Tring Book Club - Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

 

How does a writer in his forties pick to write his first novel in the first person about a twenty something young woman?  He must be a genius because this book is packed full of fabulous witty prose. Katy Kontent is living the dream in New York City. She has little money and shares an apartment, but manages to make the high life courtesy of a chance meeting with Tinker Grey on New Years Eve in 1937. But it's Katy's friend Eve Ross who eventually ends up with Tinker. Evie is a "marketing assistant at Pembroke Press, promoting all of the books she so assiduously avoided at school". 

There is lots about New York, especially the bars and restaurants. Lots of chance encounters but not an awful lot of plot. But what carries the book is the writing, always sharp and clever. The book is in four sections, Wintertime, Springtime, Summertime and Fall. For me, it is that last section that makes the book the masterpiece it is. The pace seems to pick up in those last seventy pages as Katy's relationships with those characters from earlier on are resolved. Brilliantly. 

The Pillowman at the Duke of York's Theatre

 

Back on the stage twenty years after it first opened at the National Theatre (where it won the Laurence Olivier Award for best new play in 2004 and later a Tony Award nomination for best play in 2005), The Pillowman is an early but typical Martin McDonagh drama. Packed full of fast dialogue, monologues, foul language and, mainly, hidden violence. I was able to download the full script which comes in at sixty nine pages. The setting is the office of a top detective for a totalitarian state. Enter Steve Pemberton (Inside No 9) as Tupolski and Paul Kaye (primarily known in our house as the pathologist in Vera) as his henchman Ariel. Already there is a blindfolded Katurian, played against gender by Lilly Allen. Interrogation ensues. 

Of course there have been murders. Katurian cannot understand why she is involved, only later to find out why. There is a long, long scene when she (he) is in a cell with her brother Michal (Matthew Tennyson) where why they got there is bandied back and forth. This is where the gender swop comes into it's own. I was at times wondering just what it would have been like with Katurian as a man, and I just could not believe it would have been better. I thought about Alex Kingston as Prospero that seemed to be perfect casting. 

Director Matthew Dunster knows what it's like to direct a McDonagh play after the success of the brilliant Hangmen. The Pillowman  was written after the playwright's six Irish plays and is a kind a catalyst for those dramas to come, of which Hangmen is typical. Of course, the actors are great, who would not be with such material at their disposal. Lily Allen's performance has had mixed reviews, I thought she did well, a mixture of vulnerability and strength.

Alison came with me into London and we had a pleasant lunch at Giraffe on the Southbank. Outside but under cover was perfect. 

The Hot Bed

 

Since I lost the three red Lychnis Chalcedonika in the repeated heavy frosts of last winter, the hot bed has only the giant poppy to offset all the other yellows.

Of those, the most dramatic is what I believe is a wild flower. I have no idea where the large yellow loosestrife came from or if it just seeded itself. I had to go on a plant finder website to see what it was.

 The tall Achillea at the back is just coming into flower as is the Anthemis.

Delphinium Pacific Giant

 The blue Delphinium is still my favourite plant in the garden, it towers above all the other perennials in the main border. I know I have already posted photos this year and previous years, but I could not resist including another. This June there are more flower spikes than I can remember.

And once again a picture of a bee inside a flower.

 

The Wildflower Border

 

This was the wildflower border in May. It was completely covered in blue Cornflowers.

But by the start of June, and despite the staking and propping, they had all fallen over and were way past their best. So they were cleared, and now in their place are a mass of Ox-Eye daisy and Greater Knapweed, both grown from seed a few years ago.

Philadelphus Dainty Lady and Philadelphus Belle Etiole

 I posted pictures of the two Philadelphus on 5th June 2020. This year they have matured into wonderful specimens. Above is the Belle Etiole and below is Dainty Lady.

Poppy and Corncockle Bed

 

In March I sowed some poppy and corncockle seeds in a bare patch along with some bits taken from the cornflowers. I had no great expectations and it was many weeks before this happened.

Past the middle of June and the first poppy has flowered.

Followed by a few more.

The corncockles seem to be on the verge of flowering. I will include a photo when they do.