Baswood's books and music part 2

Time to open a new thread

Have been on holiday at Banyuls-sur-Mer: my favourite place on the French Mediterranean coast just above the Spanish border.

Rented an apartment on the beach with a great view from the terrace

Perfect place to sit with your book and a glass of chilled wine!

Gorgeous view!

Oh wow!

Ditto to all!

Sounds like a great holiday! Hope you're not going to be too much impacted by not being a EU citizen in a couple of years.

>6 FlorenceArt: Brexit - C'est pure folle.

At this moment in time I feel ashamed to be English. I am thinking of applying for French citizenship.
I am retired and so the impact on me financially will be small. I am angry at the loss of my EU citizenship.

Nightmare scenario is Boris Johnson leading the UK out of Europe and Donald Trump as president of the USA followed by Marie Le pen as president of France.

>2 Caroline_McElwee: perhaps I need to chill out with another glass of wine.

>7 baswood: I'm with you re BREXIT. I'm afraid if I try and drown my sorrows with booze I may still be going in ten years time...I'll put on the kettle.

>7 baswood: My condolences. I too am an EU citizen and although it will only affect me in a minor way, I'm still upset at the referendum results but especially with Cameron.

Your scenario truly is a nightmare.

>7 baswood: your scenario scares the heck out of me. We keep saying Trump can't possibly win, but last August we were laughing that he actually was running and thought it was a big joke. Not laughing anymore.

I'm trying to focus on the picture and not dwell on the nightmare scenario.

My initial reaction, which has only been reenforced by subsequent events, was "cataclysmic". Less than a month ago I renewed my UK passport, with its EU cover and now that feeling of a greater world it always gave me is gone. Like Vivienne, living in Canada, it will have little effect on me in day to day life, but it is a real shock to the psyche nevertheless. Here's to Nicola Sturgeon and her efforts and to those of Alyn Smith.

>7 baswood: I was in the US the night of the vote, and stayed up to the bitter end watching the results. Bizarrely, the commentary on all the major news stations followed your nightmare scenario with Trump, adding to the completely surreal effect of the whole thing. Then there was Trump himself in Scotland the next day.

Dark Fire by C J Sansom
Sovereign by C J Sansom
Beach reading - well from the balcony overlooking the beach which was far more comfortable. Two books in the Mathew Shardlake crime series and both of them kept me up reading well into the night. Shardlake is a lawyer in 16th century England whose services are used by the power makers in the Tudor Court. In Dark Fire he is Thomas Cromwell’s man who is tasked with solving the mystery of the re-discovery of Greek Fire: a combustable material that could burn on water and which had been lost for centuries. Shardlake is soon the target for assassination attempts and with his assistant the streetwise Barak he must solve the mystery to save Cromwell’s skin. Sovereign finds Shardlake after the fall of Cromwell when he is tasked by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer to ensure the safe passage of the man Broderick, who has important information as one of the leaders of the Revolt of the North - the so called Pilgrimage of Grace. Shardlake must meet King Henry VIII progress at York and escort the prisoner back to London. Shardlake and Barak again find themselves in far deeper waters that they anticipate as this time the fate of Catherine Howard: Henry’s Queen, is also involved.

The world building, scene setting, historical reconstruction or whatever you like to call it is the main reason I have got hooked on this series. Sansom is careful not to stray too far from the known facts of the period and his murder mysteries enable him to bring his own interpretations to the characters that were the power brokers in Henry VIII court. The struggle between the catholic traditionalist and the protestant reformers who made up the factions containing the great families of the realm provide a stunning background to the stories. Shardlake was seen to be a reformer when working for Cromwell but with the rise of the Howard family at court following the execution of Ann Boleyn he must tread a more wary path when the traditionalists were gaining the upper hand. Sansom superbly captures the deadly intrigue surrounding the King and his coutiers in a world that was all too easily, likely to spill over into violence. Shardlake the crookbacked lawyer spends most of the books in fear of his life.

Dark Fire is set in London and there are thrilling descriptions of Shardlake riding on horseback through the streets of Cheapside, Fleet street, Ludgate, St Pauls, and Newgate. There are horrific descriptions of Newgate goal and the poorer areas around Thames Street, but it is the bustle, the crowds, the sense of a city bursting at the seams that fires the imagination. Shardlake seems to be constantly battling through the hubbub, pursuing or being pursued by mysterious forces intent on stopping his investigations. Sovereign is set largely in York, perhaps the second city of Tudor England, but a much poorer place compared to London. The city seems to be going backwards despite its collection of marvellous buildings. Both London and York are suffering the effects of the dissolution of the monasteries and while London seems to be embracing the change York as a city is suffering. What is clear however in both cities is that there is money to be made from the sale of land belonging to the church and those is favour with the King will benefit. A feature of Sovereign is the descriptions of the Kings Progress. In Tudor times it was still customary for the government led by the king to tour the kingdom usually during the summer months. In the great progress to York in 1541 Henry was intent on displaying his power, his government and all its followers was literally on the road cutting a huge swathe across the country and the purpose of the York progress was for Henry to receive oaths of allegiance from the great Northern families. The stately progress hampered by an appalling English summer and fraught with tension is brilliantly conveyed as is Shardlake’s return to London where he is arrested thrown in the Tower and suffers at the hands of the torturers.

Mathew Shardlake’s character has been set from the first novel in the series. His crookbacked deformity is mocked by many of the people with whom he has to deal, leading him to hide behind a gruff exterior. He is hard working and as honest as his predicaments allow him to be. He is trustworthy and together with his attention to detail and painstaking following through in his investigations makes him a useful tool to his paymasters, however it is these very characteristics that constantly get him into trouble. I was reading these two novels in conjunction with a history of the battle of Flodden 1513 and I had difficulty in telling apart the history from the historical novel.

Looking over the balcony at the people on the Mediterranean beach, relaxing, perhaps escaping from the drama and intrigues of their daily lives, there could hardly have been a greater contrast than with Mathew Shardlake’s desperate attempts to save himself and his friends from death or worse in Tudor England - 4 stars.

Fatal Rivalry: Flodden 1513 by George Goodwin.
A very readable slice of history which is subtitled Henry VIII, James IV and the battle for Renaissance Britain. Goodwin has the idea of comparing and contrasting the two kings in an age when ideas from the Italian renaissance had seeped into the culture of both England and Scotland.

Goodwin rolls back the period to 1496 when Henry VII was on the throne in England and James IV had established himself as king of Scotland. James had given refuge to Perkin Warbeck a Yorkist pretender to the English throne and it was a time of tit for tat raids across the Border. Warbeck was never able to mount a serious challenge and James did little more than provide him a refuge and lend him a ship. Warwick was eventually captured and hanged at Tyburn in 1499. Meanwhile Henry VII was negotiating with James IV a treaty of perpetual peace which was finally signed in 1503. From then until its breakdown in 1513 the treaty held and Goodwin fills in the details of James IV achievements in uniting the Scottish clans and making himself their undisputed king. He also tells the background history of the major players on the continent: France, the Holy Roman Emperor and the Pope and how they influenced the two kingdoms on the British Isles.

When Henry VIII came to the English throne in 1509 he had a lot of catching up to do to surpass the renaissance court of James IV. In his younger days he saw himself as a warrior king and it was not long before he was planning an invasion of France and was sparking off an arms race in ship building. The irony of comparing the two kings was that when the battle of Flodden was fought Henry was in France leading an invasion force, while James IV was leading his country on the battlefield in Northern England. Henry had left the control of the government in the capable hands of his first wife Catherine of Aragon and it was she who organised the war effort against the Scots. Her commander in the field was Thomas Howard earl of Surrey who was smarting at not being with the king in France. The traditional catholic Howard family were being eclipsed in the Tudor court and Thomas Howard and his son also Thomas Howard (referred to as the admiral in the text) were desperate to prove themselves. They had to win against the Scots to secure their family in England.

Goodwins background to the battle is impressive taking up nearly two thirds of his book and when the war eventually comes he does an equally excellent job in the lead up to Flodden and then describing the battle itself. The opposing armies were fairly equally matched and James started off with many advantages in that he had prepared his position well and had at his disposal (so he thought) the more effective artillery. Goodwin does an excellent job in describing why he came unstuck and his previous background history goes a long way in backing up his arguments.

The book has plenty of notes a good bibliography and index. It also contains an interesting chapter on a select list of Flodden related organisations and places to visit, all of which points to the book being aimed at the more general reader. I am not tempted to visit the battlefield or become involved in the Flodden Archeological 500 project, but its kinda nice know they are their. A very enjoyable read and a four star history

Enjoyed these, Bas. I think just your reviews had me in a state of anticipation. The books must be fun. Shardlake comes up a lot here (or should I say Sansom). I find it hard to believe a mystery set in that era could work, but reviews are always so positive.

>13 baswood: Wonderful photo!
Like Dan, I'm rather skeptical toward medieval mysteries (or is that Renaissance in this case?), but these sound worth checking out. Maybe, some day.

>16 baswood: This is on my TBR pile, and since I seem to be reading far too much fiction (when I actually read), you have convinced me to move it up.

I love the idea of reading Sansom in that beautiful spot. Somehow, the contrast works to make the fictional situation more real.

Super reviews! I galloped through Sansom last winter and hugely enjoyed them and the history review it triggered. I've discovered I like historical mysteries even though, generally, I'm not keen on historical fiction (with some huge exceptions).

Wonderful pictures. Enjoy your holiday, despite world events.

The Meursault Investigation by Kamel Daoud
Children of the New world; A novel of the Algerian war by Assia Djebar
The Algerian war of Independence 1954-62 was fought between France and the independence movement in Algeria. It was a conflict characterised by guerrilla warfare and was notorious for the weapon of torture used by both sides. It was a bitter and complex struggle between a colonial power and its former colony with terror attacks and retribution being key elements. The Meursault Investigation and Children of the New World are novels written by Algerian authors whose central themes radiate from events during the war. One is clever, witty, utterly modern and ultimately vacuous, the other is a profound exploration of Muslim men and women caught in a dirty war and fighting for survival.

The Meursault Investigation is in part a reworking of Albert Camus famous novel L’estranger in which an unnamed Arab is killed on the beach by the Frenchman Meursault. Kamel Daoud gives the Arab a name: Musa, thereby providing a critique of Camus’ colonial perspective in centring his story on the Frenchman: Daoud imagines that Musa’s younger brother and his mother painstakingly investigate the murder; an event that shapes the rest of their lives. It is the mother who is the prime mover cajoling her surviving son into greater efforts to attain some sort of closure that ends with him taking out his own retribution.

Daoud’s novel starts with the single sentence: “Mother’s still alive” today which mirrors the first sentence in Camus’ novel: “Mother died today” and from the moment I read this I was alert to the idea that this was a novel too clever for its own good; nothing I read subsequently changed my view. Daoud’s writing imitates Camus short staccato-like sentence structure and is alive with references to Camus’ novel and other writings. For those readers who are not familiar with Camus novel Daoud must outline the story and he does it like this:

“I’m going to outline the story before I tell it to you. A man who knows how to write kills an Arab who, on the day he dies, doesn’t even have a name, as if he had hung it on a nail somewhere before stepping onto the stage. Then the man begins to explain that his act was the fault of a God that doesn’t exist and that he did it because of what he’d just realised in the sun and because the sea salt obliged him to shut his eyes……..”

This was the moment I threw the book across the room for two reasons. Daoud by a sleight of hand is making the reader believe that Camus’ novel was a real life testimony - “A man who knows how to write kills an Arab” This is a lie. Although Camus’ novel was written in the first person, the point of view was of his hero Meursault not his own. This is important because Camus has been castigated as a colonialist and this book is riding on a wave that furthers that myth. Camus was a Frenchman born and raised in Algiers who could not bring himself to support the independence movement because of the horrors of the war and fears for his family. Unlike other armchair critics on the left (Sartre et al) and at some personal risk to himself, he went to Algeria near the start of hostilities and attempted to broker a peace. He had a history of sympathy and support for the Arabs from his days as a journalist and so does not deserve the acrimony he has since garnered. The other reason for tossing Daoud’s book is the crude attempt to belittle Camus writing, which I think is evident from the extract above.

How refreshing then to turn to Assia Djebar to find a novelist who effortlessly tunes into the lives of both Arab and French Algerians at a time near the start of hostilities. She does not need the crutch of a famous novel of the past on which to base her story, but weaves her themes into a single day in the actions of eight characters whose lives intersect on a day when everything changes for each of them. Her characters get a chapter each starting with Cherifa’s story, She is a muslim women whose respect for tradition and family keep her bound within the confines of her own house. From her courtyard along with other women of surrounding dwellings she watches the fighting taking place over the mountain that dominates the small town.

“The days of intense fighting pass quickly inside the homes that people think of as unseeing, but that now gape at the war, which is masked as a gigantic game etched out in space. The planes are soaring and diving black spots that leave white trails, ephemeral arabesques that seem to be drawn by chance, like a mysterious but lethal script . “Oh God” a woman cries when one of them nose dives into flames and the bullets that they can picture in their mind, but then it shoots up out of the smoke running along the ground (“Death the damned thing has brought death in its wake!”) There it is again, spiralling way up in the sky; then nearby artillery fire ruptures the air, so close that the walls shake”

The women are fascinated by the aerial ballet, but are not just interested bystanders; Cherifa’s mother-in-law has recently been killed in the courtyard by falling shrapnel.

Each chapter fills in a little of the back story to the characters and so we learn that this is Cherifa’s second marriage; she is married to Youssef and is very much in love with him and fears for his safety being aware that he is a local political leader and so is in danger of his life. Her story also introduces many of the other characters, who will have a chapter to themselves, but Cherifa’s own heroic walk across town (she has rarely ventured out of her house and certainly not alone) to warn her husband of impending arrest is told in another characters chapter and so Djebar skilfully interlinks her chapters to give a mosaic affect to her story.

The first four chapters tell the women’s story; Lila is fresh from university somewhat westernised and married to her college sweetheart who has left her to fight with the rebels in the mountains, then there is Salima a teacher at the local girls school who is arrested and interrogated and finally Touma who has become an informer for the French police. There are four chapters that fill in the male’s stories, but still it is the women’s stories that take priority, many of the characters are related or know each other from living in the small town, which is changing rapidly due to the internecine conflicts which overtake their lives. The book has a clear female perspective and it is their pain, horror, and fear that we, the readers are made to feel, however Djebar never loses sight of other aspects of their characters and their strength, courage and love predominate for the most part. The female characters generally have a deep understanding of their male counterparts and live their lives accordingly, but are not afraid to stand their ground in a society that is male dominated and they bring a sensuousness to their relationships that they are not afraid to express.

Two novelists then that take a very different approach and while it could be argued that Daoud’s book is not wholly concerned with the war, as its other main theme is Camus’ existentialist viewpoint, however it does increasingly move towards the conflict in Algeria when it runs out of things to say about Camus. I was pleased to have read (yes I did pick it up from the floor) Daoud’s book first, because once I got into Djebar’s book I understood how superficial Daoud was. Reading the Meursault Investigation was like listening to politicians campaigning for Britain to leave the European Union; much cleverness and bluster on the surface, but underneath no substance and what was even worse a lack of honesty. Yes of course Daoud’s book has been nominated and won literary prizes but the gloss did not fool this reader. If you haven’t read Camus’ L’étranger read that and don't bother with The Meursault Investigation unless you are in the mood for a quick and painless beach read. Assia Djebar’s book is the real deal, its beautifully written and well translated from the French and has an authenticity to it that comes from the authors deep empathy with her characters and the situation in her country of birth.
The Meursault Investigation - 2 stars
Children of the New World - 4.5 stars.

Fascinating reviews and comparison of the two novels, well maybe 2+ novels for the added Camus. Loved the analogy of those campaigning politicians.

Love the side by side reviews of the Algerian novels. Major book bullet for Children of the New World.

