Anita Brookner has been accused of writing the same book over and over again. Did Jane Austen ? JA writes about middle class families and their romantic and matronial affairs in the Manor Houses of 18th century rural England. Over and over again. Yet every novel is different. I am not an Austen lover but I am an Austen admirer. Who could not be ? Her canvas is small and her themes limited and yet ..

Brookner`s canvas is larger. She uses cool, supple, clear prose to devastating effect and she 'tells' more than she 'shows' and in her hands telling works perfectly. No one has a sharper eye for the small tics of behaviour which are revelatory of inner uncertainty, or of loneliness or self-deception. She is very good on self-deception but in the end her characters deceive no one, not even themselves, as they usually confess. Her setting is almost always -though not quite - London and middle-class. Her principal character is usually but not absolutely always, a woman. She writes of inner loneliness, of social gaucheness and the way individuals have found ways of accomodating both. She is good on marriages which work in spite of themselves, on foreigners in England, on people moulded by their pasts and who have set in those moulds. She is good on what such women wear and eat and where they pass their days. She describes a certain sort of large and gloomy London mansion flat with huge, old, ugly furniture, in which many of her characters live so unconmfortably. She can be devastatingly witty and strips away layers of pretension but she is never unkind, always understanding in a slightly detached and brisk way. Briskness, indeed, is one of her hallmarks.

There are a lot of novels. At one time AB published a new one every year and I always bought them at once in hardback, so that I have a fine row of first editions now. I have been re-reading them one by one and I would press them upon you. Few novelists will give you such insights into the nuances of human nature. Her novels are quiet and in some ways introspective but they will grip you as well as any thriller if you give yourself up to them. And in spite of the recurrence of certain themes, and a certain type of woman, no, they are by no means all the same. She holds an object up to the light and turns it round and points out endless subtleties, lights and shadows to us so that we see them quite freshly. She was not an art historian for nothing.

I read that she is a woman`s writer - whatever, outside the realm of chic lit, that may be but an e-mail this week from a man in the USA thanks me for introducing AB to him and finds himself in her thrall from the first page of the first novel. So that scotches that one. 

Where to begin ? It doesn`t matter. The novels will not be easy to find in the shops but you should get at least some online and after that you will have to scour the second-hand book shops. I wish her publisher would re-jacket and re-issue them all in a series but I bet they don`t. 

I have at least five left to re-read this winter, along with everything else. I wish you would join me.

You may notice that I have changed most of the links to Favourites on my blog. I am tired of the same old blogs and I wanted to change things and point visitors here who may be interested to something new. At this time of year I also want to highlight some favourite charities and the work they do. We all have our own and I am not in any way trying to push you into giving to different ones. But a lot of people visit here and all the charities need more support. I will change these about during the coming weeks and although there is nothing obscure here, nor are these the obvious - the big charities which spend a lot of money leafletting through magazines and random mailing waste our money. But I can assure you that every charity that goes up on my blog uses its money, so far as I can possibly tell, wisely and prudently. And all of them are in need and do wonderful work.

The other URLS are interests of my own which you may like to know about. And I will add one or two because they make for beautiful browsing - the world`s great art galleries have all made magnificent use of the web and we can enjoy their glories at a  click. Spend ten minutes a day and you will indeed find some great paintings. First up is our own National Gallery - and so it should be.

.. but I`m fine, thanks. I keep getting e-mails asking me if I have cancer and the answer is not so far as I am aware.

But I have been plotting out a new book and it does take lots of mornings in coffee shops with notebooks. Having finished the last Serrailler for a while, I am starting on my new crime novel series - or rather, I am starting the notebook stage, which is always the best part, so lucky me. I am actually writing something quite other but the crime novel is going to be the very next. It is called CORRUPTION and it features a new detective called Rick Bradshaw who is working on his own and half undercover in the MET during the 60s - or just possibly the early 70s but not now, that is for sure. I am not going to drop in lots of detail about people shopping at Biba don`t worry - but I don`t want to have anything about terrorism and if you write about the Met now you cannot avoid it. Also, a detective could be a loner and a bit of a maverick then. That is the idea anyway. My editor says it will end up being set in what she calls 'Hill-Time', a sort of indeterminate period somewhere between 1910 and 1975 ! But London, firmly. I haven`t written about London for ages and I will have to remember things as they were when I was a student there. But at least the Queen is the same one. How very reassuring.

New post just up.

