We are delighted that the editors of ‘Nella Last’s Peace’,  Patricia and Robert  Malcolmson, have agreed to appear at one of our ‘Meet The Author’ events at Warwick Words in October. The previous book in the series ‘Nella Last’s War’ was a tremendous success and adapted into a television drama. However, this volume which describes how ordinary people re-built their lives after the war was over is equally as fascinating. The minutia of everyday life and the very honest account of everyday relationships with family and friends render every page of interest, and one ends hoping for more.  In fact so extensive were Nella’s contributions to the Mass Observation Project that no-one has managed to read them all!

The talk is sure to be one of the highlights of the Warwick Words Festival…make sure you book in time!

Warwick Books book group meeting 19^th May 2010. 

The group met at the Punchbowl in Warwick & thank you again to Angie for letting us use the space –it is a very congenial atmosphere and nice to have our chat over a drink!  We convene at around 6.00pm and usually finish at about 7.00pm.

 The book we had read this month was “Three Cups of Tea” by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin.  This is the fascinating and inspirational story of Greg Mortenson who has spent fifteen years single mindedly & almost single handedly building schools in rural Pakistan and Afghanistan.  Completely outside the mold we think of as typically American, Mortenson has been through many trials and tribulations in his quest to improve education particularly for girls in this difficult and often isolated part of the world.  He started off particularly naively trusting almost everyone, unable to use a computer and assuming everyone wanted the same things he was seeking.  As he has become older and wiser, he remains “Dr Greg” to his many fans in the area (he is a qualified nurse, but not a doctor), loved and revered, but sadly also hated and distrusted by  a few.  His quest to improve the education of children in this area continues, and he firmly believes that the way to peace and understanding is through learning.  Everyone in the group found the story fascinating and inspirational & we have nothing but admiration for Mortenson.  Some found the tone of the narration (by Relin)  slightly irritating, but nevertheless there is no hesitaion in recommending this book.  We are looking forward to reading the follow-up book, “Stones into Schools” which has just been published in paperback.

For our next meeting on Wednesday June 23^rd, we are reading “The Glass Room” by Simon Mawer.  This novel was shortlisted for the Man Booker prize.  Inspired by a real “modernist” house, the book traces the stories of the various inhabitants over the years as the house changes from Czech to Russian hands.

We will be meeting at 6.0pm in the PunchBowl pub, and I have asked participants to come with some ideas for future reading – individual titles and also themes we could follow.  If you haven’t joined us before & want to come along, just contact Frances at Kenilworth Books a few days before the meeting.

Joe, who is a well-known cultural historian, came to Kenilworth Festival to give a talk about his latest book ‘On Roads’ He deserved a much bigger audience, but nevertheless it was a very appreciative one. Here is my introduction…..

“A writer and academic, based at Liverpool John Moores University, Joe Moran has written five books, the most recent of which are Queuing for Beginners (2007), a cultural history of daily habits since the war, inspired in part by the Mass-Observation surveys, and On Roads: A Hidden History (2009). As well as publishing articles in obscure academic journals, Joe writes for the Guardian, the New Statesman, the Financial Times and other publications. He describes himself as a cultural historian focusing on the very recent past, with a particular interest in the everyday.

And as he said in one of his blogs (which are terrific reads in themselves) “An interest in the everyday appears to be contagious…..Alex Horne had a piece in a recent Observer about his love of service stations, and a reporter from Newsnight spent the election campaign camping out at Donington Park services on the M1. And …..according to the Guardian, The Archers has a new character, a milkman called Harry, who maintains a blog which is full of ‘fascinating stories about semi-skimmed milk’.

‘On Roads’ is about the everyday, but it is much more. One of the reviews said

“One of the many pleasures of this book is Moran’s tone. Subtle parody and self-parody roll through the pages, preventing his obvious affection for roads from ever congealing into sentimentalism. His prose is tinged with a Morrisseyish melancholy for the glamour of seediness.”

Another….”Part extended essay, part prose-poem, On Roads is doubly successful. It offers a re-enchantment of the road, peddling a neoromanticism of the tarmac, according to which the Red House Interchange, the Redditch Cloverleaf and the Almondsbury Four-Level Stack are as resonant a series of place-names as the Ridgeway, Stonehenge and Silbury Hill.”

It is in the Sunday Times Books of The Year, it has recently been long-listed for the Samuel Johnson prize. The most common word in the reviews that I scoured is ‘Wonderful’ as in David McKie in The Independent ‘Truly wonderful…every minute devoted to this book is richly rewarded’

The book ends though with a sobering thought for writers. Unread books are shredded into tiny fibre pellets to make roads. A mile of motorway consumes 50,000 books. Joe’s comment: “Having your unread books vanish into the authorless anonymity of a road feels pleasingly melancholic, like having your ashes scattered in a vast ocean.””

His research at the moment is concentrated on popular television which entails him looking at a lot of the old series we remember so well such as ‘Brideshead Revisited’. What a wonderful job being a cultural historian!

‘Impossible’ by Nancy Werlin

This book was a big hit with all of us, despite our wide age range! It’s a romantic mystery/thriller set in our world with a touch of the supernatural which is intriguing and unusual enough to be gripping, without giving us all nightmares. Some of us had problems with the opening chapter as it stretched our credulity but once we had got past that, we were quickly hooked. The pace increased as the book went on, getting more and more intense as it approached the climax. We were in doubt as to whether there would be a happy ending which made it all the more exciting – and we’re certainly not going to give anything away – although we did admire the clever last minute twists which kept us guessing almost to the last page.

We particularly enjoyed the way the famous folksong ‘Scarborough Fair’ was used as the launch pad for the plot and the convincing way the world of faerie was blended with the real, modern world. Scores were all 9s and 10s.

This is essentially a young teen read and would make a great book to pack for a long journey or a day on the beach. Younger readers would manage it and enjoy it but we should warn you that some very unpleasant things happen. They are handled well – nothing is graphic or gratuitous – but they are there. We’d recommend it for adults too – a light but well-written and gripping summer read.

Our next choice is something very different ‘George’s Secret Key to the Universe’ by Lucy and Stephen Hawking. We’re hoping a children’s version of Stephen Hawking’s theories might be within our grasp.

We will meet on Tues 22nd June at 4.15pm and, as ever, we’d love to see some new members.