The Beginning of Spring, The Loney and Burning Bright

The Beginning of Spring is as usual, a light and witty short novel from the amazing Penelope Fitzgerald. The writing is as intelligent and imaginative as ever: "He didn't oppose his will to the powerful slow-moving muddle around him. What he did not like, or could not change he guilelessly avoided. The current of history carried him gently with it".

Even for such a short book, the story fizzles out towards the end. I think the author was so fixated with the Russian setting of 1913 that she forgot to put in some plot. So although I didn't enjoy this as much as her other novels, it was still a joy and a cut way above most fiction.

On the back cover of The Loney it said "A masterful excursion into terror". I'm glad it wasn't. More like a psychological drama with a few thrills towards the end. I loved the narration although I'm not sure if we know his name. His surname is Smith, he is brother to the mute Hanny (Andrew, funny that's the author's name) and Father Bernard calls him Tonto.

This is a haunting tale that is both riveting and well written. Not the most ambitious prose, but immensely readable. The descriptions of the wild coastline are superb. Set somewhere in the north west where claustrophobic bay has dangerous tides that can leave you stranded on Coldbarrow, the island offshore where the two brothers find excitement and then danger.

The novel has themes of religion pitted against mysticism. The brothers, their family and friends under the guidance of Father Bernard are seeking a cure in this isolated place. But God is elusive when faced with the evil of Parkinson and Collier. A great first book that deservedly won the author the Costa first novel award.

This was my sixth Helen Dunmore novel and "Burning Bright" is one of her best. I had to keep reminding myself that this book was published twenty two years ago. Paul Parrett is a war baby (as I was) and is therefore in his late forties. He is single, a successful politician and a minister. But the story is not about him. It is about Nina who says she is nineteen but is actually three years younger.

She has left her family and moved in with her much, much older boyfriend not aware of what he does and what she is in for. This is very tasteful kind of grooming although I'm not sure if that word was in existence then. Fortunately this is not a grubby story. There are a couple of situations that don't quite add up given Nina's age, but overall this is a superbly told book full of incident and drama.

There is one possible untold relationship that suddenly dawned on me on page 168, but the author never ever gives a hint of what this might be. You just have to decide yourself.

World Cup 1966 - Alfie's Boys

David Jason was an engaging narrator for  "World Cup 1966: Alfie's Boys" (BBC2). Defender George Cohen, one of the world-beating team 50 years ago, remembers manager Alf Ramsey 'You couldn't tell if he was angry, happy, upset, emotional, miserable, whatever — he was just Alf, stone-face.' 

The programme concentrated on the history and lives of Alf and the team. There were only very short clips of some of the games, this was a documentary about a different age in football. There were terrific interviews with some of the players: Jimmy Greaves trying to hide his disappointment in not having been picked for the final (these days he would  have been brought on as a sub), Geoff Hurst talking about how Jimmy's record showed how he was the better striker. Ray Wilson spoke about the humility of players in those days. How the England hierarchy decided to split a total bonus of £22,000 on the basis of how many games were played and Bobby Moore insisting it was split equally between the squad.

Bobby's wife Tina was fascinating, how the wives were put in a different room at the end of finals' dinner. Roger Hunt, Martin Peters, Alan Ball, Nobby Stiles, Gordon Banks, the Charlton brothers, a beaming George Cohen and even one match Ian Callaghan were all interesting. 

There was one clip that took me back. It showed the three West ham players (Moore, Hurst and Peters) taking the pitch first at Upton Park on the first day of the 1966/7 season against Chelsea. Yes, I was there.

The Hollow Crown - Henry VI Part 2 (Actually Parts 2 and 3)

Did director Dominic Cooke see the same RSC production at Stratford of Henry VI Parts 1, 2 and 3 as I did in 2000 that was directed by Michael Boyd?  Back then the whole thing ended when the future Richard III not only kisses the baby (the son of his brother Edward IV) as Shakespeare directs, but also carries him around the stage while muttering his aside "To say the truth, so Judas kissed his master and cried "All Hail" whenas he meant all harm".

That moment at the Swan Theatre, late in the evening and at the end of seeing all three parts in one day has stuck in my memory as much as anything I have seen at the theatre. Then it was a really creepy Aidan McArdle as Richard and now it is a gruesome Benedict Cumberbatch.who talks to the camera. It brought it all back.