>23 baswood: Interesting. The English reviews I've seen of Daoud's book were all very positive, but I did a quick Google and saw that the French ones are a bit more mixed. This one: http://salon-litteraire.com/fr/kamel-daoud/review/1909673-kamel-daoud-meursault-... comes to a rather similar conclusion to yours (that Daoud is wrong-headedly mixing up Camus with Meursault) and says that it's not so much a spin-off as a rip-off. But there are also a couple of others who seem to think that Daoud is a genius who should have got the Goncourt instead of Pas pleurer.

Enjoyed your post and the comparison of these books. Daoud was clearly using Camus not as immitation, but as a dialogue. Too bad it didn't work, and it doesn't sound pleasant. Great encouragement to read Djebar.

Wonderfully pointed reviews.

>26 thorold: it's not so much a spin-off as a rip-off. yes I like that.

Such an interesting review. I had no idea of the back story about Camus either - fascinating stuff.

I think you must be having a long snooze in a hammock!

>23 baswood: I do have this, but heard it was helpful to have reread The Outsider. Not sure I will get to either for some while.

The poems of Henry Howard Earl of Surrey, Frederick Morgan Padelford
Henry Howard (1517-1547) was executed during the very last days of the reign of Henry VIII. Born of noble blood his short but eventful life as a courtier, soldier, roustabout was combined with claims for him to be the most important English poet since the days of Chaucer. In Tottel’s Miscellany (published 1557) which was the first ever printed anthology of English verse Henry Howard was given pride of place and almost all of the poems attributed to him were published in that volume. During his lifetime his poems would have been circulated amongst friends and courtiers and what a life it was.

Imprisoned at least three times, once in Windsor Castle for smacking a fellow courtier in the grounds of the Kings Palace, once in Fleet Prison London for eating meat during lent and smashing windows with a stone bow in the more well-to-do districts of London and finally in the Tower of London on a charge of high treason. In an age of hot blooded courtiers he seemed to be more hot bloodied than most and that along with his pride of his noble blood and his name made him a target at court. Henry Howard Earl of Surrey was probably a catholic in an age of reformation. The Howard family were continually at odds with the more protestant Seymours and the changing face of fortune at King Henry VIII’s court was not something that a man like Henry Howard found it easy to negotiate. As a youth he was chosen to be a companion to Henry VIII’s bastard son the Duke of Richmond and so had pride of place at court. The Duke of Richmond died in his late teens and Henry Howard’s next career was as a soldier supporting his father the Duke of Norfolk who was engaged in putting down the great northern rebellion known as the Pilgrimage of Grace. After his spell in prison for his window smashing exploits Henry VIII sent him to France as head of a 5000 strong advance force intent on invasion. After leading an ill fated sortie outside of Boulogne he was replaced by one of the Seymour family and returned to England and it wasn’t long before intrigues at court led to him being imprisoned in the Tower on a charge of high treason.

It is fortunate I suppose that his time in prison allowed him to concentrate on his poetry and Padelford points to three reasons why he should be considered as one of greats in the early canon. Firstly it was his insistence that the metrical accent should fall upon words which are naturally stressed because of their importance, and upon the accented, rather than the unaccented syllables of such words. This went against the grain of much poetry at the time and because of the development of the English language during Tudor times, making it much more recognisable to modern readers than the language of Chaucer (a century and a half earlier) it makes it easier to understand. The second reason was his establishment of the sonnet form known as the English sonnet whose rhyming scheme abab, cded, efef, gg would be taken to such great heights by Shakespeare half a century later. He has also been credited with the introduction of blank verse through his translations of the Æneid. Thirdly his use of alliteration and his experimentation with other verse forms set a pattern for other poets to follow.

So what is the modern reader to make of the forty or so original poems by Henry Howard in existence today. Firstly some of the more famous sonnets are not really original being loose translations either of Petrarch’s Italian renaissance poetry or taken from classical authors. However it was Howards adaption into the English sonnet form and his addition of more personal and imaginative lines and phrases that make them so very readable today: Here is an example from poemhunter on the internet:

Alas! so all things now do hold their peace,
Heaven and earth disturbed in nothing.
The beasts, the air, the birds their song do cease,
The night{:e}s chare the stars about doth bring.
Calm is the sea, the waves work less and less:
So am not I, whom love, alas, doth wring,
Bringing before my face the great increase
Of my desires, whereat I weep and sing
In joy and woe, as in a doubtful ease.
For my sweet thoughts sometime do pleasure bring,
But by and by the cause of my disease
Gives me a pang that inwardly doth sting,
When that I think what grief it is again
To live and lack the thing should rid my pain.

This was adapted from a poem by Petrarch and shows Howards willingness to adapt the rhyming scheme to fit his needs.

Howards range of poetry was quite astonishing. There are love poems, autobiographical poems, moral and didactic poems, elegiac poems, tributes to other poets and of course his translations. There are sonnets, six line stanzas, tetrameter quatrains with alternate rhymes and a real product of his times Poulters measure. Poulters measure is an iambic couplet of 12 and 14 syllable lines that produces a curious sing song effect and has long since gone out of fashion.

Here is an extended sonnet written by Henry Howard written in the Tower of London when facing death following his trial for treason. He faces death with courage and remembrance of a life with no regret, but he is also at pains to express his disdain on the cowardly courtiers that have triumphed over him and his family.

THE STORMS are past; the clouds are overblown;

And humble chere great rigour hath represt.

For the default is set a pain foreknown;

And patience graft in a determined breast.

And in the heart, where heaps of griefs were grown,

The sweet revenge hath planted mirth and rest.

No company so pleasant as mine own.
. . . . . . . .

Thraldom at large hath made this prison free.

Danger well past, remembered, works delight.

Of ling’ring doubts such hope is sprung, pardie!

That nought I find displeasant in my sight,

But when my glass presented unto me

The cureless wound that bleedeth day and night.

To think, alas! such hap should granted be

Unto a wretch, that hath no heart to fight,

To spill that blood, that hath so oft been shed,

For Britain’s sake, alas! and now is dead!

And so we find Henry Howard belligerent to the end. He may well have been pumped up with pride and ruthless in his pursuit of power and influence, but he was no different from others at the court of Henry VIII. Perhaps Henry Howard lacked the subtlety to survive such a bear pit; he refers to himself in one of his poems as a man of war and in another who lives

“The rakehell life that longs to loves disported”

I found his writing for the most part clear and direct with much interest for the modern reader with an interest in Tudor times. Padelfords book which is free on the internet at archive.org contains as much as you might want to know. For me a five star read.

I've never heard of Henry Howard. Very interesting life story and poetic story. Enjoyed your review.

Very interesting review of the Howard poetry.

Whoso list to hunt, I know where is an hind,
But as for me, hélas, I may no more.
The vain travail hath wearied me so sore,
I am of them that farthest cometh behind.
Yet may I by no means my wearied mind
Draw from the deer, but as she fleeth afore
Fainting I follow. I leave off therefore,
Sithens in a net I seek to hold the wind.
Who list her hunt, I put him out of doubt,
As well as I may spend his time in vain.
And graven with diamonds in letters plain
There is written, her fair neck round about:
Noli me tangere, for Caesar's I am,
And wild for to hold, though I seem tame.

Thomas Wyatt

It is thought that the above poem was written by Thomas Wyatt when he left the court of King Henry VIII after thinking he had got too close to Ann Boleyn.

Graven with Diamonds: The many lives of Thomas Wyatt Courtier, Poet, Assassin, Spy By Nicola Shulman
Sir Thomas Wyatt known today as one of the leading poets from the early Tudor period led a colourful life as can be seen from the eye grabbing title of Nicola Shulman’s biography. I was tempted to say that the tile was the best thing about the book, but that would be unfair on Shulman whose vivid account of the goings on at King Henry VIII’s court finally won me over. From the fall of Anne Boleyn until Henry VIII’s demise to survive as a courtier then; being an assassin and a spy would have stood you in good stead, but Shulman argues that Wyatts poetic skills were equally important. Shulman’s biography: if not a panegyric is certainly a very flattering portrait of a man who did what was necessary to survive. Shulman claims his poetry in some respects is the work of a genius and his poems are perhaps some of the greatest works of art ever made, this is in contrast to many literary critics who see Wyatt as a conventional poet who rarely if ever reached the heights that Shulman claims for him.

Thomas Wyatt never reached the inner circle of Henry VIII’s courtiers but he was liked and respected. He was the son of one of the leading families of the time and his father was a courtier. He was a skilled poet and songsmith and many of his early love poems he would have sung accompanying himself on the lute for the pleasure of his fellows. He was quick witted and amusing company as well as having all the social skills necessary to maintain his position, but this did not stop him getting into trouble as it was a case of which faction within the court that got the ear of the king. Wyatt as a man holding reformist views was associated with the Boleyn family and when Anne was arrested along with four men accused of being her lovers, he found himself in the Tower of London as well. He was fortunate no charges were brought against him and he was eventually released. (the others were all executed). He probably owed his good fortune to Thomas Cromwell who was quick to make use of him on his release. He became a diplomat or one of Cromwell’s agents sent first to Spain and then to France. He was eventually relieved of his duties but then found himself in more serious trouble as the catholic Howard family gained the upper hand at court and he was accused of consorting with traitors abroad. Once again in the Tower but now indicted under an act of attainder, his goods and property were all under forfeit and his family and his servants were all at the king’s mercy. Execution was the usual outcome but Wyatt once again got lucky because the young queen Catherine Howard asking for clemency. Wyatt once again found his diplomatic skills in demand and he died in service.

Nicola Shulman’s modus operandi is to tell the story with insight gained from Wyatt’s poetry. She claims that Wyatt’s poetry has translucent properties that reveal far more than many critics have recognised. She uses examples that she claims shed new light, or perhaps contain secret messages to participants in the story and while poems, (but more usually extracts from poems) can be read in this way, for me they provide some food for thought, but little more. I suppose that if you are going to write a biography about a man who is remembered for his poetry then using that poetry where you can, to enhance the story is an interesting idea, especially on events that have been told so often and for which there is limited documentation (I am thinking here of the fall and execution of Ann Boleyn.). If it serves the purpose of reading those poems in a new light then the book has been useful.

Nicola Shulman does have her heroes, but that sometimes happens when writing a biography and she can get a little sidetracked; as at one point I wondered if I was reading a biography of Ann Boleyn, but this is an excellent waltz through a fascinating period of history. I don’t think it offers much in the way of new incites to the events themselves, but it does raise some interesting points about the use and value of the poems. Wyatt’s poems would not have been printed during his lifetime, but would have existed in manuscript form, they would have been recited and sung to people at Henry’s court (people in positions of power) and to think of them as containing coded messages is an interesting concept. Shulman lists her primary and secondary sources and provides an index. She does not take any liberties with the historical facts as far as I can see and I enjoyed the read and so 3.5 stars.

>36 baswood: With all those revealing translucent poems, I can't help visualising Wyatt forgetting to close the blind in the bathroom (where he moisteth and washeth), with the court looking on horrified as the water pours off his hipster beard... I trust it was Schulman's image and not yours!

(Sorry, after visiting Hever Castle, world headquarters of the Anne Boleyn tat industry, last week, it's a bit difficult to take anything Tudor seriously any more...)

>36 baswood:. Interesting!

"They Flee From Me" is one of my favourite poems. Don't really know why.

>37 thorold: So Hever Castle isn't worth the visit? We almost went there, but went to Knole House instead. I've often wondered what I missed.

Very much enjoying the reviews of the Howard and Wyatt bios -- and a taste of their poetry.

>38 Nickelini: We went to Hever instead of Knole, so hard to say! The gardens and the outside of the castle are worth seeing, but the interior is all set up as a kind of bad taste Anne Boleyn theme park (waxworks, background music playing Greensleeves...), apart from a few rooms done up in country hotel style by the Astors.

>36 baswood: another excellent, enlightening review.

>36 baswood: >41 dchaikin: Ditto what Dan said.

Great side by side reviews of The Meursault Investigation and Children of the New World, Barry. I was one of those who had a positive opinion of Daoud's novel, but your comments are making me reconsider my thoughts about it. I've owned Djebar's novel for several years, but I still haven't gotten to it. Hopefully I can do so later this year.

Barry, I'm just catching up after vacation, and as always love your reviews. I thought the Shardlake series was really quite good, and the historical elements seem very accurate. For those who don't think a mystery about this time period can work, you will just have to try one to see how good they really are.

They Flee From Me
BY SIR THOMAS WYATT
They flee from me that sometime did me seek
With naked foot, stalking in my chamber.
I have seen them gentle, tame, and meek,
That now are wild and do not remember
That sometime they put themself in danger
To take bread at my hand; and now they range,
Busily seeking with a continual change.

Thanked be fortune it hath been otherwise
Twenty times better; but once in special,
In thin array after a pleasant guise,
When her loose gown from her shoulders did fall,
And she me caught in her arms long and small;
Therewithall sweetly did me kiss
And softly said, “Dear heart, how like you this?”

It was no dream: I lay broad waking.
But all is turned thorough my gentleness
Into a strange fashion of forsaking;
And I have leave to go of her goodness,
And she also, to use newfangleness.
But since that I so kindly am served
I would fain know what she hath deserved.

>36 baswood: I do have that volume, time to set the dogs loose for to hunt!

>45 baswood: Thanks! - I haven't read that poem for ages, and didn't remember anything except the marvellous opening line.

Looking at it now, it strikes me (i) how difficult it is to make it read into modern English - you keep hitting constructions that don't go the way you want to and sounds (both rhymes and stresses) that have obviously changed (we need a good actor to read it for us, really) and (ii) how I obviously never bothered to work out what he means by "newfangleness". That set me off on a trawl through the OED, and I realised that the "fang" bit is from the English verb cognate with modern German "fangen" (to catch), so newfangleness is inconstancy in the sense of a tendency to catch at new things. I'm sure everyone else knew this already, but at least I've learnt something new(fangled?).

>47 thorold: I believe that newfangleness also had a slightly different meaning in the 16th century. It more than hinted that the catcher of new things was indeed a promiscuous person, moving from one lover to the next.

One of the pleasures I find in reading poetry from this period is the change of meaning of some of the words. Reading it with a 21st century vocabulary can give the poem a dimension that would have been foreign to the 16th century writer. Sometimes this makes nonsense of the poem, but at other times it gives it almost another life.

Two examples "And she caught me in her arms long and small" makes no sense until you realise that small means slender.
"But since that I am so kindly served" has many inflections. Service in courtly love terms meant to be of service to someone in the sense of looking out for them or helping them in someway, but service could also mean to provide sexual satisfaction. You can read this line with the idea that Wyatt is being ironic with the word kindly.

Reading the poem with its modern spelling, but still maintaining its 16th century construction or word order does not always work and I find reading some of them with the original spelling makes it flow better. But you are right in pointing out that Wyatt did not always get his stresses or word order to flow well, and he has garnered a fair amount of criticism for this over the years.

The Poetry of Sir Thomas Wyatt: A Selection and Study by E. M. W. Tillyard
Silver Poets of the Sixteenth Century
Sir Thomas Wyatt and his poems by William Edward Simonds
Sir Thomas Wyatt along with Henry Howard Earl of Surrey are the only two poets given their full name in Tottel’s Miscellany (The first anthology of printed poems to be published; 1557). The Miscellany was enormously popular running to a second print just six weeks after the first and so it probably went a long way to establishing Wyatt’s place in the canon of English poetry. His poems were not published during his lifetime, but would have been circulated in manuscript form among a select group of people who were courtiers to Henry VIII. Many of his pieces would not have been recognised as poems, but rather as songs and because he was by all accounts an accomplished lute player and songwriter he would have been a popular figure at court well able to entertain his friends. Tottel by printing the pieces as poems took them out of the hot house of the courtiers world and made them available to the general public (those that could read and who could buy books).

