Self-help and shopping

I recently picked up Mary Portas' book on How to Shop, out of curiosity - I had watched some of the TV programmes on which the book is based. The book, like the programmes is well presented, but does it really tell you how to shop for clothes? I've been shopping for clothes for decades now, and I feel that it didn't give me much in the way of guidance, probably because I don't actually spend that much money on my wardrobe. I'm still not sure about which shopping tribe I belong to, but I can't say I'm really worried about it - never did like being one of a tribe anyway, I'd rather be independant and make up my own mind. I thought the when to shop section quite useful, even though I'm unlikely to follow the advice.

More to my taste was Danielle Proud's House Proud: Hip Craft for the Modern Homemaker. This is about how to achieve a quirkily stylish home on a budget, and includes all sorts of ideas for furnishing and decorating a home. As I've been doing this most of my life, some fresh ideas were very welcome - my ancient copy of Jocasta Innes The Paupers Homemaking Book is almost unusable because of its disintegrating condition. Danielle's ideas are fresh and modern with quite a lot of emphasis on the current recycling trend.

Sea of poppies

Having ploughed through some crafty books recently, in search of inspiration, I finally got round to cutting out the fabric I've had for a while to make a new bedcover. The colours are blue and ivory, that is blue flowers on an ivory background. Well, its now half made, and will be finished this weekend. Ideas gleaned from the gardening book I've now returned to the library are put on hold, as the back garden is too boggy to walk on at the moment, what with snow and then a month's worth of rain in a day on last Monday.

A really lovely read recently was Amitav Ghosh's Sea of Poppies.

This wonderful historical novel, starting out in early Victorian India, has a huge cast of characters and a wide sweep of events, from the death of a husband and rescue of his wife from suttee (or self-immolation) to the preparation for the first Opium war in China in 1838, and the shipment of migrant workers to Mauritius. All manner of fascinating details of life at this time are here, from poppy growing and opium production, to the table placements for an early Victorian colonial dinner party and the arrangements of sails on a converted slaver, to the costumes and dress of sailors, Indians, convicts, rich and poor, high and low. The characters include Indians from village peasants to a Raja, Chinese sailors and others, a variety of British inhabitants of India, a mixed blood American freeman, a young French girl and include the ship, the Ibis, on which most of these people end up. The language used to tell this story is a complete mix of Bengali, Bhojpuri, English slang of the period, pidgin English and more, but nevertheless carried this reader on through the tale. I can barely wait for the next instalment to be published, so much do I want to find out what happens next.

A good turn and life as a wife

Kate Atkinson's One Good Turn is a book I've only just caught up with and thoroughly enjoyed. A thriller cum mystery without too much overt violence, a character we have met before in Jackson Brodie and some lovely little twists and turns in the plot make this a really good read. The atmosphere of Edinburgh at Festival time is well done without overemphasis. The other characters are well drawn, especially Gloria, Julia and Louise Morgan - all seemed real enough people to me, and would recommend this read to anyone, but especially to those who read nothing but thrillers or murder stories. This is definitely on a higher plane than most of those. Must hastily order her next one , When Will There Be Good News, from my local library - I try not to buy too much fiction as the house is full enough of books already and I'm not now a great re-reader.


One writer I am tempted to re-read from time to time is Elisabeth Luard, especially her biographical-with-recipes books. I've not long finished her story of My Life as A Wife, :Love, Liquor and what to do about the Othet Women , a sort-of follow on to her book Family Life, although it is mainly concerned with how she came to marry Nicholas Luard, founder of Private Eye and the adventures that marriage led her through. I found that some of this book recalled instances in my own life, such as my mother's comment " I'm off to join your father ", who was working as a mining engineer in Ghana, almost as soon as I received my A-level results - the sort of that's life, now jolly well get on with it attitude.


However Elisabeth's life was very exciting to this outsider - working at Private Eye, even as secretary, marrying the boss, going to live in Spain with four young children, then France for a year just to ensure that the children spoke fluent French as well as fluent Spanish, and finally returning to Britain - all this sounds very dashing, and doubtless very hard work too. It also gives a view of life and attitudes in the '60's that seem much more care-free about how children are brought up than today .

Foreign parts

Some books I've just finished took me to Africa ,India and Germany.

Bernard Schlink's The Reader ( now a film, which I've not yet seen) is something that escaped me when first published. Although set in Germany after World War II, this story of a young boy and his relationship with an older women describes how they first meet, how their affair develops and then ends, almost abruptly. However while a student, the boy sees his former lover again, in court being tried for crimes committed as a concentration camp guard. In both parts the boy reads to her, which she loves. Although this is a fairly short book, the depth of emotions described make it one of the most satisfying reads I've had in a while. The issue of illiteracy is one of the most important of all, as without literacy, so much of life is inaccesible, and can be lost, forgotten and abandoned.