Dominic Cooke takes a liberty with the text for the end of Part I. Richard Plantaganet, Duke of York returns home after a succesful battle to greet his three sons, the last being the deformed Richard just seen in silhouette. Brilliant. As was Sophie Okonedo as Henry VI’s ferocious French queen Margaret.

The Garden in May

This year has been one of the best for blossom and the vigorous growth of all the plants in the garden. The clematis has been spectacular.

Then there were the tulips.

I planted some wallflowers for the first time. They are actually pretty late getting going in the border I normally reserve for summer bedding.

I cannot remember the autumn colour crab having as much blossom in the twenty years since it was planted. There is a chaffinch in there somewhere.

The tellamina grandiflora was blown over in the wind so is now having to be staked. Geranium plum jerkum is at the front and the corulus contorta at the back.

The main border is about to come into flower, the aliums have just started and the forgetmenots are growing like a weed.

The weigela always puts on a good display and this year is no exception.

Aylesbury Choral Society - Verdi Requiem

Aylesbury Choral Society were joined by Uxbridge Choral Society to sing the Verdi Requiem at Thame Leisure Centre on Saturday night. The combination of the two choirs made for a truly wonderful sound. The professional soloists were brilliant. It was a privilege to be seated only a few rows directly in front of such great singers as Mardi Byers (Soprano) Cheri Rose Katz (Mezzo-Soprano) Max An (Tenor) and George Stevens (Bass).

The orchestra was surprisingly large in number and were high quality. I had never heard the music before, but it had distinct reminders of Verdi operas. This was as close to a professional concert as you would get from an amateur choir. You could tell from the reaction of the soloists that the singing behind them was first class.

The conductor Jeff Stewart (who conducts both choirs) is to be congratulated for making this such a superb evening. There were probably double the numbers in the audience than previous concerts, and it was all to be done again at Uxbridge on the Sunday.

George Stevens, Mardi Byers, Cheri Rose Katz, Jeff Stewart and Max An.

New Bookshelves

I had run out of space on the bookshelves I bought just after I retired. I found these on ebay that fitted the space perfectly. They came flatpack (as always) and apart from trouble sliding the back on, they went together fine.

So nine of the twelves shelves are filled with paperback. Some in alphabetical order (where an author has more than one book) but not all.

Of Mice and Men at the Oxford Playhouse

It must have been a set book as most of the packed house for the Thursday matinee performance of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men were in school uniform. This is not  an uplifting play, in fact the only laugh of the afternoon was when the dog got loose and wandered off the stage. Otherwise the grim realities of rural 1930's America make for an uncomfortable experience . I also found the first half to be very slow and repetitive. Yes, the second half picks up but the lack of humour, wit and intelligence in any of the characters is unfortunate.

I was not convinced by the two leads but there were marvelous cameos from Dudley Sutton (now well into his eighties and still going strong), Dave Fishley as the solitary black labourer and Saoirse-Monica Jackson in her first professional stage role as the lonely, very young wife of the boss's son. The last half hour is the best part of the play and the ending is highly dramatic. Shame I couldn't have arrived late.

High Rise, Eye in the Sky and Florence Foster Jenkins

A pretty crazy movie is High Rise. but there again it is an adaptation of a J G Ballard novel. Director Ben Wheatley and writer Amy Jump have made something fairly original if you like that kind of thing. It is flavour of the month (or year?) Tom Hiddleston who doesn't know what he has got into when he takes an apartment in Jeremy Iron's cultural experiment that turns nasty. There were some interesting moments but it was all a bit haphazard for my taste.

Now Eye in the Sky is definitely my kind of movie. A taught and morally complex thriller that kept you interested throughout. Helen Mirren's Colonel has too much invested in the capture or killing of one terrorist that she is blinded to any eventuality that may occur in such a mission. But there are many more interested parties that wont see it her way. Director Gavin Hood has made something gripping and intelligent. Alan Rickman, in his last role, has never been better.

Another weird movie is Florence Foster Jenkins if only because of the source material. Florence is the world's worst classical singer, but she doesn't know it because hubby Hugh Grant (looking extraordinarily old) and others encourage her. Meryl Streep is perfect as the deluded but extremely wealthy diva but for me, it was Simon Helperg as the young pianist Cosme McMoon who stole the show. He was terrific It's just a shame that director Stephen Frears couldn't pitch the film as he may have wished. He wanted us to laugh with Florence instead of at her, but however much I wanted to, I just felt as embarrassed as many others. The critic in the Sunday Times was particularly cruel, it wasn't that bad a movie, just that the subject matter would never have a good ending even though much of the story is well told.