There are 95 poems by Wyatt in the Miscellany and another 100 or more have been found in private collections and so there is a large body of his work that is available and there are at least two fairly modern collections. The majority of the pieces could be described as lyrics or songs and many of these were based around the idea of courtly love, which can be defined as:

a highly conventionalized medieval tradition of love between a knight and a married noblewoman, first developed by the troubadours of southern France and extensively employed in European literature of the time. The love of the knight for his lady was regarded as an ennobling passion and the relationship was typically unconsummated.

This is a typical example by Wyatt:

To wish and want and not obtain,
To seek and sue ease of my pain,
Since all that ever I do is vain
What may it avail me?

Although I strive both day and hour
Against the stream with all my power,
If fortune list yet for to lour
What may it avail me?

If willingly I suffer woe,
If from the fire me list not go,
If then I burn to plain me so,
What may it avail me?

And if the harm that I suffer
Be run too far out of measure,
To seek for help any further
What may it avail me?

What though each heart that heareth me plain
Pityeth and plaineth for my pain,
If I no less in grief remain
What may it avail me?

Yea, though the want of my relief
Displease the causer of my grief,
Since I remain still in mischief
What may it avail me?

Such cruel chance doth so me threat
Continually inward to fret.
Then of release for to treat
What may it avail me?

Fortune is deaf unto my call.
My torment moveth her not at all.
And though she turn as doth a ball
What may it avail me?

For in despair there is no rede.
To want of ear speech is no speed.
To linger still alive as dead
What may it avail me?

I can imagine this being put to music and being enjoyed by friends that would have been steeped in the traditions of courtly love.

However when looking back on songs and lyrics from the 16th century it is the poets who break with tradition and point the way to something new that grabs our attention and Wyatt certainly did this.

He introduced a number of poems in sonnet form based on his free translations of the Italian Renaissance poet Petrarch. He had to adapt the Italian language to 16th century English and also reinvent a rhyming scheme that would fit. His attempts were not always successful; (of the 20 or so sonnets that I have read about a half of these sound clunky and are difficult to read aloud) but he laid a template for others to follow. He also experimented with other forms and rhyming schemes, again with varying degrees of success. He wrote epigrams which might have sounded witty and entertaining in the 16th century, but sound laboured to my ears. He made translations of the penitential psalms and he also left us three satires based on his experiences as a courtier to Henry VIII.

E M W Tillyard in his selection and study of Wyatts poems says that there is little evidence of a break with medieval tradition. Although he chooses Italian themes he is bound by the English tradition of song making. I can see his point but I think in many of the lyrics Wyatt’s individual voice can be detected and this makes him readable for 21st century readers. William Edward Symonds in his study of the poems attempts to place the courtly love poems in some sort of order, so as to make of them a collection that depicts a courtly love affair. It can be done because the poems go through the whole gamut of such an affair; the moment when love hits, the eager anticipation, the offer to to the lady of faithful service, the pain of rejection and the the ruminations on a life wasted. However this was not the intention of Wyatt and although it sort of works it sounds artificial.

It is the moments when Wyatt does break with tradition that sets him apart. For example the poem “They flee from me, that sometimes did me seek”. This is not a poem about an unconsummated courtly love affair, it is sensual and erotic and very very personal. The poet/speaker (who could well be Wyatt himself) shows a cruel even vindictive streak in his feeling to one particular woman. The poem stands on its own, but is also fascinating to readers who are aware of Wyatt’s own personal history. He found himself on two memorable occasions out of favour with Henry VIII. So out of favour that he was locked up in the Tower of London, the first time suspected of being a lover of Ann Boleyn. He was a courtier who knew how to play the game, but he needed also to have fortune on his side to survive the factions that played deadly games in Henry’s court. There are themes of change and changes in fortune that crop up again and again in many of the poems:

IT may be good, like it who list ;
But I do doubt : who can me blame ?
For oft assured, yet have I mist ;
And now again I fear the same.
The words, that from your mouth last came,
Of sudden change, make me aghast ;
For dread to fall, I stand not fast.
Alas, I tread an endless maze,
That seek t' accord two contraries :
And hope thus still, and nothing hase,
Imprisoned in liberties :
As one unheard, and still that cries ;
Always thirsty, and naught doth taste ;
For dread to fall, I stand not fast.
Assured, I doubt I be not sure ;
Should I then trust unto such surety ;
That oft have put the proof in ure,
And never yet have found it trusty ?
Nay, sir, in faith, it were great folly :
And yet my life thus do I waste ;
For dread to fall, I stand not fast.

After an exhausting time as a diplomat working for Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIII, Wyatt sought solace in his country home at Aldington. Indeed he was lucky to still have it in his possession as he had found himself locked up in the Tower again on a charge of associating with traitors to the king. His property, his belongings were all packaged away to be distributed to those in favour with Henry VIII on the certainty that Wyatt would be executed. However he got lucky again and obtained a last minute reprieve. He wrote three satires on his life as a courtier that sound like a warning to others intent on engaging themselves at Henry VIII court. They may not be great poetry but as a vignette of life in Tudor times they are essential reading.

So to end with one of Wyatt’s epigrams

Driven by desire I did this deed,
To danger myself without cause why,
To trust the untrue not like to speed,
To speak and promise faithfully. 4
But now the proof doth verify,
That who so trusteth ere he know,
Doth hurt himself and please his foe.

Sir Thomas Wyatt is famous for the one poem; “They flee from me, that sometimes did me seek” that appears in many anthologies, but delving into the rest of his oeuvre can uncover some gems and will also provide the inside track on life in the early Tudor court of Henry VIII.

This must have been a lovely way to read through the summer.

Wonderful look at Wyatt and the language of his time. Lour is such a great word. I have always wondered how he managed to escape execution. Was there something in that threat of somewhat random execution that inspired him and other poets of his time?

It is amazing he survived two trips to the Tower! How many, I wonder, did get reprieves?

Fascinating! I didn't know the author or the poem.

Great essay on Wyatt. I look forward to your next review.

That book cover is rather ominous.

Tottel’s Miscellany: Songs and sonnets of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, Sir Thomas Wyatt and others.
The Miscellany published in 1557 by Richard Tottel was the first successful printed anthology of English poetry. Bloody Queen Mary was on the throne and protestant heretics were being burnt at the stake in Smithfield market, it is no wonder then that this first anthology featured two named poets who had been dead for 30 years plus one who had recanted his faith, the rest of the poems were published anonymously. Tottel was a publisher under licence from the crown (the only one entitled to publish law books) and so would have been cautious about what he printed and this I think is reflected in the choice of the poems. The Miscellany was a run away success going to a second print just six weeks after the first.

There are 41 poems attributed to Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, 96 to Sir Thomas Wyatt, 40 by N. G. (reduced to ten in the second edition) and 143 are anonymous, making a total of 320 poems. The majority of the poems are love poems following the well known path of courtly-love: the lover and the beloved are characterised by the abject male speaker’s pain and frustration at the inaccessibility of the woman he desires. The lover is a passive aggressive cauldron of desire pain hope, puzzlement, resentment blame and anger. Sprinkled among these poems however are subjects that many of us reading today will find more interesting. There are a few (only a few) political poems, a few poems on the evils of the social world, there are poems that reflect the lives of the speaker and there are even a few written from a female viewpoint. There are a number of epigrams and also some poems that take a particular moral/advisory stance and there are also a handful of poems that could be read as touching on religious issues. Although hardly ever a subject in its own write a number of poems paint pictures of the natural world, however the world of the courtiers predominates.

Richard Tottel wrote a short introduction for his readers. He pointed out that the poems were well written verse and that they used ideas and templates from classical and Italian verse and what was particularly noteworthy of praise was that the noble Earl of Surrey and Sir Thomas Wyatt in particular had adapted the English language to fit the forms used by the Italians. He also said that much could be learned from this new English eloquence. In his own words he said:

“If perhaps some mislike the stateliness of style removed from the rude skill of common ears: I ask help of the learned to defend their learned friends, the authors of this work: And I exhort the unlearned, by reading to learn to be more skillfull, and to purge the swinelike grossness, that maketh the sweet marjoram not to smell to their delight”

Tottel’s introduction hints at one of the major reasons for the books success: that it would serve as a learning tool for aspiring authors, however it goes deeper than this as the book opened up the closed world of the courtiers. The new merchant/legal class could now aspire to know or even to break into the world where power and prestige lay; the Miscellany gave them templates as to how to write their own poetry; perhaps to enhance their social position and perhaps even to act like courtiers. The Earl of Surrey and Sir Thomas Wyatt showed a voice of authenticity, they were nobles to be imitated and they gave the Miscellany a social status that could not have been achieved without them. An essential tool for the upwardly mobile?, a status symbol?

Tottel or an employee or associate did much more than publish the poems: they were revised/amended to fit with the overall scheme of ennobling the English language. There are original versions of Sir Thomas Wyatts poems in various manuscript collection and we are able to see the changes that have been made to enable them to scan more easily. They have been prettied-up in some cases and neither Wyatt or Surrey were around to lodge any objections. Tottel did however elevate the idea of authorship, making it a selling point for his collection, by grouping together all the poems of Wyatt and Surrey. He also provided the poems with titles which would serve to point the reader towards the meaning of the poem, for example:

“The lover shewing of the continual paines that abide within his breast, determinith to die because he cannot have redress”
or
“The lover having dreamed enjoying of his love, complaineth that the dream is not either longer or truer”

Many of the titles point to the poems being about love or courtly love, but this is not always evident from the text of the poem. A few could be read as protests of a more political nature.

The anonymous poems in the collection are not without interest. They are probably anonymous because their authors wished them to be so. Tottel would have had access to the original manuscripts and he probably would have known the authorship of many of them. In the original edition the forty poems published under the initials N.G. belonged to Nicolas Grimald. It has been suggested that he might have been responsible for cleaning up/doctoring the majority of all the poems for publication and that is the reason that he withdrew many of his own from the second edition. However what is clear from Grimald’s poems is that they are markedly different from the rest of the poems in the Miscellany. Grimald was not a courtier, he was a lawyer and would have been excluded from the inner circle of the nobility. He was also a humanist and much of his poetry is dotted with classical references in far greater measure than used by other authors. He was more of an academic and his own poems read well. Many of his poems in the collection are epitaphs of great men, or in praise of living men and women, he does not touch on the subject of courtly love. They can be a bit dry, but in my opinion he is responsible for one of the best poems in the whole collection. His “A funerall song, upon the deceas of Annes his mother” is both moving and clever in its classical allusions.

I read the Penguin Classics version edited with an introduction and Notes by Amands Holton and Tom Macfaul. The poems keep the original wording and spelling, but letters have been modernised. They keep to the order in the original miscellany except for the poems by Grimald which are included as an appendix. There are brief translations on the same page as the poems where the meaning of the words are different from what we might expect and in a separate section at the back of the book there are more voluminous notes on poetic form, classical allusions and authorial identity. All you need really to enjoy the poems and get a sense of their place in the context of the 16th century. The introduction is informative and at the back there is an index of first lines.

The title of the collection starts with the words; Songs and sonnets and it is the sonnet that is the dominant form in the selection (there are over 50 in the collection). Wyatt and Surrey were the first English poets to use the 14 line form with its regular rhyming scheme and many of their pieces are adaptions or translations from Petrarch’s Canzoniere. Ottava rima is another form lifted from the Italians which is well represented, but there are also poems in some form of quatrains, rhyme royal and rhyming couplets, however there is an absence of the older song-forms like roundels and chansons. The Miscellany represented a snapshot of much of the poetry being written in the 16th century. It was certainly influential as the first collection of poetry, it introduced two courtier poets to a wider audience whose work has remained in the canon ever since and it made available forms of poetry which could be imitated by other aspiring authors.

I found it an enjoyable reading experience and soon got used to the more archaic words and spelling. There are an awful lot of the courtly love lyrics that can be little more than a variation on a theme and these might not be to everyones taste, however this is an essential collection for people engaged with the history of English poetry and the literature of the 16th century and might also be used as a collection to dip into for the more general reader. I cannot fault the penguin classics edition and so five stars.

here is a copy of one of the poems from the anonymous section, probably written by an unfortunate person awaiting his fate in the Tower of London.

Comparison of life and death.

THe life is long, that lothsomly doth last:
The dolefull dayes draw slowly to their date:
The present panges, and painfull plages forepast
Yelde griefe aye grene to stablish this estate.
So that I feele, in this great storme, and strife,
The death is swete that endeth such a life.
Yet by the stroke of this strange ouerthrow,
At which conflict in thraldom I was thrust:
The Lord be praised: I am well taught to know
From whence man came, and eke whereto he must:
And by the way vpon how feble force
His terme doth stand, till death doth end his course.
The pleasant yeres that seme, so swift that runne
The mery dayes to end, so fast that flete:
The ioyfull nightes, of which day daweth so soone.
The happy howers, which mo domisse then mete,
Do all consume: as snow against the sunne:
And death makes end of all, that life begunne•

Since death shall dure, till all the world be wast.
what meaneth man to drede death then so sore?
As man might make, that life should alway last.
Without regard, the lord hath led before
The daunce of death, which all must runne on row:
Though how• or when: the Lord alone doth know.
If man would minde, what burdens life doth bring:
What greuous crimes to Go• he doth c•mmi•t:
what plages, what panges, what per•iles thereby spring:
With no sure hower in all his daies to •it:
He would sure think, as with great cause I do:
The day of death were better of the two.
Death is a port, wherby we passe to ioy.
Life is a lake, that drowneth all in payn.
Death is so dere, it ceaseth all annoy.
Life is so leude, that all it yeldes is vayn.
And as by life to bondage man is braught:
Euen so likewise by death was fredome wraught.
Wherfore with Paul, let all men wish and pray
To be dissolude of this foule fleshly masse:
Or at the least be armde against the day:
That they be found good souldiers, prest to passe
From life to death: from death to life again
To such a life, as euer shall remain.

Anne Boleyn: Fatal Attractions by G W Bernard.
Anne Boleyn the woman that captivated King Henry VIII, but refused to sleep with him for six years until he made an honest woman of her. The woman that inspired the break with Rome and encouraged Henry to issue his act of supremacy and saw herself as the patroness of protestant reformers. A queen who was the innocent victim of a king that tired of her or was brought down by factions of courtiers who made malicious and false accusations against her. This is the popular view that now holds sway and is supported by many historians. Readers of C J Sansom’s Shardlake historical detective novels will be familiar with this view, but G W Bernard in Fatal Attraction says very loudly; REALLY!

G W Bernard is a historian who has specialised on the reformation in England. He is therefore familiar with many of the primary and most of the secondary sources relating to Ann Boleyn and so one could say that he is in a perfect position to debunk the myths that have surrounded this now popular queen. There are however many gaps in the primary sources that will probably never come to light, for example there are no details of Anne Boleyn’s trial. However we do know the indictments against her as set out in the charges:

“On 6th October 1553 and several days before and after, Anne by sweet words, kisses, touches and otherwise seduced Henry Norris to ‘violate’ her on 12 October 1533. They had illicit intercourse at various other times., both before and after sometimes on her instigation sometimes on his., Anne had incited her own brother to have sex with her, alluring him with her tongue in his mouth and his in hers and also by kisses presents and jewels, George on 5 November 1533 and on several other days before and after made love to his sister at Westminster, sometimes at his sometimes at her instigation, despising the commands of God and all human laws”

Indictments against William Brereton, Sir Francis Weston and Mark Smeaton were then set out in identical ways. They were all found guilty and paid with their lives. G W Bernard says that many historians have concluded that these charges are surely preposterous and therefore Anne Boleyn must have been framed. Of course there is much circumstantial evidence for this view: Henry VIII had already made overtures to Jane Seymour, Anne now seemed to be past child bearing age and had not given Henry a son. Henry perhaps was being influenced by the Howard and the Seymour families at court and was concerned that the protestant reformers were gaining too much power.

