already deeply and justifiably P.O.ed at having been hunted, and when the Oldest of Dragons turns up needing treatment for deliberate poisoning by humans, the fat is in the fire, and the Duke who ordered the hunting and poisoning, is duly eliminated along with his city. Good story, possibly with an opening for a follow-up on what happened x-number of decades later. Did the Elderlings re-establish the city successfully.

I've attempted to read a couple of Ms Hobb's works, and generally failed to reach page 100. But after this one I shall keep an eye out for her other Dragon offerings.

>144 hfglen: Uh oh. This might be a book bullet for me. Do you remember which ones of Hobb's you bailed on, Hugh? I really loved the first two in the Assassin's Apprentice series, but something interrupted my reading just a few chapters into the 3rd one and I didn't get back to it yet. I really was enjoying her writing style.

>145 clamairy: Offhand no. And as we're off into the Wild Blue Yonder on Thursday, it maybe a while before you get a proper answer, sorry pardon.

I didn't find ancestor's tale that much better than evolution although the two cover the same sort of ground. Dawkins at least doesn't add airwhales or tool using dinosaurs (that I minded more than the whale).

>147 reading_fox: Yes indeed. I really don't think that whole dinosaur chapter added anything worthwhile to the book.

>146 hfglen: - No worries. Just wondered if you remembered. Enjoy your trip!! :o)

>145 clamairy: I just got Assassins Apprentice which is my October Blind Date in another group. Is it a long series? I can't start a series and not finish it, so I like to know what I'm getting into :)

>150 Darth-Heather: That's the first in a trilogy. There is a larger series after if you want to continue, but for that story it's just 3 books.

>151 Narilka: whew - I think I can handle that.... eventually. I've gone a bit off the rails since joining LT - so many fun things! My TBR has doubled in just a few months. "ooo look at all the fun groups! oooo look at all the fun challenges! uh oh I have to read 100 books this month..."

>152 Darth-Heather: LOL Understood! And welcome to Library Thing :)

Another welcome to LT in general and the GD in particular! :)

thanks for the welcomes! this group has been very welcoming and fun to play with.

sorry for hogging up your thread with all my posts here though. I don't have a personal thread yet - I can't figure out if I should have several threads and cross-post reviews to all of them, or just have one and choose which group to post it to? Hopefully I will get something figured out before the new year...

>155 Darth-Heather: Absolutely nothing to apologise for! Please feel as welcome as the proverbial flowers in spring (tra-la) in this thread. At this end of the year I think the sensiblest (at least as far as the GD is concerned) would be to camp in whatever thread/s make most sense for what you want to say, then start a 2017 thread in time for New Year.

I hope to be able to make a 2017 thread, but am not sure if I should make one in every group? Do you guys post all your reads here in GD, or do you split them up in other groups by genre?

I'm a bit boggled by trying to keep up with all the threads in all the groups so maybe I've overdone it a bit...

this is a lovely place to tra-la, thanks so much :)

I have 3 separate threads in 3 groups though I belong to a few more groups total. My GD thread is the one I consider my primary reading log as I track everything I read in it. The other two are for challenges I'm participating in. So yes, I copy/paste my reviews into each as appropriate. It works for me :) I like that I can have different discussions in each group about the same books due to different members.

I managed some reading while away:

Old Cape Highways by Ernest E. Mossop. Found in Schonland Herbarium library, with an inscription indicating that in the 1930s this copy belonged to an old dear who led a fascinating life. The book is supposedly a scientific, academic history but is horrendously over-written; the purple patch starts on page 1 and runs to p. 202, the end of the book. It deals with the early history of the main roads leaving Cape Town and running roughly to the boundaries of the Cape Colony as at the time of the demise of the Dutch East India Company. Not sorry I read it, but Jose Burman's are better.

Three Hands in the Fountain by Lindsey Davis. An author-bullet from the GD. Slow start, but I would keep half an eye open for more books in the Falco series.

Agatha Christie, First Lady of Crime edited by H.R.F. Keating. By no means a complete biography, but a number of very interesting facets.