The Grant and Stone Marlow 5 Mile

The hottest day of the year greeted the 1000 plus runners for the annual Marlow 5 Mile yesterday. So it was not a surprise that my time was 2 minutes slower than last year. I tried in mainly in vain to find any decent shade on the side of the road as the sun was beating down. On the plus side, my pace was better than the Milton Keynes 10K in March.

I came in 550th out of 987 finishers which compared to last year 553rd out of 993 was about right. And 7th out of only 11 runners in the 70 plus category. Thanks to Sandi from Park Run for picking up Alison and me and being such good company.

Run, The Girl in the Red Coat and The Buried Giant

Run is just a wonderful book. We read Ann Patchett's "State of Wonder" for book club but this is far better, more than equal to her brilliant award winning "Bel Canto". It all happens over a couple of days in snowy Boston. There is a piece early on when one of two brothers is involved in an accident and the other cannot help his fixation with quoting politicians. Their father reprimands him with "Oh for God's sake Teddy. Not Reagan. Not now".

There is also a bit about politicians later on that is brilliant. It ends "what you wound up with in the end were a long string of generalities, stirring platitudes, that would not buy you supper".

But it is eleven year old Kenya that is the star of this story. She is one of those characters that you would love the author to come back to. If I have one criticism it is that there is just a little too much introspection. But the prose is outstanding, the characters vivid and you could feel the cold Boston winter seeping through the pages.

Manipulative. (I gave up half way through). I thought I'd had enough of child abduction after recently reading "Our Endless Numbered Days" but with The Girl in the Red Coat, here we go again.

The Buried Giant is an extraordinary book. Set around 500/600 AD, beyond the iron age, the Britons and Saxons are living in peace. Or are they? The language Kazuo Ishiguro uses is fascinating, a type of formal but stylised English that suits this time in history: "Forgive my poor manners. Travelling this far west, I find myself nostalgic for my childhood, though I know it's some distance yet. I find myself seeing everywhere shadows of half-remembered faces. Are you and your good wife returning home this morning?" There is so much wonderful dialogue, the author certainly has the talent for how people converse.

I also loved the conversational tone: "I am sorry to paint such a picture of our country at that time, but there you are." An elderly married couple hope to find their son, but this is much more than a medieval road trip. The elusiveness of memory is central to the story, but can love conquer all if the past is finally revealed?

Odeon Kensington - Saturday Morning Pictures

The most recent Sunday Times carried the following article called:

Movie stars join fight to save art deco cinema from bulldozers 

It was Alfred Hitchcock’s favourite place to watch his films and where Princess Diana took the young William and Harry to see the latest blockbusters. Now one of the country’s most distinctive art deco cinemas stands in darkness, threatened by bulldozers and the plans of developers.
Its last hope of salvation lies with Britain’s show business elite who have launched an attempt to save it. Dame Kristin Scott Thomas, Sir Ian McKellen, David Suchet, Charles Dance, Lord Puttnam, Zoë Wanamaker and Kevin Spacey are among those hoping to preserve the Odeon cinema, which has stood on Kensington High Street in west London since 1926. The building, which became an Odeon after the Second World War, was a firm favourite with Hitchcock who lived nearby. 

The cinema closed last year in anticipation of the redevelopment. The Odeon Kensington was only a short walk from where we lived. I remember it most for Saturday Morning Pictures. We didn't go every Saturday but the serials kept you wanting to return. I think it must have been the noise from the cheering and general chat that we gave up going.

Tring Book Club - The Secret River by Kate Grenville

Another book club, another Australian writer (a previous selection was Thomas Keneally's "The Daughters of Mars").  We also recently read Patrick Gale's superb novel about early settlers in Canada "A Place Called Winter". The latest book club choice swops Canada for Australia with Kate Grenville's "The Secret River". I found the story leading up to William Thornhill's transportation to Sydney Cove a bit of a jumble. In fact I was not at any time impressed by the writing.

However there is an interesting story to be told about how convicts became the first settlers in New South Wales and the last third of the book certainly picks up the pace. There are huge challenges to be faced by William's family and these culminate in something raw and harrowing. So although I was glad when I finished the book, the experience will stay with me for a long long time.