Lets look at the facts says G W Bernard and his book is a sifting of those pieces of evidence written with a view to making his book palatable for the general reader. He does of course get to choose which pieces of evidence he prioritises, but because there is relatively little of it there are no major omissions as far as I can see. He is not able to prove one way or the other the extant of Anne’s culpability, but he does enough to make the reader stop and think that maybe Anne was guilty to some extent of the crimes of which she was accused. He does a good job in debunking the myth that Anne held Henry at bay for six years until he promised to marry her and he also casts doubt on any leading/inspirational role that Anne had in Henry’s break with Rome. He makes the very valid point that Henry VIII was very much his own man and it is difficult to imagine Anne leading him by the nose even for a short period of time.

G W Bernard’s book serves as a biography of Anne Boleyn but written with an historians perspective; he is careful at all times to refer to his sources and where there are conflicting views, he will weigh up the likelihood of the true nature of events, but is not afraid to admit that he cannot give answers to all the questions raised. This is a book which could be of interest to the general reader with an interest in Anne Boleyn, but because of its determination to sift through the evidence, it does this at the expense of portraying a clear pictures of the protagonists. Bernard leaves the readers themselves to fill in the gaps and so this is one for those people that are more interested in the history. 3.5 stars

Nice review of Anne Boleyn: Fatal Attractions, Barry. I'll pass on reading it, based on your assessment of it.

Nice review! I might be interested, except that I know so little about English history that it would be a waste of time. Some day I will read something like English History for Dummies.

Oh, and where can I get that issue of Cosmopolitan?

World Light, Halldor Laxness
Once in a while almost out of the blue I get to read a novel that speaks to me in ways that make me think again about people and the world in which I live. It is usually a novel where the landscape is as important as the characters, where the atmosphere created by the book is so all encompassing that even when I am not reading I seem to be living in that other world. Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain immediately springs to mind as a novel with that much power and to a lesser extent D. H. Lawrence’s The Plumed Serpent. But it is The Magic Mountain that World Light resembles in so many ways and in my estimation may even equal that book in the quality of it’s achievement, but I will need to read it at least twice more before I can be sure.

“He was a foster child, and therefore the life in his heart was a separate life, a different blood without relationship to others. He was not part of anything, he was on the outside, and there was often an emptiness around him”

With the story of Olafur Kárason the folk-poet hero of World Light; Laxness transports us to the rugged, unforgiving landscape and people of Iceland at the beginning of the 20thy century. His struggles with poverty, illness and the encroachment of a slowly changing society in the harsh but beautiful landscape are enlightened by his poetic soul and his determination not to do harm to any person. Not doing harm in many respects means not doing much, being almost like a sponge content to let things happen: Olafur Kárason retreats into an inner world, but a world that is shaped by his observations and connections with nature, his poetry and his visions of paradise.

Published originally in four parts: book one is entitled the "Revelation of the Deity." As a baby Olafur is taken by his mother in a sack to a remote homestead, where it is hoped that he will grow into becoming a useful worker on the near subsistence level farm. He is not wanted and cannot cope with the physical demands, his solace from the beatings and abuse is the natural world around him and later from stories from the Icelandic Sagas. He never has enough to eat and starts to hallucinate at the extremes of physical exertion, he is occasionally shown kindness by Magina the obese daughter of the house and it is through her that he gets occasional glimpses of books and of poetry. He eventually collapses into a semi coma and is put to bed upstairs in the barn where he spends the next four years waiting for the sunbeam to light up the low wooden ceiling above him. His foster family give up on him and arrange for him to be moved on. Reimar sometime postman and poet collects him and transports him on a stretcher to a fishing station but on the way calls in at the house of Porunn of Kambar who it is alleged has curative powers through her allegiance with one of the Hidden People. Olafur is restored to health.

Book Two is "The Palace of the Summerland". Olafur is now on his own and after begging for food and a roof over his head he determines to scrape together a living from writing poems, love letters and eulogy’s for others. He is now pitched into village life and manages to form an acquaintance with the manager Petur Prihross who agrees he can squat in an abandoned large house on the shoreline. He struggles to survive; there is little charity and kindness among the people who look upon Olafur as a burden on the Parish. He inevitably gets involved in the local politics through Prihross who is a man that has ten ideas before breakfast, mostly concerned with how he can enrich himself at the expense of the locals and there are dealings with the corrupt politician Juel J Juel. Olafur becomes friends with a poetess whose husband works as a labourer for Prihross and forms a connection with Vegmey a strong minded woman who would have Olafur, but leaves suddenly with a fisherman to set up house. Olafur had at some point promised to marry a woman some fifteen years older than him and cannot say no when she asks him live with her. The dealings and corruption of village life contrasts with Olafurs efforts to find beauty in everything and everyone around him.

Book three is “The House of the Poet”. Olafur lives with his wife in a shack above the village. They have children, but the boy has died of consumption and Olafur spends much of his time nursing his daughter who is also dying of the same disease. Olafur to a large extent is ruled by his wife who is the main bread winner, but they are still living below the poverty line. The corruption at the fishing station has led to the forming of a trade union who are at loggerheads with Petur Prihross and his Icelandic Nationalist party. Olafur gets drawn into the dispute, but all he wants to do is to escape the village life. He takes every opportunity to roam about the countryside to listen to his “Voice” and to write poetry and books. Book three highlights the claims of the world against the claims of the spirit.

Book Four is “the Beauty of the Heavens” Olafur and his wife have relocated to the remote village of Bervik. Olafur finds meagre employment at the local school, but is treated harshly when he encourages one of the pupils to follow his own muse and go to college. Bad weather forces him to stay the night at the house of one of his female pupils. He has sex with her and finds himself arrested. He is sent to prison for a year in the South of the country and on his release he meets a young woman on the ferry. He has dreamt that he will meet a Bera and that he should follow his inclinations. He calls the young woman Bera and on the long journey north they have a relationship. Olafur has found love and his spiritual longings have become tyrannical in him and spur him to action. The lovers part at journeys end where they discover that they live in valleys separated by a huge high mountain glacier. They agree to meet on the glacier………..

There are passages in the book where Olafur is at pains to point out exactly for what he is searching and other times when he bites his tongue, determined not to cause offence. His journey though life is largely a spiritual one where he must balance the needs of others with his own. He says to his friend Riemar the poet:

“ Every man is his own world” My world is my law, your world is yours. I love one girl but haven’t found her, but am tied to my wife through compassion, which is perhaps stronger than love. My whole life is like the mind of a man who has lost his way on a fogbound mountain”

The four books represent the the four essential stages or passages in the life of Olafur Karason. In all its stages life is hard and mean, especially for a would be poet who has no mind to earn a living doing anything else. However hard the knocks; Olafur looks for something beyond, he has moments of extreme happiness, his spiritual life enables him to cope on a more worldly level. Laxness convinces when he ties this spiritual questing to the beauty in the landscape and later to the chance of love. Solitude and the consolation of illuminating moments are central themes to this novel as is the meanness of spirit in many of the characters that see Olafur as a wretched shirker. There are themes of corruption and nationalism as well as spritualism and religion, but they are all looked at through the out-of-step mind and eyes of Olafur the folk-poet, his views and reactions to events continue to throw curves. It is as though we, the readers are being forced to see things a little differently.

The novel was originally published in 1937 and has been translated from the Icelandic by Magnus Manusson originally in 1969. Halldor Laxness is a nobel prize winning author. His novel does take a long time to tell its story, but I am convinced that when I re-read I will find nothing that is not relevant to the book as a whole. Blown away by this book and a five star read.

Excellent review of World Light, Barry.

I really must get to Laxness. I have one, but not this one. It's wonderful when you get a book that makes you feel like this, and that you know you will read and rearead again. Great review Barry.

I was a big Magnus Magnusson fan as a kid.

Wow. Fabulous review of World Light, Barry! I'll be on the lookout for it next month. I own a copy of Independent People, but I haven't read it yet.

I'll also have to move The Magic Mountain much higher on my TBR list.

A long long time ago, I tried to read The Magic Mountain, but from what I remember I didn't try very hard. I really must read it. And Laxness too, apparently.

>63 baswood: One of the best authors ever! Luckily this one is still on my TBR pile, as I try to space out my Laxness reading, but your great review reminds me that I haven't read one this calendar year.

>65 Caroline_McElwee: I remember Magnus Magnusson too, on TV. He seemed to know everything, and as a child, I thought his name was wonderful.

I haven't read World Light but I was equally blown away years ago by Independent People. Will have to think about a return to Laxness.

Corbyn; The Strange Rebirth of Radical Politics by Richard Seymour
So depressing. The chances of a left wing politician making any headway in British politics is close to zero. The fact that Jeremy Corbyn became elected as the labour party leader took everybody by surprise and almost from day one the right wing Blairites (supporters of Tony Blair) plotted his downfall. (The labour party is the second largest party in the British parliament). Richard Seymour tells how a window of opportunity allowed his stunning election and then recounts the failure of the left in British politics since the formation of the Labour party in 1900. A final section looks towards the future and the possibility for Corbyn’s survival. The book was published before Britain voted to leave the European Community in July of this year and so the books worst fears have already come to fruition: The Labour party passed a vote of no confidence in Corbyn and he is now fighting another leadership election.

This was a painful read for me. As a left wing voter I have witnessed the destruction of the Left in British politics first hand. From the failures of the Wilson/Callaghan governments, to the emasculation of the trade union movement, the rabid Thatcher government and then the even more right wing Blair government. Seymour tells the story fairly well assuming that his readers will have more than a passing interest in British politics. In his introduction Seymour states that although the book is written in sympathy with Corbyn, it is not written with any loyalty to the labour party of which he has never been a member. He goes on to say: that allows him to put his finger on the raw nerve of the Labour party: because he believes it is untenable in its present form. This alerts the readers to the fact that the book is much more than just a retelling of events. Seymour provides an analysis of why the left has failed and does so in the context of changing social patterns within the British Isles. Much of what he says rings true for me.

The artillery ranging against the pacifist/socialist Corbyn is indeed formidable. The mostly right wing press has not missed an opportunity to make him a figure of hate/fun/naivety. A majority of Labour MP’s (his own party) have been horrified by his election and have continually hatched plots against him. His chances of making any headway, when capitalism reigns supreme are severely limited and if he ever led the Labour party in an election campaign I have no doubt that they would be heavily defeated. However for the first time since the second world war in British politics he provides an alternative and that was why Labour Party members elected him as their leader. They might even do so again, we will have to wait and see. A four star read for anyone interested in left wing British politics.

Deleted by contributor

>71 baswood: Sounds like a fascinating book.

Does it get into Labour's partial dependence on the Scottish vote and the effect the SNP has had on that, decimating Labour's Scottish seats from 56 in 1997 and 2001 to just 1 in 2015?

>71 baswood: Sounds like an interesting book but I'd find it too depressing to read anything about the subject right now. Considering that the Labour party is rebelling against the idea of having a left wing leader despite the fact that they're supposed to be a left wing party, it seems like it'll be back to having no choice, just the same politics to vote for under different party names.

>73 SassyLassy: Yes but not in any detail. Seymour says that the SNP had consistently shown it was more successful in defending basic socio-democratic rights and so they were able to trounce a right wing Scottish Labour party at general elections.

>74 valkyrdeath: it seems like it'll be back to having no choice, just the same politics to vote for under different party names. yes absolutely.

Even worse for some American republicans. I was having dinner last night with an American friend whose family is staunchly republican and my friend has always voted Republican, but he can't bring himself to do it this year. What a choice he said between Trump and Clinton, one is a wacko and the other is a criminal.

Excellent reviews of the Laxness and the book about Corbyn and amazing photo for the Laxness.

33 Days by Léon Werth
This is an autobiographical account of Léon Werths flight from Paris following Nazi Germany’s invasion in 1940. The French Government left Paris on June 10 and the Germans occupied the city on June 14. During that four day period there was an exodus of Parisians (as many as 8 million) heading south with rumours of the French army holding the Germans at bay on the River Loire. Werth like many Parisians of Jewish descent was caught in two minds. Should he stay in Paris or should he flee; he says:

“My certainty and security are rooted in a deep part of me that neither strategic calculation nor reason can reach. Paris is Paris and it is impossible that the Germans can get in. Nevertheless , during the night , A. gave me a friendly, brotherly order to put sixty kilometres between the Germans and us, I decided to obey………..”

He loads up his car and with his wife takes to the road south. They soon get into heavy traffic which quickly turns into a traffic jam and Werth refers to it as a caravan that stops and starts for no apparent reason, where progress is painfully slow. On that first day they cover 16 kilometres in 15 hours.

Léon Werth was a well known critic and writer at the time of the occupation and his manuscript of the 33 days spent fleeing the Germans was smuggled out of France and taken to America by Antoine de Saint-Exupery, but was never published and later vanished. In 1992 Werth’s french language text was rediscovered and published. This English translation by Austin Dennis Johnson published in 2015 includes for the first time the introduction by Saint-Exupery.

With hindsight it is possible to speculate why the book was not published during the war years. Possibly because there was no propaganda value. Werth’s account appears to be extremely honest, the Germans did not behave particularly badly, there were plenty of French citizens happy to collaborate and The French soldiers appear as a disorganised group intent on leaving the horrors of war behind them. The reader has to bear in mind that this is one eye witnesses account of what happened to him. Of course there were well documented instances of the Nazis behaving ferociously towards the French and no doubt there were instances of French heroism, but Werth did not see any of this.

Werths writing style is both laconic and matter of fact. He has no axe to grind and although there are instances when he is close to tears when exchanging information with local people about the French defeat, for most of the time he is in a state of confusion with his main concern being in finding enough to eat and where he is going to sleep that night. The caravan moves incredibly slowly, motor vehicles break down, gasoline becomes a priority cars are abandoned, people leave the main route to search for food. Many of the farms have been abandoned some have been looted but Werth's concern is the search for food and perhaps a place to sleep. There are some unforgettable moments, for instance the appearance of a few French soldiers heading in the opposite direction to the caravan; the Parisians take these to be stragglers or deserters, but when this turns into a flood of soldiers it dawns on the caravaners that this is a disorganised army in retreat. There are instances of small French units putting up some resistance and this brings the war home to the Parisians as dead bodies are soon in evidence. It is not many days into the exodus when the Germans are increasingly giving the appearance of being in control and when Werth finally makes it to the Loire river there is no way across and he has to search for somewhere to stay. He finds a small hamlet under German control and shares accommodation with billeted German soldiers. He is generally treated well and to all appearances civilisation has been restored but of course it is Germany now in control.

The caravan travels so slowly that it would have been quicker to walk, people of course get frustrated and afraid and some individuals take it upon themselves to organise others. Werth observes all these human foibles noting them down in his narrative. Much of his time on the road is spent waiting for something to happen or the vehicle in front to move. Money changes hands as people in the caravan seek help from local farmers, horses are used to pull cars, usually with disastrous results. It really is a journal of life on the road, albeit a very special road. Werth's narrative is of such first hand experience that he places the reader alongside him as he searches for a way out of the quagmire.

I read this book on my kindle and as the narrative is by its nature fairly episodic it is the perfect book to dip in and out of. Like a road movie you do not really have to remember much of what has gone before: everyday is really a new chapter in Werth's observational account of the great Paris Exodus. A four star read.

>78 baswood: This sounds like a very interesting book. Thank you!

Stopping by -- Interested to read about Corbyn and about the exodus from Paris. I've always thought the bicycle would be the way to go if one had to evacuate in a hurry -- and the photo corroborates that.

>80 sibylline: Evacuating by bicycle would be a good method of fleeing, but you would need to carefully select what you could take with you. Would there be room for any books?

La Contenance Anglois.
“In the history of Western music English composers have seldom been in the vanguard of innovation, but the first half of the fifteenth century was a glorious exception” claims Mark Audus in his sleeve notes to the Hilliard Ensembles Power/Dunstaple: masses and motets.