>157 Darth-Heather: I tried out various groups on LT before I decided that I felt most at home in the Green Dragon. I record everything in my thread here, and make occasional posts in other relevant groups.

>159 hfglen: Have you read Agatha Christie's An Autobiography? She writes about everything from toilets to travel. I really enjoyed it.

>157 Darth-Heather: , ditto what >160 SylviaC: said.

>159 hfglen: I still want to get some of her writings on the digs she went on with her 2nd husband. She did have an interesting life. Also, I second SylviaC's recommendation of An Autobiography. It may not have included all the gritty details, but was a lovely read of the times she lived in.

>160 SylviaC: >161 MrsLee: Thank you, Sylvia and Lee. I'm going to the library tomorrow and will look that one out.

Meanwhile, our two younger cats are evidently pleased to be home after an enforced stay in "boarding school":

>162 hfglen: Aww, too sweet. I've never had cats that affectionate with each other before, although I know many people do.

>162 hfglen: Aww, they look very happy!

>162 hfglen: What snuggle bunnies! I wish I could catch my cats snuggling like that.

>162 hfglen: Ahhh, So sweet! Beautiful cats. Mine were more likely to try and kill each there than to snuggle.

A luta continua, or in this case the reading continues. Almost finished reading the Railway Society Library's copy of Grand European Expresses -- one of the advantages of being their librarian is that I can skive out and read the interesting bits before continuing the catalogue. This one is a history of Wagons-Lits, from the days of M. Nagelmackers to about the date of publication (1962). Makes me wish for a time machine and an infinite bank balance so as to be able to sample these trains. Sadly, I gather from the sainted Wikipedia that the company is essentially no more, and certainly the idea of luxury overnight travel has passed into history.

Survival of the Beautiful. Humph. Only finished by massive skimming, and a big disappointment. An artist's "manifesto", and so largely unreadable. I had hoped for something that would explore attractiveness from an evolutionary perspective. This isn't it. However, if you need a cure for insomnia, you may be looking in the right place.

But the next pair of reads made up for the disaster in the previous post, being good reads by themselves and gaining interest from each other. The books are Agatha Christie's Autobiography (BB from Sylvia and Lee) and Mr Churchill's Profession, the latter a biography of Winston Churchill as writer. Mrs Christie comes over as the more organised and professional writer by a long way, even if Churchill has the aura of War Hero and Serious Historian. Reading them together was definitely a worthwhile and recommendable experience.

I'm glad you enjoyed Agatha Christie's Autobiography!

Me too! Although, I do love reading books written by Winston Churchill.

Full Blast by Janet Evanovich and Charlotte Hughes. So what did we expect? An amateur sleuth turning high drama into farce, just like in the Stephanie Plum books? because that's what you get. Plus a hearty dose of sex from the sleuth's multimillionaire partner. In a nutshell, the usual candyfloss, which makes a pleasant change from some of the other books I found in the library.

Livingstone's Tribe. The author, Stephen Taylor, is about 2 years older than me, and grew up not far from where I did. He is or was a reporter for the London Times, and went back in about 1998 to the places he'd reported on some 20 years earlier, and where he grew up about the same time I did. In general, it's not a happy story, but an interesting one well told. Can't go into too much detail without infringing the sign in the entrance to our pub. He takes a loop from Dar es Salaam through Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya back to his starting point, where he catches the first in a series of trains heading more or less southwards, ending up in Simonstown, which really is the end of the line.

PS: One fun bit sticks in the mind: He persuaded a Johannesburg friend to take him from the local shopping centre I used as a kid (it has changed beyond all recognition), past his old school (still there), through Sandown to Rivonia -- then an area of smallholdings, on one of which Nelson Mandela holed up for a long time. Yes, I remember the sign to the Sleepy Hollow Hotel (ostensibly the only thing that ever happened there; I was too small to visit the place). In Sandown there were smallholdings, a post office and a vet hospital, later joined by a Dairy Den. And now? Townhouses all the way. The vet hospital and the Dairy Den have vanished under the tall buildings of Sandton city centre -- even the Johannesburg Stock Exchange is there now. And Rivonia has vanished under expensive housing complexes. O tempora, o mores!