Having marked a set of proofs, most hated job, finished a chapter of the new novella and bathed two Border Terriers with FOUR changes of water ( dont ask.). So I started off by calling in at the Village Coffee morning. It`s great, once a month in the village hall, cakes and veg and a raffle, some books for sale too, coffee and biscuits and gossip. I felt guilty because I had not graced the Village Noel Coward Evening with my presence last night. So, I bought fresh cream meringues for the SP and a handful of raffle tickets and then off to the Garden Centre. Well, as the SP noted last week, Hunt the Garden section at this time of year. I arrived just before Father Christmas and made my way through nodding polar bears and laughing Penguins to the most amazing Christmas emporium. There are sections colour co-ordinated, so if your tree is to be white and silver, gold and red, blue and green or whatever, you find everything in one little grotto. I decided our whole scheme needed an uplift so I went a bit mad. I then moved to the little darkened igloo in which there is every sort of flashing, twinkling, chasing and flaring light, angel, Santa, Reindeer, snowman and candle your heart could desire, plus light up churches, trains that go round and smoke, and whole villages lit from within and glowing through artificial snow. We go for the naff and kitsch here a Christmas, always have, so as we have endless musical boxes and a huge carousel plus a house that lights up in sequence of rooms, I indulged in a fibre optic ski slope with little people sliding down it, twinkling fairy lights and and band playing, of course, The Skater`s Waltz. It is sooooo bad taste you wouldn`t believe. Love it, love it, love it. There was a queue for Father Christmas by this time so I gave him the swerve and went for a double-shot Latte to wire me up, before hitting the home stretch. I got back to a message saying we have been lucky in securing our KITTEN at last. The saga of our trying to get another kitten is worthy of  print. But this looks safe as there are five females in the litter, none of them black - we are unlucky with black cats - and not far away either. They have also been brought up with DOGS. It is to be collected the week before Christmas and I do not want any lectures about its being for life not just for, because I know that, our last one was 16 when she died so there. I haven`t told the Border Terriers yet. Watch this space.

 

 

Getting lots of e-mails asking the same things so here goes..

1. The next Simon Serrailler novel, THE VOWS OF SILENCE is out from Chatto and Windus next June and no, I cannot make them do it any quicker. These big ships have a very wide turning circle.

2. If you want to buy any of my books, signed, for Christmas - and indeed, dedicated if you ask....then here is the list of what I have. You can pay either by cheque to LONG BARN BOOKS LTD. LONGMOOR FARM. EBRINGTON. GLOS GL55 6NW  and postage is free on everything. Or you can use Paypal. with your card. www.paypal.com and our e-mail for this is sales@longbarnbooks.com.  You don`t need an account to send money only to receive it but follow the instructions. Here is the list,

THE MAN IN THE PICTURE. 9.99

LANTERNS ACROSS THE SNOW. The special limited edition in a slipcase.  It`s lovely. £15

any of the Simon Serrailler crime novels in paperback only.6.99 each

THE MAGIC APPLE TREE. New edition. Hardback. 12.99

THE WOMAN IN BLACK  Paperback only. 6.99

IN THE SPRINGTIME OF THE YEAR. Pback only 6.99

Happy to sign and dedicate anything.  I hope this answers all those FAQs and or anyone who wants to ask an FAQ is a FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION.

 

Nick came round from shooting with 3 brace each of pheasant and partridge. It`s the height of the shooting season here so lots of lovely game to eat and how nice that we get it free. The hunt was here this past week, hounds leaping off the walls and out of the hedge and getting lost in the maze and swimming in the lake. It was a beautiful sunny bright day and they looked a treat and you could hear the baying and horn for miles. The hedge laying competition last weekend is followed by the Ploughing Match this, there are Christmas bazaars everywhere and last week I won 2 bottles of wine, a hyacinth in a pot and a GIANT HAMPER stuffed full of goodies. I am doing Christmas this year - regulars here will know we now have one year on, one year off when the children go elsewhere and we let Santa drive by. But this year I am on with a vengeance and I have just decided the drawing room needs re-decorating before it all starts. Good jobthe Greek Gardener has a friend who has a friend who can fit us in before Christmas then.  Today I ordered another ton of stuff from the wonderful ladies at the WI market, to be collected on the Friday before, plus the bronze turkey now has our name on it as it still trots round the yard. Pretty bloodthirsty it is hereabouts. I have found a source of locally brewed lager - Cotswold Lager - for the son-in-law and have put out the last call for Christmas lists. If I don`t get a list by the end of November that`s it, they get what I choose - well, they do that anyway but if there is anything in particular they want they`d better speak up or forever hold their peace. Young Daughter is in the land of Thanksgiving so it will be her 2nd turkey dinner and as the £ is so strong against the  $ she is bringing some lingerie and cashmere pressies with her - half price and light to carry. Of course she will require reimnbursement. I have to do a gig at Toppings Bookshop in Bath in mid-December which gives me a nice excuse for an overnight stay and some Christmas shopping in that excellent city of both small and large shops. I sound quite festive already. I ate a mince pie yesterday but it didn`t taste right, it only being November. Did you know they changed their flavour next month ?