Leonel Power and John Dunstaple were among a leading group of English composers that were making music that sounded very different to continental ears. Harmonies sounded sweeter and the largely text generated rhythms were more subtle and expansive. The sounds of the music tended to enhance the words of the text and when English choirs were heard in France their sound had a profound influence on future compositions. The English were not doing anything really new, but by consistently using triads the harmonies sounded more sensual, much of the harshness had disappeared from the music. Both composers as far as we know wrote only for the church; masses and motets were the order of the day.


Power - Dunstaple: masses and motets; The Hilliard ensemble.
This is a double CD pack and it gives us the opportunity to hear the work of each composer sung by the same group of artists. Leonel Power’s CD features music found in The Old Hall manuscript: the most important collection of English sacred music from the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries ( it is thought that much of the written music was destroyed in the era of the dissolution of the monasteries). The Hilliard ensemble are a small male voice choir featuring on these discs two countertenors, three tenors, a baritone and a bass. They sing unaccompanied on both discs. The music of Leonel Power is given a full sound and in places the choir sounds larger than it is. The melody on many of the pieces seems to be carried in the upper register by the countertenors. The pieces are sung in three, four and even five part harmonies and indeed much of the music has that sweet sound for which the English had become famous.

John Dunstaple has been labelled as the greatest of the fifteenth century composers and a century later he was still considered to be more famous than Shakespeare. All of his music comes down to us from continental collections and so probably the majority of his music has been lost.
His CD points out the advances made in musical harmony and is given glorious renditions by the Hilliard Ensemble. It is immediately apparent that the writing for the individual voices is more complex, they interweave in a delightful fashion but with no loss in melodic line. The music sounds more intimate, the pieces although all written for church services are beginning to sound more song like; any connections with monks chanting have disappeared. As in the Power CD the melody line is largely carried by the countertenors, but it also smoothly descends through the other voices. Gorgeous music and the double CD pack is a five star listen.

https://youtu.be/gicvbxFESWg


John Dunstable: Sweet Harmony Masses and Motets; Tonus Peregrinus
This CD is from Naxos: the budget label. Tonus Peregrinus are a choir that have a large repertoire that takes in both early music and contemporary music. There are three female members of the choir on this disc; two sopranos and an alto supported by a male countertenor, three tenors and a bass. There is no documentary evidence, but it is thought that early fifteenth century choirs may have been exclusively male and if this is the case then Dunstable’s music would not have sounded like Tonus Peregrinus’ rendition. However much of the music featured the upper register and so having female sopranos instead of/or as well as the male countertenors makes perfectly good sense. Comparisons can be made with the Hilliard ensemble because some of the music is the same and I think there are mixed results. For example the four part harmonies of Veni Sancte Spiritus are given a more rousing sound by Tonus Peregrinus and the female soprano voices really come into their own. I prefer it to the Hilliard Ensemble. However this is the exception that proves the rule because in all other cases the Hilliards sound better to me. On a couple of pieces by Tonus Peregrinus the soprano voices are pitched so high that the music looses much of its power. Not a bad CD but ranked with the Hilliards then it is 3.5 stars.

John Dunstaple is also known as John Dunstable.

The last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski
I gave up after reading this paragraph:

"Eltibald wasn't mad at all. He deciphered the writing on Dauk menhirs, on tombstones in the Wozgor necropolises, and examined the legends and traditions of weretots. All of them spoke of the eclipse in no uncertain terms. The Black Sun was to announce the imminent return of Lilit, still honoured in the East under the name of Niya, and the extermination of the human race. Lilit's path was to be prepared by 'sixty women wearing gold crowns, who would fill the river valleys with blood'"

This book inspired the video game The Witcher and as it reads like a video game I think I would rather play the video game.
It was a book club choice.

>71 baswood: Ever since Corbyn was elected I've had in mind that wonderful 1988 tv dramatization of Chris Mullin's A Very British Coup with Ray McAnally (with significant deviation from the plot of the book).

>83 baswood: Who could blame you for giving up!

>82 baswood: I don't have anything on the Veritas label. How is the overall quality? I find that Naxos often has artists who are technically very proficient, but may not necessarily "feel" the music. For some reason this seems to be the case especially with the piano.

>78 baswood: Excellent review. 33 Days will go on my wishlist.

>78 baswood: 33 Days sounds very interesting - I read a fictionalised account of the same events a few months ago in Anna Seghers' novel Transit, but the flight from Paris to the Loire there only takes up a couple of chapters there, of course.

>81 baswood: Noting that most of the cyclists in the picture seem to be pushing their bikes, I think a puncture repair kit would have to be be near the top of the packing list. But there's probably also something to be said for Dervla Murphy's approach to cycling: take nothing with you but a toothbrush, a revolver (in case of wolves), and a change of underwear...

>82 baswood: (Makes mental note to dig out some John Dunstable LPs from the back of the cupboard and have a listen to them)

Catching up with your reviews. Your review of World Light is fantastic and the book sounds very intriguing.

Great music!

While packing and moving, my friend persuaded me to remove my CDs from their 'jewel cases' and collect them in albums. Giving in to my original resistance, I now see what a great idea that was: not just for transportation, and storage, but it is also much easier to flip through the albums and locate what I want to listen to.

Over the past couple of months, I have also realized how much I love listening and listening again to music (CDs); Books are rarely reread, but music can be listened to again, and again, ...

Great reviews of Corbyn: The Rebirth of Radical Politics and 33 Days, Barry. From what I've read and heard Jeremy Corbyn is expected to re-elected as the Labour Party leader this week, despite significant opposition to his leadership.

>90 kidzdoc: Yes that is right and I think he will split the Labour Party. But from where I am standing that can only be a good thing. I am of the opinion that the more political parties the better, then we all have more choice on who we want to vote for.

Not much of a choice for the American voting public this November I fear.

>91 baswood: Right, Barry. The two third party candidates, Jill Steiner (Green Party) and Gary Johnson (Libertarian Party) have absolutely no chance to win the election, and it's unlikely that they will have any meaningful role in the outcome. For most civilized Americans voting for Trump is inconceivable and frightening, and thus the only choice for people like me (especially as a member of a minority group who Trump disdains) is to vote for Hillary Clinton.

Our Mr Wrenn by Sinclair Lewis
Subtitled: The Romantic Adventures of a Gentleman. Published in 1914 This was Sinclair Lewis’ first novel and it owes an awful lot to H G Well’s the History of Mr Polly, although Mr Wrenn is set mainly in New York. Mr Wrenn is in his late thirties when we take up his story; he is working for the Souvenir company pushing forward ideas for new products it is an undemanding job and Mr Wrenn lives in fear of his manager as do most of his colleagues. He is a bachelor and his life revolves around his job, the Moving Picture Palace that he visits most days and his dreams of visiting far off places. He reads all he can about exotic travel locations and his head is filled with adventure stories, all his spare money is saved for his travelling fund, but it looks certain that he will never get to spend it, until one day he inherits enough money to become independent.

Mr Wrenn is a kind gentle man who is also lonely and he craves friendship, his inheritance changes everything for him because now he can live his dreams if he can dare himself to do so. He books a working passage on a cattle steamer heading for England and learns more about people and friendship than he ever did working for the Souvenir company. In England he travels to London where he meets Istra a wilful independent redhead. He is both fascinated and frightened of her artsy lifestyle, but she needs a kindly friend and sees in the innocent but brash American an ideal companion in her times of need. They embark on a foolhardy walking tour because Istra wants a little adventure and when she bails out and escapes to Paris, Mr Wrenn finds he is homesick for his previous life and returns to America. He gets his old job back, but now with added confidence he is able to make real progress and in addition he has discovered enough about himself to venture into making friends with other individuals. He finds new lodgings in a friendly household and romance is in the air with one of his fellow residents, but then unexpectedly Istra comes to New York and bursts back into his life.

The novel contains a well rounded portrait of a lonely bachelor clinging to a hum drum life in a big city, there must have been thousands of people like him and the book evokes this state of being very well. The readers sympathy is always with Billy Wrenn and although we might cringe at his unworldliness we are pleased at his hesitant progress. Other characters are also successfully drawn in what turns out to be a rather slight novel. There is very little humour and absolutely no satire and it lacks the depth that H G Wells achieved in his History of Mr Polly. A novel of its time that was content to break no new ground and today has an antiquated feel but is entertaining nonetheless if you are in the mood for a light read. A harmless three stars.

Mirabilis by Susann Cokal
Blessed Bonne Lamére, also calles Mirabilis c1350 - ? Feast Day July 31
A local saint of the former Villeneuve (now Mondville), Bonne La Mére was the illegitimate daughter of a woman once believed to have participated in a miracle herself. Orphaned at age twelve, Bonne lived for some years as an urchin before 1367, when she turns up in the town records as a wet nurse. Her career was of little distinction until VIlleneuve was besieged in 1372; then general famine became the rule until Bonne miraculously began to nurse virtually the whole town for some weeks. It was her first miracle. She is said thereafter to have cured several people of severe affliction, including a sick child who lived with her and a madman who later became a monk. She is also associated with the miraculous appearance of a statue in her likeness, now unfortunately lost………She is considered to have achieved some reputation as a writer of spiritual tracts and hagiographies, only fragments of which survive, and to have founded a unique library of oral history. Most of theses documents have also been lost, the remainder can be found at the Bibliothéque Nationale. Said to have given milk well into her eighth decade, Bonne is revered as a protector of nursing mothers, reformed prostitutes, prisoners and surprisingly, dwarfs.
From L”Encyclopédie spirituelle du Haut Poitou médiéval, edited by Enid Dardanelles

From this extract Susann Cokal has written a stunning historical novel capturing the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of medieval France. The story is largely told by Bonne LaMére in the first person but with interjections from other characters in her story: Hercule a dwarf, Godfridus a sculptor, and a Bakerwoman. The story covers a five month period during which Bonne (named Tardieu by father Pierre) becomes prospective wet nurse to Radegonde Putemonnoie; (the most wealthy of widows in Villeneuve). She lives in her chateau becomes her lover, pleads for her life when Radegonne is incarcerated and accused of which craft. She gives suck to many deserving citizens of the town who are starving due to the English seige and finally acts as midwife delivering Radegonde of her daughter.

Author Susann Cokal revels in the physicality of medieval France. Describing in detail the sickness of those that suffered from the plague, the bestiality of bear baiting, the starvation caused by a prolonged siege, conditions in a medieval prison, the suffering of an anchoress, the injuries resulting from a misplaced chisel hammer blow. She also delights in the fleshiness and sexuality of the times; lesbian love making, an orgy of gluttony, the pleasures of breast feeding and then the horrors of a cesarian birth. Desire is writ large in many of the characters, but they must all battle with the religious teachings and fervour of the period. The sins of the flesh are on everybody's mind, there are few that are brave enough to discount the prospect of hell fire. It is the clergy that hold the power in this life and the next and this is portrayed superbly in Mirabilis. Bonne LaMére’s story is largely consequential and relatively easy to follow, however the interjections by Hercule and Godfridis take the reader into another mindset as Cokal takes us into the realms of oppressed sexuality and religious fanaticism. This whole stew of impressions and mysticality together with the dirt and the devilry serve to give an in your face view of life in medieval times. I was convinced.

Much criticism is made of historical novelists who take a contemporary world view (21st century) and imbue their characters with these to such an extent that their motivations although credible to the modern reader are unlikely to have resulted in the actions they take in the story. Obviously it is difficult to gage this correctly, but I think Cokal does an excellent job in putting her readers into the thoughts an actions of Medieval people, nothing jars too much as we are taken literally into another world, where not everything should be clear to us.

Cokal’s story is a good one as she weaves her fiction around the few facts that have emerged from Bonne LaMére. There are moments when the readers feels acutely the dangers for women that were inherent in being a supposed miracle worker on the one hand and a rich widow on the other. Suffering, pain and death were always around the corner, a future was always in the balance and powerful forces could blow people away in an instant, for many the solace of religion was the only answer, but there were some that didn’t believe and they had their own fears with which to contend. Cokal captures this well in some eye grabbing prose. A fine achievement for a first novel and I rate it at 4 stars.

>83 baswood: That sounds beyond ghastly!

>96 baswood: Bonne LaMere is the opposite, a great review, but what a way to achieve sainthood! I had never encountered her before. Her saint's day is my birthday, so I'm surprised.

That is the challenge and interest of historical fiction, isn't it? -- to really make you feel you've entered a world that is perhaps familiar, us all being humans, but shifted and different too. Probably the novel that was most convincing to me in the last several years was Porius. As you describe too, it gave you that sense of what it was like to live in a world before the "Modern Era" (post Enlightment philosophy) which we still inhabit.

It's not that different, in essence, to the world-building of sf and fantasy, particularly when the writer has the aim of portraying alien beings, or a time in the far future, or whatever.

Anyway, onto the pile!

Mirabilis moves a lot quicker than Porius ever did, but Porius is in a different league.

Have Mercy on us All Fred Vargas
My first Fred Vargas book that features Inspector Adamsberg and a thoroughly enjoyable read. This not a police procedural but rather a police unprocedural as Adamsberg relies on his instincts to solve crimes. Paris is the backdrop for much of the book although it all seems a little provincial as Adamsberg does not seem to be a big city cop. The book stands out because of its outrageous crime scenario which at times almost takes the book into the realms of fantasy, but Vargas brings it all down to earth with a logical explanation of events. No graphic violence, plenty of characterisation, and a mystery that unfolds gradually as the story progresses, but it takes a commentary near the end to explain it all. I loved the idea of a modern day town crier and thought it would go well in my small town, but I would be worried if their were warnings of the plague and people started painting backward looking 4's on their front doors. Plenty of French culture to enjoy and Adamsberg being French is a consumate seducer of women and always stops for lunch. Great fun, tempted to read some more.

>99 baswood: Glad to see someone else in the process of getting hooked on Adamsberg :-)

Fulgens and Lucres by Henry Medwall
There are so many firsts claimed for this play (written some time in the 1490’s):
The first secular humanist play
The first play to be printed
Introduces rhyme royal into drama
One of the first plays with a fully developed sub plot
One of the first to prominently feature a female character.

As a piece of theatre it has its limitations but there is still much to enjoy. The idea of having characters that appear from the audience to comment on the players in the production and their issues and then to take part in some of the drama is a daring piece of meta-theatre. This may have been fairly commonplace in early mummer or morality plays, but Medwall integrates the players from the audience into his drama in such a way that they provide a commentary, a pastiche and even a satire of the main event.

The play concerns itself with the question of whether true nobility derives from heredity or merit. Lucres the daughter of Fulgens is of marriageable age and has two suitors to chose from. Cornelius is of high noble blood, but leads a dissolute lifestyle, he has bent the ear of Fulgens who sees the advantages for his family in Lucres marrying above her station. Gayus is a senator and a hard working public administrator, but cannot claim to be of noble birth. He makes his appeal directly, if a little hesitantly to Lucres, and it is soon apparent that she favours him. Fulgens says that it is up to his daughter to choose and the climax of the play are the two suitors stating their case to Fulgens and Lucres (and the assembled audience) as to why they should win the hand of Lucres. Although there are some nuances in the speech making which is generally good, this is fairly standard stuff and on its own would not provide much of an entertainment. It is the two characters from the audience never named (referred to as A & B) who provide much of the drama and certainly all of the comedy.

The play was first performed at Lambeth Palace probably as an interlude between courses at a dinner for ambassadors from France and Spain hosted by Cardinal Morton and the diners would probably have included many representatives from the court of King Henry VII. There would have been no stage as the custom was to clear a space for the players to perform. This lends itself to the concept of actors appearing from among the audience and being involved in setting the stage for the action.

The play starts with some banter between A and B with A saying to be that he intends to get a job and join the actors. B is horrified and says he will spoil everything

Player B - Be God, thou wyll distroy all the play.