I visited Africa courtesy of Chinua Achebe's classic story Things Fall Apart, which is almost a classic novel of the colonisation of Africa. Set in Nigeria in late Victorian times, the story describes the life of an African village, self-sufficient and stable with its own organisation, religion and explanations of events that affect people. The main character Okunkwo is regarded , and regards himself, as a strong, successful man, maintaining three wives and their children, but despite his apparent success, his life eventually ends tragically. Some of the events which bring this about Okunkwo had some control over , but others, such as the arrival of white missionaries in his village during a period of his absence, Okunkwo had no control over, and this lack altered his image of himself. There is an acute sense of loss of the past, which while it may not have been perfect, was nevertheless understood by the village society. I'm really glad to have read this at last.

Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance took me to India in my imagination. Life in a village, and life in the slums and suburbs of a large city are beautifully described, the story flowing along with almost unstoppable impetus. The series of terrible events that happen to Ishvar and his newphew Omprakash throughout their lives are documented almost clinically, and the lives of the other two main characters, Dina and Maneck are also descibed in detail from childhood on. The discussion at the Book Club considered the meaning of the title, and concluded it showed how difficult that balance was to both achieve and maintain.

Cornwall to Paris

A recent reading group read was Patrick Gale's Rough Music, which we all liked. The story is a sort-of family tale, starting with a tale of a prison governor's son who briefly befriends one of the prisoners. While the family are on holiday in Cornwall, there is an escape from the prison and later a train robbery. The story moves back and forward in time from past to present and back again. The main character changes his name, confusing at first although we eventually find the reason for this - a banal one, really. Characters are not quite who they seem at first - the boy's sister is not actually his sister. Subtly written, the relationships although complicated, were well decsribed. An interesting read.
I've been looking forward to catching up with Joanne Harris' The Lollipop Shoes , so was pleased it was chosen for a Book Club read recently. I found the change of narrator for each chapter a little bewildering at first, although soon adjusted. The suspense was well built up, and the theme of changing identity one Joanne Harris has used before. Although it has been described as a sequel to Chocolat, it's a complete story in its own right, and one that is well worth reading. Some of the characters we have first met in Chocolat, but things have moved on - Anouk is growing up and developing a mind of her own, Vianne seems to have changed her character completely and Zozie who we meet for the first time appears to be mischievious but harmless .I enjoy this sort of book as not too-demanding but a bit of fun.

Sisters in Arms

Sisters in Arms by Nicola Tyrer is a book I've been looking forward to reading for a little while. It tells the story of the nurses in the Queen Alexandra Royal Army Nursing Corps, as it became after World War 2. One of the reasons for my interest is that my mother was in the service during the war, ( when it was known as Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service)and saw service in North Africa and Italy, where she met and married my father. The book describes the tented hospitals my mother mentioned, when asked about her time in the war, and also describes some of the events in Naples, where my mother helped nurse a typhoid epidemic. My father was in the Royal Corps of Signals, and they met at a party in a palace in Rome, according to my mother. They married in April 1945, and spent a brief honeymoon in Sorrento. The picture is of them on their wedding day, both in uniform as were all their guests.

Nicola Tyrer's book is well researched, covering all areas of the world where Army nurses saw service, including the defeats at Hong Kong and Singapore when the Japanese overran those places. It certainly filled in some of the gaps in my mothers stories of the time she spent in the Army, nursing, as like many of her generation she didn't tell her children too much about what she did in the war. It would be a worthwhile read for anyone interested in nursing, women's roles duringWorld War Two, or the war generally.

Idle pleasures and a short life

I've just finished reading The book of idle pleasures, edited by Tom Hopkinson of the Idler magazine. It's not what I would call a proper read , more a diversion, as it's a list of all sorts of pleasures (according to the Idler) with delightful black and white woodcut illustration. Some of the pleasures are simple, like leaf-catching, walking home drunk, taking a bath, while others such as breast-feeding, only available to certain people at a very specific time of their life. Yet other idle pleasures like cloud-watching, ( one of my personal favourites ) available to anyone of any age. Reading this list brought back some happy memories of time spent idling and being happy while doing so ( if doing is the right verb to use in this context).

A complete contrast is Janet Street-Porter's book, Life's Too F***ing Short. Her premise is that you should just get on and do what you want to, not to worry about what others may say. The book is divided into various chapters like food, style, travel and so on, with a number of rules to follow in each, presumably to achieve your own personal idea of perfection in these areas of life - but at the end Janet S-P says there are no rules, just make up your own. A maddening and sometimes infuriating read, probably aimed at someone rather younger than I, but quite interesting. Many of the things Janet S-P suggests I've been doing for years, others are good ideas to follow up.