The SP is marking the proofs of my children`s book, I have some nipping and tucking to do on Serrailler 4 and hope to have a novella finished before I knock off to decorate the tree.

Ah yes, the Tree. Trouble is, we grew a lot of our own but they are 9 years old now and would suit Trafalgar Square better than my drawing room. The Greek Gardener says he will take the top off one, nothing to it, he will shin up with his saw and ...

I`m checking whether we have public liability insurance.

I wrote about cancer here a few months ago but have been prompted to do so again by reading TAKE OFF YOUR PARTY DRESS by Dina Rabinovitch, which charts the story of her breast cancer.

In fact Adele Geras mentions it in a comment to my recommendations for a Christmas Set of biographies to add to the Jane and Mike Tomlinson book. Not sure I would put the Rabinovitch in a Christmas stocking - it seems far darker to me in spite of the witticisms. Both women died. Both faced the illness in very different ways.

 

We all wonder how we would be if it were us though I don`t  wonder much any more because I am pretty sure I know. I would not do is write anything about it and I would tell almost no one. Immediate family have to know. No one else does. I have two friends I think I would tell  but it is only 'think.' The main reason is that I absolutely could not bear all that sympathy, which will sound odd coming from me as my family will testify because if I have a cut finger or a cough I require oodles of it. But the more serious the illness the less I want to talk about it, the less gush I could cope with. Someone I know had breast cancer 18 months ago. She is fine at the moment but she and her husband told no one until treatment was all over and scans were clear and only then when it seemed relevant. They could not bear everyone asking about it, recommending  things, telling their own stories, coming round with casseroles. A lot of people went round to Dina R`s house with casseroles.

I know a lot of people who have died of cancer, quite a few very recently. I would be interested in statistics here because it seems to me MOST people who get it die. One thing seems sure too - many die after months of pretty miserable quality of life, not because of the cancer but because of the bloody treatment and it rarely seems to work. Perhaps someone will present me with a stat or two. Perhaps someone else will write a book 20 years, say, after their cancer - or 10 at the very least - to show that they are alive and kicking and that something worked. Nobody has probably because they`re so relieved to be alive they daren`t tempt fate. There should be a moratorium on the war words too - Battle with Cancer -if only because it is the enemy that generally wins.

One thing though. Last night on my favourite soap one of the handsomest characters, Dr Sam Strachan, finds he has a Grade 3 non-Hodgkins Lymphoma so that is pretty much curtains for him and he has just said, apropos a remark about fearing he might be going to die, 'We`re all going to die.'

Indeed. Aside from any individual loss and the effect it may have upon us,  I do wonder why we are always so surprised when it happens.  Death is unavoidable. It is what we think of as untimely death that shakes us - but what is 'timely' ? For everything there is a season. Some die old, some die young and maybe the latter are those the gods love. Or not.

Breast cancer brings out the worst in a lot of people. It brings out the gruesome humour, the boob jokes and the bald-head jokes worst of all and it provokes an awful lot of sentimentality just as Aids once did. But bowel cancer doesn`t nor do prostate cancer or brain tumours or Grade 3 non-Hodgkins lymphoma. They don`t get the high profile or the film-star treatment, nor those awful pink ribbons.  I am anti every shade of ribbon.

The longer I live the more cancer there seems to be about and the pendulum has swung from 'Don`t mention C' to everybody talking about it, writing about it, singing songs about it, wearing ribbons about it.

Doesn`t seem to make a scrap of difference. The crab just goes on clawing away.

 

 

......HarperCollins follows. They have set up a website especially to sell luxury editions of the last unfinished J.R.R.Tolkien novel, The Children of Hurin, which was completed by his son. The books are signed by the son, and by the illustrator and they are leather bound. They cost £350 each and the edition is of 500. But for a fraction of that, as you know, you can snap up one of the last 14 copies of the special edition of THE MAN IN THE PICTURE. These are cloth bound in black Colorado cotton, with a silver block on the front. Each is signed and by the author too, please note, not by one of her relations, and has a handwritten extract from the book inside and is hand numbered. Each extract is different. This edition was of ONE HUNDRED copies only, which is very few. I have kept two myself, the others have gone, and they are £25.  Think how many other books you could buy with the £325 you save.

And now for the next in my CHRISTMAS SETS series. As there are so many celebrity biographies and autobiographies at this time of year - usually ghosted by someone else - I am choosing  a set in this category but it is a little harder to avoid the new though I hope I am avoiding the obvious in the way of Russell Brand.