Player A “Distroy the play” quod A? Nay, Nay,
The play began never till now!
I will de doing, I make God avow,

For there is not in this hondred myle
A feter bawd (better pimp) than I am one.

And it proves to be the case because it is the sub plot involving A and B that lifts this play to another level. There is more amusing banter between A an B, they pass comment on the amount of food provided and how the guests are more interested in eating than watching; they comment on the gaudy clothes of the actors and then say they are hardly distinguishable from all the finery and gaudiness worn by the dinner guests.

A and B wangle their way into the service of each of the two suitors and so get to be messengers to the house of Fulgens and Lucres. They see one of the serving girls (Ancilla) in the household and soon resolve to get her into bed. Ancilla like her mistress has the option of choosing either one and she sets them in competition with each other. There is a singing competition, a wrestling competition and finally to prove their worth a jousting competition. The jousting presents a problem as they do not own horses or any of the equipment and so they contrive to hog tie each other using a broom stick as a lance. They both end up battered and bruised and unable to set themselves free. The antics of A and B can be seen as a commentary on the more lofty arguments that are used by Cornelius and Gayus to win Lucres hand.

Lucres finally chooses virtue over nobility and Gayus wins the argument, but Medwall was treading on dangerous ground because there would have been many members of the nobility in the audience, who might have taken exception to a person of lower rank winning the argument. His patron Cardinal Morton was a humanist and Henry VII court was notable for the integration of the self made man of ability. Medwall eases the medicine by Lucres saying that she still has the utmost respect for Cornelius and his noble birth and the play finishes with a comment on what has taken place

That all the substaunce of this play

Was done specially therfor

Not onely to make myrth and game,
But that suche as be gentilmen of name
May be somewhat movyd
By this example for to eschew
The wey of vyce, and favour vertue.
For syn is to be reprovyd

More in them, for the degre,

Than in other parsons such as be
of pour kin

Reform rather than revolution was the message and Medwall had to be careful as to how he got his message across. I think also that the comedy provided by A and B goes some way in making the whole endeavour less preachy.

Fulgrens and Lucres has enjoyed a revival in that it was performed by the Group Theatre of London at the Everyman Theatre Hampstead in 1932 and has been more recently been produced by Poculi Ludique Societas at the University of Toronto in 2014. The play consists of 2400 fairly short lines and so does not outstay its welcome. I enjoyed reading this piece of drama history that suddenly seems to have emerged from the left field in the 1490’s and would not be bettered for another 60 years. 5 stars

>99 baswood: >100 thorold: Ditto what Mark said.

Robert Crowley Selected works

For what should we think of the
women in London we see…….
Her face fair painted
to make it shine bright
And her bosom all bare
and most whorelike dight
Her middle braced in,
as small as a wand
And some by wastes of wire
at the paste wife's hand.
A bum like a barrel
with hoops at the skirt;
Her shoes of such stuff
that may touch no dirt;
Upon her white fingers
many rings of gold,
With such manner stones
as are most dearly sold
Of all their other trifles,
I will say nothing,
Least I have small thanks
for this my writing
All modest matrons
I trust will take my part,
As for nice whippets, words
shall not come nye my heart
I have told them but truth
let them say what they will;
I have said they be whorelike
and so I say still

from “of Nice wives” "The final Trumpet"

the selected works of Robert Crowley
Robert Crowley 1517-1588 was a stationer, (printer), poet polemicist and Protestant clergyman. He preached as an evangelical protestant and used his position as a stationer to churn out many printed works. He shared a vision of many of his contemporaries for England to become a reformed Christian commonwealth. Tolerated by many within the court of Henry VIII and Edward VI he became critical of the Dissolution of the Monasteries believing that one form of corruption was being replaced by another. He was very critical of the land grabbing and greed that he saw as the driving force behind much of the reformation. He fled to Germany when catholic queen Mary attained the throne, but returned for the reign of Queen Elizabeth. He was again outspoken in his criticism of the church and the clergy and lost his clerical office over a row over vestments. He became more moderate with age and found his way back to take office again in the clergy.

There are various poems and printed sermons to be found on the net and they give a good example of certain views held by protestants leaning towards puritanism under the Tudor monarchs. I read “The last Trumpet” which exhorts men to walk in their vocation and not to seek to better themselves through wicked ambition. It is a series of epigrams or lessons in which Crowley accuses the newly rich of greed and avarice and he has something to say about a variety of professions: Lawyers, physicians, scholars, learned men, lewd and unlearned priests, Merchants, Magistrates etc. However he starts of by addressing the beggars and servants, saying that they must not protest about their fate; for even if the beggars die of hunger it will turn out for the good in the next life. The servants who suffer extreme cruelty must also embrace their fate, because the Lord will shortly call them. The extract above is from The Last Trumpet, which gives an example of the poetry and tone of Crowley’s writing. “Pleasure and Pain - Christ's Welcome” is a diatribe against the papist church and their teaching, but the main thrust is their greed highlighted by their insistence of collecting the tenth (tithes) from even the poorest members of the community. “Way to Wealth - Sedition must be Rooted Out” is a prose tract that castigates the wealthy for their greed. The logic to his argument seems to be that if the poor and downtrodden pray hard enough then God will punish the greedy. “Information…. Sacrements are abused” is another prose piece against the clergy, urging them to reform. He goes into some details of the charges against them and how they abuse their power and oppress the poor.

An interesting dip into the mind set of one of the factions who were able to get their message across in the hope of bringing about change at a time when men were able to forge ahead in wealth creation and when the clergy were still able to take advantage of their position. A three star read.

The making of the Representative for Planet 8 - Doris Lessing
In her afterword to her novel Lessing says
“Back from the sociological speculation to this little book of mine. I can’t say I enjoyed writing it, for the snow and the ice and cold seemed to get into me and slow my thoughts and processes”
And I have to say I didn’t always enjoy reading it. There is a soporific quality in some of the writing and Lessing occasionally strays into la-la land.

This is the fourth novel in Lessing’s Canopus in Argos: Archives; her science fiction series where her imagined universe is controlled by the Canopians: a benevolent god like race or entities who strive to nurture planets and their populations in their development, however there are other forces at work who strive to disrupt this process. On one of these planets: Rohanda, which had all the natural advantages the evil forces of disruption were gaining control and Canopus renamed the planet Shikasta; the broken one. Shikasta of course is another name for our Earth.

Lessing’s Conopus series is written as though the author was dipping into the archives to select certain key events and so the novels do not necessarily follow on from each other and can be read as stand alone books. This is especially true of The Making of the Representative for planet 8, where Lessing imagines a developing world where its human like population is benefiting from the knowledge and wisdom of representatives from Canopus who visit and make suggestions for improvements. On one of these visits Canopus strongly advises the population of planet 8 to build a wall right round the circumference of their planet and supplies the materials. It takes the population a whole year to build their wall and not long after it is finished their planet suffers a climate change resulting in an ice age. The ice and snow is held at bay by the wall and the population relocate behind it, representatives from Canopus tell the people that they expect the ice to eventually cover their planet but Canopus will transport the people to a new planet, the promising Rohanda.

Lessing tells the story from the point of view of one of the planet 8’s representatives; Doeg who is the story teller and historian for his people. Much of the book is about the struggle for survival in an encroaching ice age, but Lessing’s style places the reader a few steps away from the intensity of the action. It is like reading an historical report, albeit one written by an eye witness. Conditions on the planet get worse and the Canopian Johor arrives to live among the planets representatives as they battle for survival. It appears now as though the promised airlift to another planet is not going to happen. Lessing indulges in some speculation on a sort of afterlife or transcendence into another mental state and there are passages in the book such as this:

“While we laboured and fought and exhorted and forced the doomed wretches up and out of their lethargy, we were being changed molecule by molecule, atom by atom. And in the unimaginable vast spaces between the particles of the particles of the particles of the electrons and neutrons and protons - between the particles that danced and flowed and vibrated? Yes, in these faint webs or lattices or grids of pulses, changes went on over which we had no control. Which we could not chart or measure. Thoughts - but where were they, in the empty spaces of our beings? - that once we had regarded tolerently, or with approval, as necessary, were now being rejected by what we had become.”

The vast majority of the people on planet 8 sink into a cold induced lethargy, huddling together in ice block houses waiting to die. It is only the few remaining representatives along with Johor who seek some sort of salvation. If it was Lessing’s intention to impart a feeling of lethargy and hopelessness in the reader then I think she has succeeded. It is a short novel of 161 pages, but feels longer, it is supplemented by the authors afterword of a further 30 pages in which she uses the story of Scott of the Antartica’s disastrous attempts to reach the South Pole as a sort of warning against Nationalism.

The moral of the story; and I suspect there might be one could be that if we rely on God for our salvation then some of us might achieve some transcendence of the spirit, but for most people it would lead to our doom. Interesting to speculate on this theme, but you would need to be motivated by these thoughts and ideas to fully enjoy this novel. This one didn’t quite do it for me, Lessing has lost some of the magic of her previous books in the Canopus series and so 3.5 stars.

So much to catch up on here. Great stuff! I see you are still continuing your Lessing project.

The Hand of Zei by L Sprague De Camp
Science Fiction from 1950 originally serialised in the magazine Astounding science fiction. It reads like one of Edgar Rice Burroughs Barsoom stories and can be categorised in the subgenres of sword and sorcery or sword and planet. Apparently L. Sprague De Camp was critical of Burroughs' technological and biological absurdities and wanted to present a more logical updated environment, which would be more convincing. This does not stop him from writing a fast paced adventure story, but it does restrict him a little in the creation of a fantasy world that has an innocence that carries all before it. His love story for instance has more realism and more sex, but I kind of miss Burroughs' easy skating along the surface of these themes.

The story line is not without interest. An important man in an American company has been captured by a pirate group while he was negotiating with representatives on another planet. Dirk Barnevelt is recruited to travel to the planet Krishna to get him back. Krishna is an undeveloped world that is populated by humanoids living in a sort of medieval society and modern inventions are forbidden to be exported to the planet. Dirk therefore has to brush up on his swordsmanship to swashbuckle his way through Krishna. He must first deal with a matriarchal society on the continent of Qirib who have a connection with the pirates who are producing a gas that subordinates all males to their female counterparts. Dirk (who has a mother fixation on his home planet) falls in love with the Zei the heir apparent on Qirib, who is captured by the pirates and so there are added complications to his quest. The story is handled pretty well by de Camp with some nice plot twists and can be enjoyed for its 1950ish horror of women being in control.

My copy of the book published by Baen Publishing Enterprises contains some illustrations by Edd Cartier, which are reason enough for owning a copy. I quite enjoyed this and so three stars.



L Sprague de Camp surrounded by Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein.

Ralph Roister Doister By Nicholas Udall
A play from Tudor England probably published around 1553 and claimed to be the first English comedy. It would have originally been designed as an interlude and would have been performed at a banquet or other entertainment on a floor space cleared for the purpose. there is plenty of conjecture that it might have been played in front of Queen Mary I, as the final page of the play is nothing less than a homage to the queen.

The plot is a simple one, but would stretch the credibility of audiences today. Mathew Merrygreek is the first person to take the floor and he stresses that laughter is a cure for all the evils of the world and he encourages the audience find the play funny. He describes himself as a manipulator of others, living by his wits and he boasts that he can persuade Ralph Roister Doister to do anything he wants. The Roister Doister character would have been easily recognisable to Tudor audiences, a boastful fool, but a man of some means who can tell stories of exploits in war. He confides to his friend Merrygreek that he has once again fallen in love and Merrygreek seizes on the opportunity to have some fun. Doister is in love with Dame Christian Constance a wealthy widow who is known to be looking for a new husband, but she is already betrothed to Gavin Goodluck a London Merchant. Merrygreek encourages Doister that he should press his suite most forcibly as he is bound to win over Constance. There is much comedy as the super confident Doister arranges with Constances servants: Madge Mumblecrust and Tibet Talkapace to help him win their lady. Constance will have nothing to do with Doister and tells him so as plainly as she can:

“I will not be served with a fool in no wise. When I choose a husband, I hope to take a man.”

Doister egged on by Merrygreek tries to force entry into the house of Constance, but he is beaten back, by her servants and with sly whacks from his friend. However Gavin Goodluck hears about the disturbance and is concerned about Constance’s reputation, she has to prove to him that none of it was her doing.

Most of the comedy is centred around the foolish braggart Doister and some choice repartee with the servants of Constance. The disturbance outside her house with Doister and his servants getting pummelled from all sides would also provide some amusement. Merrygreek's part in all this has to be swallowed by the audience to make it all feasible.

Udall’s dialogue is witty enough with some word play. There is very little sexual innuendo and it all ends with much good humour. What is significant I think is the role of the women in the play. They are all strong characters even the old nurse Mumblecrust is more than a match for Doister. Udall was at one time headmaster of Eton college and in all probability his play would have been performed by the all male students. There is very little religious content and the play seems to be an amalgam of the Roman playwright Terence with some medieval and Renaissance settings, but it is firmly fixed in the milieu of the mid 16th century and points the way for late 16th century drama.
An interesting reading experience for anybody interested in early English drama and for me a 3.5 star read.

The Wicked Go To Hell - Frederic Dard
A French thriller published in 1956 and recently translated in 2016. It’s short (150 pages), its brutal and makes no concessions to political correctness. There is no time for character development, character settings, or scenic descriptions in Dard’s rough and tumble world where might is right. French noir, without the wisecracks.

Arrangements are made for an undercover cop to be placed in the same cell as a spy who has refused to talk. The reader does not know which one is the cop as the two men soon develop a love hate relationship that teeters on the edge of violence and frequently spills over. They plan an escape and shoot their way out of prison. We know that the cop has been told not to worry about “blood on the wall” and so there are no clues as to who is the good guy, which is probably the point: there are no good guys in this book. Most of the story is told through conversations between Frank and Hal, that is when they are not beating the crap out of each other. A woman appears on the scene which leads to even more fighting.

Frederic Dard wrote over 300 novels, but few of them have been translated into English. Perhaps Pushkin Vertigo who have published this are dipping their toe in the water. There has been a film and the piece started life as a play. A mornings entertainment if you like this sort of thing. It kept me reading until the end and I will try and catch the film. Three stars.

>112 baswood: Hmmm - doesn't sound exactly like my sort of thing, but it's a fifties French crime writer I didn't know about, so I'm making a note, anyway. Thanks for posting the review!

Beware the Cat - William Baldwin
Is This the the oldest Novel? Published in 1561, but written in 1553 by William Baldwin it is probably the first book in the genre of horror fiction and is a fascinating document of Tudor Times.

Cats as creatures of terror. Grimmalkin the cat with an insatiable appetite whose death is avenged by another cat who rips out the throat of the man who told the story of the murder. The cats that gather around the quartered remains of traitors hung on poles at the gates of the city of London. The cats that see and hear all of the “goings on” behind respectable closed doors and can take their revenge accordingly. Tudor readers of William Baldwins book may never have looked at cats in quite the same way again after reading his book.

The book is in three parts each of which features cats and the stories are told by one Master Streamer who claims that he can understand the secret language of the feline population. Baldwin has the idea of unsettling his readers by dressing up the stories as semi-factual, he has notes beside the text and uses real names of courtiers serving Edward VI. He attempts to blur the distinction between fantasy and reality: choosing as his setting the night before the Christmas revels when the Master of Misrule (a tudor court appointment) is entertaining his friends at the palace. Ferrers, Willot and Ricard Sherry who would have been names familiar to readers are all present and they are being entertained by Streamer who tells his stories in the first person with interjections and other snippets from those present.

In Ferrers’ bed chamber the participants in the revels are rehearsing their lines, as was customary they all take to a large bed for the night bundled together and Streamer sets the scene for his first story, taking care to anchor it in the present reality, conjuring a scene with which many city dwellers would find very familiar:

Chamber hard by the Printing houfe, which had a faire bay window open­ing in the Garden, the earth wherof is almoft as high as S. Annes Church top which ftadeth therby. At the other end of the Printing houfe as you en­ter in, is a fide doore and iij. or iiij. fteps which go vp to the Leads of the Gate, wheras time quarters of men (which is a lothely & abhominable fight) doo ftand vp vpon Poles. I call it abhomi­nable becaue it is not only againft na­ture : but againft Scripture.

