History, historic fiction and biography

Bit of a mixture here.  History, historic fiction and biography. 

The Forest is a wonderful book.  This is a signed copy.  It tells the story of the New Forest in Hampshire through the lives of fictional families.  Each section takes the next part of history, starting with the start of the forest and ending in the present day.  I have read it several times and have re-visited parts of the forest in which the stories are set.  The characters didn’t actually exist, but you feel as if they may have done.

There are two biographies of Dickens (one rather old with an illegible spine) and one of Hilaire Belloc.  There is also Belloc’s The Four Men.  This is story of four friends who walk across Sussex.  You can tell how much he loved the county.

The history books include two by Chris Hare.  He is a local historian who knows everything about Worthing.  I have been to some of his talks and guided walks.  A very interesting man.

Wonderful weekends, birds and butterflies

The Wonderful Weekend Book by Elspeth Thompson is a treasure trove.  It is all about reclaiming your weekends and reminds you of all the wonderful things that you could be doing.  I liked the way she goes through the seasons, reminding you of the simple pleasures like making marmalade or picking elderflowers to make champagne.  A lot of things she talks about cost nothing: watching the stars, writing proper letters, having picnics.

Also on this shelf are books to help you enjoy the great outdoors.  Lovely as it is to see flowers, birds and butterflies, it is also satisfying to know what you are looking at.  The “easy way” guides are small enough to put in your pocket so you can take them with you on your walk.  The Reader’s Digest books are better but they are too big and heavy to carry around.

Art and Mountains

These are mainly art books but with a few extras thrown in.  I love the colour and detail of the Pre-Raphaelites.  You can see some good examples at the Ashmolean in Oxford as well as at the Tate in London. 

I took the Constable book on holiday once and travelled around finding the places he painted.  The weather was beautiful and the scenery was lovely.  It was a great idea for a themed holiday.

Gombrich’s book Art and Illusion is well worth reading.  It is full of fascinating insights about the history of art and really makes you think about the meaning of artistic representation. 

The National Gallery companion guide is a useful book to take with you on a trip to London.  You can view the paintings and read about them as you walk round the gallery.  I hardly ever go to London but always make a point of visiting the NG if I do.  It’s amazing to think that all that art belongs to all of us.  It is just there waiting for us to go and see it whenever we want to.

Sharing the same shelf as the art books are three books about the Lake District.  My favourite of these is Mountains in the Mind.  It is a blend of poetry, reminiscence, art and walks.  Just the thing to read by the fire on a winter evening.

Reference books

I love reference books and dictionaries.  I bought this edition of Roget’s Thesaurus when I was at school.  It still contains a bookmark from a school trip to an exhibition in London.  I won the large Collins dictionary in a cryptic crossword competition in the Daily Telegraph in the early 80’s.  My nephew bought me the 1996 film guide.  It contains listings for films going back the 1930’s and is fascinating.  I’m a great fan of old films.

Scarlett Thomas and Sally Vickers

My first Scarlett Thomas book “Popco” attracted my attention because of the interesting cover.  I read the first page in the shop and was hooked.  I don’t know if you ever get that rush when you realise that you have found a brilliant new author?   I read that first book three times and then rushed back to get “The End of Mr Y” the following week.  Popco makes you think a lot about advertising and commercialism and what it does to us.  Interestingly  enough, it also rekindled my interest in maths and code breaking!  The End of Mr Y is a stranger book, less grounded in reality.  Parts of it are bleak, but the ending makes you feel hopeful.  Her latest book, “Our Tragic Universe”, is not as good as Popco but I probably liked it better than The End of Mr Y.  It is not as bleak as Mr Y and the ending is far more satisfying.     

Sharing the shelf with Scarlett is Sally Vickers.  Her gentle books are undemanding but still keep your interest.  “Miss Garnet’s Angel” is the story of a retired school teacher discovering Venice.  She goes for a holiday and just never goes home.  I love the way she decides to stay and immerses herself in her new life.  “Mr Golightly’s Holiday” is a different kind of holiday.  The mysterious Mr G decides to take his holiday in an English village.  Whilst you read the book you start to realise who he really is, as well as learning about the lives of his neighbours.

Jasper Fforde

I am a huge fan of Jasper Fforde.  It started when he was being interviewed on Radio 4 just after he published The Eyre Affair.  The book sounded so intriguing that I went out and bought it the next day.  It was the first to star the literary detective Thursday Next. 

The Thursday Next books are set in an alternative version of the present day.  Almost the same but not.  The Crimean war has never finished, dodo’s and Neanderthals have been recreated using DNA kits.  Oh yes, and fictional characters turn out to be alive.  Fforde drops in lots of literary allusions, which can be fun to spot, and there is a lot of comedy.  I particularly like some of Thursday’s mad uncle’s inventions (translating carbon paper, etc).

Not all of his books feature Thursday.  There are also some set in a world where nursery rhyme characters intrude into real life.  These feature detective Jack Spratt with his assistant Mary Mary.

If you liked the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, if you like classic fiction, you will like Jasper Fforde.

Furry Logic

This is a funny little book which I bought in Melbourne.  It is full of beautifully painted pictures with a motto to go with each one.  The panda sums me up "Happy people are more likely to get what they want - which only makes them even more happy".