Happy Thanksgiving to all USAnian Dragoneers!

The Science of Discworld IV: Judgement Day. Yes well er. The science is good, as with the other three books in this particular series. But the Discworld sory-ette in between is weak and thin. Does this indicate the extent to which the great Sir pTerry's mind was unravelling before he died? If so, maybe his demise was a merciful release -- for his readers if not for himself and his family. Any way up, the story (such as it is) is way below his best. Pity, as one came to this book with high hopes, which were not entirely fulfilled. However, let that not dissuade Discworldians from reading this one, as there are many good things in the science chapters. Overall, a somewhat melancholy full stop to the series.

Terry Pratchett: The Spirit of Fantasy by Craig Cabell. Very interesting and eminently readable study of Sir pTerry's life and works. It's sad to think that the one criticism one might have is that it was written about three years too early. But then, in view of the comments I made in #175 above, maybe it is as well that one should not pay too much attention to the final works. Not sure I would endorse Mr Cabell's list of favourites: I found The Colour of Magic to be merely irritating, and would recommend any Discworld neophyte to start with or after Equal Rites, leaving the first two to committed fans. And those fans will find something immensely valuable at the end of this volume: an almost complete (well, complete to the time of writing) catalogue raisonnée of the entire Pratchett canon, including some very rare works one seldom if ever hears mentioned elsewhere. This one is probably close to being compulsory reading here in the GD.

>176 hfglen: You tempt me, but not fatal. This sounds like a volume of interest, but one I can wait to read.

I think I have an unread Pratchett in one of the piles crawling up the living room baseboard; thanks for the reminder. Something light might be a good choice.

>175 hfglen: Okay, so I'm not even tempted. I have so many of the good ones still left unread that I'll just let that one slide.

Sure you will!

It's not that I haven't been reading. But my reading has been largely of only parochial interest (like Durban: once upon a time or Old Nectar), or very much railwayana (The World's Fastest Trains), or both (Locomotives of the South African Railways) -- so of about zero interest to Dragoneers.

But there have been some others: Bill Bryson fans will surely join me in enjoying his latest British misadventures on The Road to Little Dribbling. No need for a review: it's vintage Bryson, and much of it would look good in the Bad Joke thread.

I see Pete has also met On the Map, a well-written and researched history of cartography, duly enjoyed. (But why did the touchstone start by pointing to The Hobbit, for Heaven's sake?)

And finally -- for now -- The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, almost a year after the GD's group read. I see a couple of LT reviewers battled to make sense of this one; I sympathise. But I'm not sorry I found it at the library and brought it home. If I saw both at the SPCA, it would be a hard choice between a clockwork but independent-minded octopus called Katsu or a dodo called Pickwick, as one reviewer suggested. (But they'd both come third after the cats I'm already owned by.) One hopes Ms Pulley writes another one, sooner rather than later.

The Millionaire and the Bard by Andrea Mays. Interesting, but just misses my "top 5" criterion: Would I want to re-read it? In this case no, except if a miracle were to happen and I achieve a week's pure sightseeing in Washington. Tells the story of how Shakespeare's First Folio came into existence, and then how Henry C. Folger came to collect as many copies as possible (about a third of all surviving copies) and go on to found the Folger Shakespeare Library. I was interested enough to read the descriptions of the Library in an old National Geographic (September 1951) and the Michelin guidebook I used in Washington in 1998, but rather doubt if I would find the Library's exhibition compelling enough to pass up the possibility of seeing one or more of Washington's many other compelling sights.

>51 hfglen: You're a dangerous man. I've been looking at some of the old threads (and thinking about joining GD) and you've got me this time. I read Beyond the Blue Horizon years ago and now have to find a copy. To my surprise it's still in print but it appears that the current edition is abridged, which won't do. It was first published in 1986, which supports your inference about the date.

ETA: Nowadays you can't have more than16 segments on an e-ticket, so his journey would probably have to be 2 or more bookings.It would be amusing to try booking the flights on Kayak.com or something too.