The first story about the cat Grimmalkin is pure horror fantasy with shape changers and witches, but there is a point to all this that will not have escaped contemporary readers. Baldwin likens the whichcraft in the story to the catholic ideas on transubstantiation. The underlying theme to the stories is a fierce anti-catholic stance, but although it is fierce it is not all intrusive and may escape the attention of the modern reader. ( the modern readers attention would probably be mostly spent in untangling the spelling). This first part has the most interjections from Streamers friends who chip in with their own anecdotes and finishes with a ghastly concotion of animal parts which was said to cure the gout.

The second story ends in high farce as Streamer describes how a potion that he takes enables him to hear and understand the language of all animals and birds as well as enhanced hearing of human activities and conversations. The effect on him is to send him mad, the final straw being the onerous sounds of the church bells.

The third story takes us back to the cats that congregate beneath the human remains displayed just within the city walls. Streamer is able to understand their language and he listens in on a mock trial of the female cat mouseslayer who has been charged by ratcatch of uncatlike behaviour, ie she wont let him copulate with her. Mouslayer tells how her life has bee affected by what she has seen in human households. Cats witness everything from the catholic priests trying to co-erce their flock to their abject fear in the face of real or imagined danger. These are stories that would not have been out of place in The Decameron.

Throughout the novel there is a curious mix of the popular and the academic, of reality with fantasy, but the ideas and thoughts that concerned Tudor England swirl around this text to give an authentic and first person account of the life of the period. Baldwin achieves subtlety in delivering his themes and messages and there is also entertainment to be had. I read a transcription free on the internet with original spelling largely intact. This would make it a difficult read if you are not used to seeing s as f or v as u (see the example quoted above). However I don’t think you could wish for a more authentic picture (partial though it maybe) of Tudor England and so five stars.

>115 baswood: That is amazing. What a find. I think I need it.

>115 baswood: Agreeing with Sassy, I think I got hit by a Book Bullet there Barry.

>116 SassyLassy: and >117 Caroline_McElwee: Here is a link to a copy on the net http://www.presscom.co.uk/halliwell/baldwin/baldwin_1584.html

>115 baswood: wow. I'm surprised how intriguing these Tudor cats sound. I guess if you're hanging around bits of quartered humans, you're going to get a reader's attention.

Finally caught up with your thread. Always a treat, both the selection of books and your commentary.

>119 dchaikin: Thanks Dan

As Gammer Gurton, with manye a wyde styche
Sat pesynge & patching of Hodg her mans briche
By chance or misfortune as shee her geare tost
In Hodge lether bryches her needle shee lost,
When Diccon the bedlem had hard by report
That good Gammer Gurton was robde in thyssorte,
He quyetly perswaded with her in that stound
Dame Chather deare gossyp this needle had found,
Yet knew shee no more of this matter (alas)
Then knoeth Tom our clarke whatthe Priest saith at masse
Here of there ensued so fearfull a fraye,
Mas Doctor was sent for these gossyps to staye,
Because he was Curate and estemed full wyse
Who found that he sought not by Diccons deuice,
When all thinges were tombled and cleane out of fassion
Whether it were by fortune or some other constellacion
Sodenlye the neele Hodge found by the prickynge
And drew it out of his bottocke where he felt it stickynge
Theyr hartes then atrest with perfect securytie.
With a pot of good nale they stroake vp theyr plauditie.

Gammer Gurton’s Needle - author unknown
A comedy written about 1555. The author is referred to As Mr S and I can understand why he probably wished to remain anonymous. It is a rough and tumble farce and owes its place in the canon to being the first entirely English comedy. It is not without interest being the first play to be entirely centred around the goings on amongst the ‘lower orders’

Gammer Gurton has lost her needle which she desperately needs to sow up a patch on Hodge; her man’s trousers. Diccon Bedlam hears about the loss and decides to have some fun persuading Hodge that the only way it can be found is to conjure up the devil. Hodge shits himself when he takes an oath which involves kissing Diccon’s breeches. Meanwhile Diccon has told Gammer Gurton that her gossip Dame Chat has found her needle before it was lost. He also tells Dame Chat that Gammer Gurton’s man Hodge is after stealing her chickens. The two women fight and both Gamma Gurton and Hodge take a beating from Dame Chat. Meanwhile the vicar Dr Rat has become involved and is tricked into hiding in a bread oven belonging to Dame Chat, he also gets a beating. Old scores are settled, but are resolved when the local Bailie gets Diccon to admit to his involvement and a slap on the bottom of Hodge results in the lost needle sticking him in the buttocks and everyone goes home.

Diccon Bedlam the man who causes all the fuss, would have been instantly recognisable to Tudor audiences. he is a vagabond one of the sturdy beggars that lived on his wits and would have enough knowledge of human nature to trick the local villagers. He would have been seen as the perfect culprit to stir up the villagers. All the action takes place during one day and although there is much play around trousers and buttocks it is not really bawdy, just good fun in a Brian Rix Whitehall farce sort of way, although the language is more course. It was probably written for the entertainment of students at Christs College Cambridge and wold have remained popular enough to find its way into print in 1575.

It was almost a year ago today that we found two kittens in our garden. After nearly a year of loving nurturing one of the wretches has decided to leave home. Lynn is upset and has been walking the lanes and scouring the fields looking for her.
Our neighbours about a kilometre away on the opposite hill think that they have seen her (Charlie) and have set up a night movement sensitive camera to take pictures. They thought that they did not have any cats near their house, but the camera has revealed a whole series of visitations during the night, one of which looks very much like Charlie. Lynn spent a night up at their house with a trail of food leading in from the patio doors and although she kept awake she did not see the cat although the camera revealed that it had been around.

I think Charlie has probably decided to move onto pastures new, the call of the wild and all that.......

>122 baswood: Fun! Now at last I know why the name "Hodge" keeps popping up in Eng Lit...

Are you planning to do Coryat's crudities as "first English travel book"? (I'm not sure if it really is the first, but it's in the same line of eccentrically interesting minor works you seem to be following.)

How long has Charlie been off living it up? Maybe he'll return when hungry or cold.

>121 baswood:, >122 baswood: wonderful excerpt. Have to appreciate the low brow origins of English comedy - seems to be essentially a drinking rhyme. ??

>125 dchaikin: Charlie has been gone for about two weeks now.

The piece quoted above is a prologue to the play. The play does however contain a drinking song:

Backe and syde go bare, go bare, booth foote and hande go colde:
But Bellye god sende thee good ale ynoughe, whether it be newe or olde.
I Can not eate but lytle meate, my stomacke is not good:
But sure I thmke that I can drynke with him that weares a hood.
Thoughe I go bare take ye no care, I am nothinge a colde:
I stuffe my skyn so full within, of ioly good Ale and olde.
Backe and syde go bare go bare, booth foote and hand go colde:
But belly god send the good ale inoughe whether it be new or olde.
I loue no rost but a nut browne toste and a Crab layde in the fyre,
A lytle bread shall do me stead much breade I not desyre:
No froste nor snow, no winde I trowe can hurte mee if I wolde,
I am so wrapt, and throwly lapt of ioly good ale and olde.
Backe and syde go bare &c.
And Tyb my wyfe that as her lyfe loueth well good ale to seeke,
Full ofte drynkes shee tyll ye may see the teares run downe her cheekes:
Then dooth she trowle to mee the bowle euen as a mault worme shuld,
And sayth sweete hart I tooke my part of this ioly good ale and olde.
Backe and syde go bare &c.
Now let them drynke tyll they nod and winke, euen as good felowes shoulde doe

They shall not mysse to haue the blisse, good ale doth bringe men to:
And all poore soules that haue scowred boules or haue them lustely trolde,
God saue the lyues of them and theyr wyues whether they be yonge or olde.
Backe and syde go bare &c.

>124 thorold: Yes I am planning to read Coryat's crudities, when I sneak into the 17th century. I read your review it sounds like I will enjoy it.

I think therefore who am I? by Peter Weissman
Weissmans novel has got some rave reviews on Librarything and as an evocation of the life of a two bit drug dealer and user in New York then it would seem to be both accurate and insightful. However by choosing to write this as an autobiographical novel he is putting himself (His younger self) in the spotlight. The young Peter Weissman comes from a middle class family, a college boy who is in no danger from the Vietnam draft. He questions his parents cultural values and drops out of college. He is fortunate to find himself dropping out at a time when a lively counter culture movement is in existence and he dabbles in the protest movement, not it appears from any great conviction to change the world but because others are doing similar things. He discovers drugs then freely available to a middle class boy with change in his pockets and soon gets sucked in to the drug culture. He becomes alienated from non drug users and embraces the world of looking for the next high, which is the real meaning of life for a self absorbed perhaps susceptible addictive personality.

The sixties counter culture was a time of tremendous energy especially in the arts, and in the protest movements, but it was also a time of burgeoning consumerism and drugs were very much part of it. For Peter Weissman and his associates the energy and excitement of making new things happen passed them by, as they sink into a drug induced torpor. (Hell they could not get off their backsides to change an LP when it got stuck). Peter would have been one of those people that you would go out of your way to avoid, boring, rambling completely lost in their own space. He soon becomes a dealer in drugs very much at the street level, but he never stops to think about the harm he may do to others, his only thought is getting enough money to score. He would have the reader believe that he is a good natured “regular Joe” who finds himself struggling to survive in a world of high powered drug dealers and petty thieves. Well maybe.

For readers who lived during those heady years of the late 1960’s, and were into the youth/counter culture, Weissman’s book brings back memories. The realism is gripping even if that realism is seen through the prism of mind altering drugs. I immediately became absorbed in his book, but it goes on too long. As a document about getting it together until the next score it is spot on, but following Peter from one crash pad to another is like reliving too many afternoons in Notting Hill Gate. There is an afterword written probably in 2006 in which Peter reflects on possible sitings of characters he knew in 1967 and his book ends with thoughts about Artie who he may have seen in South Carolina and he wonders if he was gay, as he sees him with an older man, Peter wishes him happy but says “I moved up the street without a backward glance”. Without a backward glance seems typical of the man, whose younger uncaring self has overtones of misogyny and racism. I think the book could have done with a few backward glances.

Peters book is very well written with some memorable descriptive writing. A document of his times, which seems to be painfully honest. There are plenty of novelists who use their own life experiences as subject matter for their novels, but Peter Weissman chooses to make himself the subject of his novel. You need to be pretty much up your own arse to write in this way and this is what I did not like about the book, so an ungenerous 3.5 stars from me.

These Elizabethan enterludes or plays, all dating from around 1561-3 were performance art in late Tudor times. They come down to us as plays with characters who have lines to speak, but they would not have been performed on a stage in a theatre. The first theatre open to the public was not erected in London until 1576 and so these enterludes would have been performed in ad hoc spaces. We know that Gorboduc was performed before Queen Elizabeth in January 1562 and like the other enterludes they are interesting because they are at the very beginning of Renaissance drama in England.

Gorboduc or Ferrex and Porrex by Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville 1561
This is another early play that claims to have a number of firsts. Its original title was “The Tragedie of Gorboduc" and it may have been the first precursor to the great Shakespearean tragedies starting with Titus Adronicus in 1591. It would seem to be the first tragedy that was not just a direct translation from the Roman playwright Seneca. It was the first verse drama in English to employ blank verse and on paper it is starting to look like a play with characters that are real people rather than allegorical similes. However in the main it does consists of long speeches, there is very little dialogue and although there is plenty of action; this all happens off stage and is relayed to the audience as a series of reports, giving very little opportunity for play acting. It is not surprising therefore that there have been no notable modern productions of the play. However, there is more to it than just a series of speeches: there is a dumb show with music at the beginning of each act (there are five) and a chorus at the end that serves to bring the audience up to date. It also has a political content that explores issues around primogeniture making it of great interest to lovers of Tudor History.

At the play's beginning, the argument gives the following summary of the play's action: "Gorboduc, King of Britain, divided his realm in his lifetime to his sons, Ferrex and Porrex. The sons fell to dissension. The younger killed the elder. The mother that more dearly loved the elder, for revenge killed the younger. The people, moved with the cruelty of the fact, rose in rebellion and slew both father and mother. The nobility assembled and most terribly destroyed the rebels. And afterward for want of issue of the prince, whereby the succession of the crown became uncertain, they fell to civil war in which both they and many of their issues were slain, and the land for a long time almost desolate and miserably wasted.”

Reading it today the play seems overtly political. We know that at the time of its performance in 1562 the big issue of the day was the succession to the throne. Queen Elizabeth the virgin queen had no thoughts of marrying, even though the parliament of the day were pressing her to provide or name a successor. Recent Tudor history would have provided an object lesson on the dangers of no clear successor to the throne and the play rams home this point. Gorboduc by dividing the kingdom in to two unequal parts is laying the foundations for a battle of succession and by abdicating in favour of his two young sons each of whom have their own coterie of advisers he is creating his own tragedy. There are speeches made by the kings advisers on the wisdom of the decision, but only one dissenting voice that of Eubulus. Gorbodocs decision results in the death of all of the Royal family and England is not only plunged into civil war with all its atrocities vividly described, but also in danger of foreign invasion. At the end of the play with panic and rioting in the streets it is left for Eubulus to lament on the disaster that has befallen them all. The closing speech despairs at any resolution and looks back to opportunities missed, significantly that the King and parliament together could have avoided the mayhem. It was the kings wilful decision to divide the kingdom on the back of the flattery from his personal advisers that brought on the tragedy. The authors Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville were lawyers at the Inner temple in London and the grand theme of their play is good counsel.

The long speeches certainly to not aid the drama in any way, but they do contain some good lines and are generally well written. It is easy to follow the plays construction. The character of the two sons Ferrex and Porrex who are responsible for setting the disastrous events in motion are shaped in such a way that it is not clear which one of them is the aggressor and leaves the audience to provide its own interpretation. The dumb shows at the start of each act with their backing music provide for some of the drama and they would have set an interesting puzzle for the audience. The descriptions of the actions are fairly graphic especially the maids report on the death of Porrex killed by his mother. This is an interesting read and so 3.5 stars.

Jacke Jugeler (authorship in dispute) dates from 1563 and is described as a comedy. It does not have the pretensions of Gorboduc and in fact in the prologue goes out of its way to make the point that there must be room for comedy in everybody’s lives. The prologue says:

“intermix honest mirth in such wise that your strength may be refreshed
soo the mynd and wittes to keep pregnant, fresh industrious, quick and lustie,
Honest mirth, and pastime is requisite and necassarie”

What follows is a short play that pitches the wily vagabond Jacke Jugler against one of Lord Bounacres men jenkin Careawaye. Jack picks a fight with jenkin at the entrance to the lords house and gives him a sound beating, he then sets about persuading him that he, Jack is one of the Lords men not Jenkin. Jenkin gets thoroughly confused and the witty dialogue goes from one to the other. Dame Coyne and one of the maids Alis tripp and go get involved and eventually Lord Bounacres himself appears to sort it all out. It is left to Jenkin Careawaye to reflect at the end that:

“Such is the fashion of the worlde now a dayes
That the symple innosaintes ar deluded
And an hundred thousand divers wayes
By suttle and craftye meanes shamefullie abused
And by strength force, and violence oft tymes compelled
To believe and saye the moon is made of grene chese”

Godley Queen Hester by William Pickering is another of the Tudor enterludes, probably written in 1561 It is a curious affair in that the central issue appears to be the victimisation of the Jews. The king of Jerusalem has a new queen in Hester and has made a decision to banish the Jews from his kingdom. Hester herself might be Jewish and she persuades him that it would be far better if the Jews were dispersed around the kingdom. There is some comedy provided by Hardy Dardy and the story was adapted from the Biblical story of Esther. The play has a connection with the earlier morality plays and has allegorical players in Pride, Adulation and Ambition.

