Holiday reading

I literally took a book bag to Cornwall with me - a whole large jute shopping bag full of books. I knew what I intended to read, but I have a horror of being far away from my books and finding that I can't get into anything I try. I think the book bag was heavier than my suitcase...

Anyway, what did I read? Certainly not everything I thought I would read. I had half a dozen Cornwall books with me, a couple of CC Vyvyans, a couple of Dennis Val Bakers, Frank Baker's The Call of Cornwall and a lovely book called Letters from Lamledra. Somehow being amid the real thing meant I didn't need or want to read about Cornwall, so most of the above were unopened, apart from Lamledra. This is the collected letters of Marjorie Williams, whose husband built a house, Lamledra, on the clifftop above Gorran Haven, near St Austell. She spent the summer months of the 1914-18 war years there with their children, while her husband continued with his work in London. The letters are mainly hers to him, but there are one or two of his, describing air raid precautions, etc.

The letters are a lovely mix of local Cornish life, Marjorie's observations of her garden (both flowers and vegetables) and the backdrop of the war (local boys being killed, injured, etc and the difficulty of getting sugar to make jam). It finishes with a section of her journal from the Second World War, by which time her husband had Parkinson's, and she was really writing for herself. A little gem of a book, which I would recommend to anyone who loves Cornwall or the war years.

Other books read during the week were as follows:

The Daughter of Time - Josephine Tey Started weeks ago and I'm afraid I got very confused despite the family trees. The sharp style kept me going however and I really will read it again one day and endeavour to keep up with the characters!
 Of Mice and Me - Steinbeck My younger son is studying this for English GCSE and I read it so that I could discuss it with him. I don't think I've read any Steinbeck before and was quite unprepared for the force of the narrative. He packs so much into those 97 pages and the ending, although I sensed something was coming, still had the power to shock. So many themes and such brilliant characterisation - I loved this and I'm so pleased my son is studying such a classic.
 Mad World - Paula Byrne I heard PB talk about this at this year's Bath Literature Festival and her bubbly enthusiasm is certainly present in her narrative. Described as a 'partial life' it traces Evelyn Waugh's early development as a novelist through his involvement with the house (Madresfield - 'Mad' - hence Mad World) and the Lygon family on whom he modelled Brideshead Revisited. Surprisingly scholarly for a popular biography, it's a rattling tale of bright young things and their inevitable downfall, with a much more congenial depiction of Waugh than we're used to - and that was what PB intended. If we ignore the repeated references to 'stately homes' which would have had Waugh grinding his teeth, this was a riveting read, with plenty of new material and the narrative pull of a novel. I was very pleased to have the time to read it straight through in a couple of sittings.
  Wait for Me - Deborah Devonshire Eagerly awaited and snapped up from Amazon as soon as it was out, this was ultimately a bit of a disappointment. I enjoyed her re-telling of the sisters' childhood and her debunking of some of the wilder myths, but there was a not-quite-believable detachment from the political extremism of her sisters. I suppose I don't quite understand how she could separate the women from their views - not that I felt she sympathised with either left wing Decca or right wing Diana and Unity, but something just didn't quite ring true for me. There were also long tedious passages from the times she accompanied Andrew, the D of D, on political trips to Africa, etc - most of which read like the regurgitating of official diaries. However, the tale came back to life with the Kennedy tragedies, and was also interesting on the subject of turning Chatsworth into a going concern financially. Her famous enthusiasm for Elvis, which I had previously thought originated in the 50s, turns out to be much more recent, and another part of the book which I thought was slightly contrived. However, the final sentence was a cracker - she looks back over a lifetime of 'watching other people work'. I'm sure the irony was quite unconscious, because she had genuinely described many of the estate workers and others who she was happy to live amongst, but as a one-liner to describe a life of privilege, this had it all!
  And finally...The Hours - Michael Cunningham Packed at the last minute and brought up the reading pile after seeing the film on television a few weeks ago, this was wonderful. I need to read it again and I also need to read Mrs Dalloway now! I felt I was only touching the surface of the way the three stories were interwoven but stood as separate tales within the whole. Beautiful, intelligent, literate writing, certainly one of my books of the year so far.