Jack Jugeler and Godley Queen Hester would have little appeal to those who don’t have an interest in early Tudor Drama.

The Diaries of Jane Somers by Doris Lessing
This is a combination of two separately published novels: The Diary of a Good Neighbour and If the Old Could…..in 1983 and 1984. They were originally published under the authorship of one Jane Somers, but by the time the second of the novels was published the cat was well out of the bag and Doris Lessing was identified as the author of both. In the preface to this 1984 edition; Lessing explains her reason for attempting to hide her identity:

She wanted to be reviewed on merit, as a new writer, without the benefit of a “name”: to get free of that cage of associations and labels that every writer has to learn to live with.

Two: She wanted to cheer up young writers who often have such a hard time of it.

Another reason was that some reviewers had hated her Canopus series (science fiction) saying why did she not get back to writing realistically as she had done before.

Lessing states that her ruse was successful as none of the reviewers recognised the true identity of the author. Whatever reasons Lessing had for trying to trick the critics and the publishing industry I am amazed that no one (as she claimed) recognised the hand of Lessing when they were originally published. These two novels with hindsight are obviously the work of Doris Lessing and not only that but in my opinion they rank as some of her finest achievements.

They are written in the first person by Jane Somers who we learn is a successful assistant editor of a major British women’s journal. She has spent most of her working life at the magazine and by sheer hard work and competence has become the guiding hand of Lilith (the magazine). She has sacrificed family life and family duties in her rise to the top and now in her early fifties recognises the gaps that may occur in the life of a successful business women. Familiar Lessing themes are explored again throughout the novels: the difficulties of being a successful women in a man’s world, especially as she is perceived by others, the sacrifices that have to be made along the way, mother and daughter relationships, all tied up in typical Lessing reality mode, choosing this time the care of the elderly as a focus in the first novel and an affair with a married man in the second. However the major impact this book had on me was Lessing’s attitude to children: seen in some respects as blood sucking dependences.

Lessing has never been frightened to voice her concerns over social issues that may go full square against public opinion. She is on relatively safe ground with care of the elderly especially when many of us today may feel some guilt as to how we ‘looked after’ aged and ill relatives, but some people will not agree with her central characters views of children. Jane Somers is steeped in the culture of the very upmarket Lilith which concentrates on the fashion industry. She is particularly careful about her appearance especially her clothes, choosing the very best materials and having many of them made to her own specifications. This extremely smartly dressed woman helps out an elderly woman in a local grocery store finding herself walking back with her to a hovel of a flat. She is shocked by the living conditions that old Maudie has to bear and is intrigued by the hostility that Maudie shows to all attempts to help her. Jane gets drawn into Maudie’s shrunken world and finds herself running errands for her and taking time to sit with her. Jane’s guilt at how little care she showed to her husband who died of cancer and how little time she had for her own mother when she was dying plays some part in her quest to help Maudie. She struggles, but finally becomes Maudie’s only friend and ends up being her main carer. Lessing does not spare her readers any of the details of caring for an elderly women dying of stomach cancer, who refuses to call on professional help. The reader feels that it is certainly good for the soul of Jane Somers.

The second of the two novels finds Jane still working at Lilith but saddened by Maudie’s death. She has found another of the local old women to minister to, but the emotional gap in her life is filled by providing space in her very fine apartment for two of her sisters teenage children. Jill is ambitious and sees Jane as a route into working at the magazine. Jane sees her potential and gets her a job, but as soon as Jill moves out her sister Kate arrives on her doorstep expecting the same help. Kate however is one of those people who seem to be adrift in her own private world and refuses to do anything for herself. Meanwhile due to a chance encounter outside an underground station Jane has fallen in love with Richard. They have a platonic relationship meeting at lunchtimes and the odd evening. Richard does not want to talk about his situation and it soon becomes obvious that he is married, especially when the couple see one of his children spying on them. Richard is trailed by his daughter Kathleen and Jane finds that Kate is doing something similar. When Richard’s son successfully fools his father so that he can replaces him at one of his assignations with Jane, then the love affair is in its death throes. The children (late teens and early twenties) have made it impossible.

It would seem that Lessing is out to smash the myth that having children spells happiness, putting a light to the fire under the baby illusion. Adults are so obsessed with their children, so exhausted by the task of looking after them that they have no energy and no freedom for themselves. People and especially women without children are seen as selfish, even as bad citizens. Jane childless herself has to suffer for her need to nurture, taking on two of her sisters children, some might say that this is also good for the soul, but I would not agree.

Lessing herself had three children, two of which she left behind in South Africa with her first husband. and was quoted as saying:

“There is nothing more boring for an intelligent woman than to spend endless amounts of time with young children”

Lessing took a troubled teenager into her house for four years, who grew into becoming the writer Jenny Diski. As is usual for Lessing when writing her realist novels, much of the subject matter is drawn from her own life experiences. She was a brave and fearless author who did not seek to assuage public opinion and this is one of her best novels. 5 stars.

>131 baswood: enjoyed this. Love the quotes and the spelling from Jack Jugeler.

Great reviews of these Lessing novels (pseudomemoirs?).

You're back! New Doris Lessing novels that sound like classics. Great reviews.

>132 baswood: Diski died earlier this year, but she left a memoir about her illness, and about her relationship with Lessing: In Gratitude.

Another interesting review Barry.

Hi. A late catch up on your thread. Just to say that a friend of mine took on a pair of cats needing rehoming, one of whom left after a while, but reappeared about six months later having apparently stayed in the neighbourhood. It's taken him a while to settle back in, but all is now as it should be, so good luck with Charlie, she may yet return.

I have not been as active lately on LT.

For the last two months I have been in varying degrees of pain. I have suffered from ankylosing spondylitis (a sort of rheumatoid arthritis) in my back since I was in my mid thirties and it comes and goes. Usually a period of increased exercising sends it away again, but this time it got worse and when the pain spread to my legs I visited the doctor. Pain killers and anti-inflamtories were not helping and so I was sent for a scan. This revealed a massive slipped disc and a visit to the surgeon was arranged for the next day. By this time I had regressed from a zimmer frame to a wheelchair. The day after my visit to the surgeon I had an operation. I have now four large screws in my backbone and the fragments of the disc have been removed. I am now almost pain free and I can walk again. The best Xmas present I have ever had.

Two things I have learn't from my experience:
How quickly your world can shrink when you are first of all housebound and then wheelchair bound and how frightening it can be when you don't know what is happening.
If you are going to get sick, make sure you are in France when it happens. The medical attention I received could not have been better.

What an awful time you've had Barry, but I'm glad they have got you back on your feet again and pain free. Long may that continue. The trouble with pain is it also deprives you of concentration, I hope you now have a juicy pile of good reading to aid your continued recovery.

Glad you are pain free again!

Your quiet thread had me worried about you, Barry, but it didn't occur to me to worry about you in that way. I'm so happy you're doing better and relieved for you that you are walking and almost pain free.

I'm so sorry to have read of your troubles, but very glad to hear of your treatment and recovery, very best wishes with that and finding your way to how you want to spend time.

>139 baswood: I can't even imagine. That sounds dreadful. Glad you're back with us.

>139 baswood: I am sorry to hear about the pain and surgery. I hope that where you are in France is relatively urban and has many delivery services as I have in NYC. Thank goodness everything went well and you are on the mend!

What everyone said!

So sorry to hear you have been having an awful time of it. It is wonderful when medicine can effect a rescue from such debilitation. I hope you will now be at ease. I've heard rumours that the French medical system may be coming under threat in these days of straitening budgets. I hope they remain only rumours, as I have heard good things of French medicine from others, too.

Glad you are feeling fine again!

Oh wow, I haven't been getting around to threads very regularly and I missed your post about your health until now. I am so glad that the surgery was done quickly and hope that things are continuing on pain-free.

I'll remember to only get sick in France. :)

The Proud Tower: a portrait of the World before the War 1890-1914, by Barbara W. Tuchman.
A social history of the world (Europe, U. S. A. and Russia) that runs the gamut between some brilliant insightful highs to some perverse and offensive lows. What else can you expect from Barbara W. Tuchman, whose book had me eagerly page turning one minute and wanting to throw it across the room the next. Her subject is a huge one; to give a lasting impression of the more developed countries in the period before they would all joyfully launch themselves into the first world war, and however skewed her impressions are I think she largely succeeds.

Tuchman’s excellent foreword describes her thought processes in writing the book: she says she has been highly selective in the subjects she has chosen to portray the social and cultural milieu of the period. There are chapters on late Victorian and early Edwardian governments in England, chapters on the anarchist movement in Europe, American expansionism, the Dreyfus affair in France, peace conferences at the Hague, the rise of socialism and most bizarrely the music of Richard Strauss, which she describes as the barometer of the weather in Germany. She says that there are other subjects she could have chosen to make her points about the societies in the various countries, so much so that her book could have been totally re-written. This selectivity could present the reader with some problems, because while you might well be interested in the rise of socialism, you might not be quite so interested in a long chapter on the music of Richard Strauss. To Tuchman’s credit her enthusiasm for the subjects she has chosen are undiminished and can carry the reader through the more esoteric of these.

Her book was published in 1966 and smacks of the now outdated patrician approach to history telling. At times it is like reading a selection of newspaper tabloid headlines and while these are undoubtedly entertaining and attention grabbing the reader might miss a more reasoned analysis of the issues. Tuchman is altogether short on analysis, she hits you with some facts and some colourful anecdotes of the characters involved and lets the reader form their own impressions. She cannot resist giving piquant pen portraits that sometimes verge on satire for example:

Lloyd George:
He had strong political principles but no scruples. Small and handsome, fearless, ruthless, and honey-tongued, with bright blue eyes, brown moustache and intense vitality, he constantly pursued and attracted women and adroitly avoided the occasional legal consequences. As a public speaker he was the Bernhardt of the political platform who ravished audiences with Celtic-lilt and strong emotion.

Captain Alfred Dreyfus:
As a person he was not liked by his brother officers. Stiff, silent, cold and almost unnaturally correct, he was without friends, opinions or visible feelings and attention. These characteristics appeared sinister as soon as he came under suspicion. His appearance the reverse of flamboyant, seemed the perfect cover for a spy. Of medium height and weight, medium brown hair, and medium age, thirty-six, he had a toneless voice and unremarkable features, distinguished only by rimless pince-nez, the fashionable form of eye glasses in his milieu.

Tuchman certainly has her heroes and her villains and she can’t help herself from going slightly over the top when it comes to describing handsome men. Women do not, by and large get the same treatment.

The overriding theme at the start of the period is how out of touch the leading politicians and the aristocracy were with the common people and the burgeoning industrialist. Rather like today there was a tremendous gap between the very rich and the rest of the population, but this was not such an issue for the leaders at that time because of the class system. People knew their place and although the period saw the sporadic violence of anarchism and the more thoughtful political gains of the socialist movement, when their country was seen to be threatened; nationalism took over. The herd instinct always in evidence was probably more prevalent at the turn of the nineteenth century. War it would seem was inevitable.

The Proud Tower will not be to everybody’s taste, but as an example of popular history, backed up by a wealth of research (50 pages of notes) and some humour then it proved to be an entertaining if somewhat frustrating read. Ridiculous even hysterical at times, but also packed with information and a portrait of the period that provides the basis for what happened next. A four star read.

Great review of The Proud Tower, Barry. I don't think I'll read it, given your criticisms of it.

Excellent review. I think I have PT on the shelf. I read her Guns of August, which I could characterize much the same way.

I enjoyed The Proud Tower and The Guns of August but had the reservations as you.

Just catching up - cheers to your ongoing recovery! Glad all is moving in the right direction.

I hope your recovery is continuing at speed Barry.

I've not read any of Tuckman's books.

Great review of The Proud Tower, which was interesting, but I agree with your caveats, and love that "patrician approach"... so true. I have the same response to Antonia Fraser. Back to Tuchman, I had the same feeling when reading her Stilwell and the American Experience in China.

There is a need for good popular historians though for all kinds of reasons. I'm not sure who the current crop would be, but I hope the members are more attuned to the world as seen from different perspectives.

>139 baswood: So sorry to hear about your health troubles. Glad you were able to have swift and effective treatment and that your recovery continues. I'm always dubious about wait times for surgery as reported in the news in Canada because I've never had to wait for any treatment, but I have to admit, next-day surgery is deserving of kudos.

>151 baswood: I've added Tuchman's book to my wishlist. I enjoyed A Distant Mirror. Her style suits me well - not too heavy on detailed analysis. I may have to skip the section on Strauss, who is not a favourite composer (memories of early music lessons).

Barry, further to your little comment on Caroline's thread I thought I would look you up and it was well worth doing so getting myself quickly immersed in your fascinating thread.

I spent a fair amount of time as a youngster in South West France cycle racing and training. Collioure and Port Vendres are favourite spots and I would love to take my family there one fine day.

I do spend most of the time flying through the threads in the 75 Book Challenge but I am toying with having a secondary thread over here in 2017.

>151 baswood: I am quite enamoured of Tuchman's work and read The Zimmermann Telegram earlier in the year.

Nice to see you here Paul and look look forward to seeing your secondary thread on club read 2017. Darryl does it and so can you.

We holiday every year at Banyuls sur mere which is the next town down the coast from Port Vendres. I make a point of walking the coastal path from Banyuls to Port Vendres and on to Collioure. I dream of owning an apartment along that stretch of coast.

Interesting review of Beware the cat. It seems a sport among academics to ever proclaim yet other works as the first or earliest novel in the English language.

>157 SassyLassy: I've loved the Antonia Fraser books I've read, so maybe I should read more Tuchman! I've only read A Distant Mirror, the 14th century one.

It is funny how quickly nonfiction can feel out of date, even if it isn't necessarily the information that is dated.

> 162 I've enjoyed Tuchman very much. I've read A Distant Mirror, Practising History, The Proud Tower and The Guns Of August. I've read somewhere, though i don't know if it is true, that Kennedy was reading or had just read The Guns Of August at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the lessons in it influenced his decisions in dealing with Russia. A pretty audacious claim! (By the way, does anyone have a recommendation for a good read about that whole episode? The snippets I've picked up about things like the basic problems of communication between Russia and the US seem remarkable.)

Oh, and of course, Happy New Year. I hope the health continues to improve and look forward to reading your reviews next year.

It's taken a day or two but I finally caught up with this whole thread.

Wonderful reviews. I hardly know the Tudor poets and learned a lot from what you said - it made me think about their concerns as against what would we see as the concerns of contemporary poets, made me wonder what they are, no doubt also vital, but in comparison something of a luxury perhaps.

Then the early drama was also fascinating - I envy you, in the nicest way possible, making your way through it to what emerges a little later having sampled where it was just before.

Reading of Lessing and having read occasional mention of witchcraft in your Tudor reading made me think of how often it was children that accused "witches" if I remember rightly - though there were other factors too. I'm interested in the The Diaries of Jane Somers now, but quite glad I haven't pursued my interest in Shikasta further.

Finally you've piqued my interest in Fred Vargas - when you say Vargas brings order with his explanation it made me think of the Melville film Le Doulos. I won't spoil that film, if you don't know it, but it also confounds understanding for a while. I wonder if they are at all alike, or if this strand is well known in french crime fiction?

I said finally - but you've also inspired me to read Laxness. Reading your review I thought of Caedmon, what is known of him or what I have heard said of him in relation to Olafur. But then if I dwell on it maybe other poets too, and Edwin Muir (and his autobiography and his concerns) and George Mackay-Brown perhaps.

And I've not touched on Mirabilis or the flight from Paris, or even Corbyn...but it may be best I say nothing there, what can we say these days.

But very glad I have caught up.