RUDOLF NUREYEV. THE LIFE. by Julie Kavanagh. Fig Tree. £25

Unlike most celeb biogs because there is an extremely interesting story of the Cold War days and Nureyev`s defection from Russia here as well as a very well written account of his years with the Royal Ballet. When I was an undergraduate I had a group of friends who spent hours outside CG hoping to see him and get his autograph. They managed 1 but never 2 and were furious when I went into a Record Shop in South Kensington and there he was, buying some vinyl. I got his autograph and a few words - and what made it really galling to them was that  I hated ballet - still do. Like watching paint dry. Nureyev was unbelievably handsome - I don`t think I have ever seen a more astonishing face.

THE MOON`S A BALLOON. by DAVID NIVEN Penguin 6.99

The ultimate smooth Brit on celluloid, Niven was also an extremely accomplished writer and a very funny one. This, the first volume of his autobiography, sold 5 MILLION copies when first published in 1974 and it wears very well. His early life, early days in Hollywood - this is the first book and others follow. But I like the first best. A book for your Auntie - unless she still has her original copy...

 

BALFOUR. THE LAST GRANDEE. by  R.J.Q ADAMS  John Murray £30

I know, but in his day he was a huge celebrity and this is a must-have for anyone interested in UK History, politics, parliament, toffs and leaders. Men who fall into that category will welcome this. Expensive - you can get it cheaper - but a first class biography.

and finally,

YOU CAN`T TAKE IT WITH YOU by JANE AND MIKE TOMLINSON. Pocket Books 7.99

'What would you do if you found out you had cancer ?' is a question I suspect we all ask ourselves occasionally. This is the second book of story of what one woman did - get up and go, running and cycling round the world to raise several million pounds for cancer research. Jane Tomlinson was an ordinary Yorkshire wife and mother with everything to live for and she died this year after having responded to the challenge of her cancer in a magnificent way. I have chosen the book because it is an awe-inspiring story and also because the SP received his CBE last week. Immediately after him to receive it on behalf of his late mother was tiny ten year old Stephen Tomlinson who did the job perfectly, as you would expect from the son of Jane. The SP sat next to him and remarked that he was not very big. 'I know I`m the smallest in my class,'  Stephen said  - and proudly. Small boy, big courage. Read the book. A present for almost anyone you can think of.

 

 

Saturday morning early, cold, blue sky, hard frost, bright sun and a lot of mainly dilapidated cars and vans and pick-ups arrived to park in a field half a mile from here. They were in for the Hedge Laying Competition. The lane they used has a very long hedge and it was divided into  numbered sections. Each contestant had  a section to lay. I went down three times... at the start, when they were well underway, and at the end. This is  a very old country activity and a well laid hedge is a beautiful thing. By the end of the day the entire lane was looking extemely smart, everything laid and cut back and snipped off .. it will all grow together to make a wonderful structure for next year`s leaves. I bet they were glad they were not doing it yesterday when we had a night of heavy rain so that it was muddy, rain all day, a high and bitter wind and later on, sleet. Friends in Shropshire had 6 inches of snow.

This morning all is calm and bright again. I love weather.

New post just up.

I have had so many begging e-mails from desperate students that I have restored the section for them. If you are studying any of my books for GCSE or AS or A Level click on this Category where there will be posts about the set books from time to time.

We are interrupting this bulletin about BOOK SETS for a special announcement.

Each year about this time I look for the one Essential Gift I have found in all the Catalogues that give the postman a hernia. It is a fun task and this year there have been quite a few contenders - the Reflexology Socks, the Wine stopper in the shape of Rudolf. But I am delighted to announce that we have a run-away winner. The Absolutely Essential Item or Must-Have Gift which you will be thrilled with me for tracking down IS.... Tarrrrrrrrrraaaaarrrrrr

THE MUSICAL CAKE SLICE. Plays tunes suitable for several occasions. Simply press the button on the handle and listen to  JINGLE BELLS, FOR HE`S A JOLLY GOOD FELLOW, AULD LANG SYNE or, for anyone with a wedding in the offing,  THE WEDDING MARCH. It comes with a one year guarantee which is a relief, and is a snip at 8.99 though as usual the necessary 2 AA batteries are not included.

RUNNER UP this year. That Perfect Gift for the Gardener in Your Life.

THE PAINT YOUR OWN GNOME SET. Plaster figurine with six paints and brush. 6.99. But only 6 inches high so more a Bonsai Gnome really.

Never say I don`t spoil you.

CLASSICS

I thought long and hard about this set because of course it is a section one could make 1 million Sets of but I decided to choose one or two lesser-known classics by well-known  classic authors. Of course your recipient may have read them - in which case there are plenty of ways they can swop. I do think you have to be sure before giving this set that your recipient is a Real Reader. I would never give Classics - goodness I hate the word but it serves -on the off-chance as they might well be badly received. But try this set and indeed, treat yourself to it. I guarantee the best reading over the nasty dark days of post-Christmas-January. All of the books are available in so many editions I have left off publisher details - you can spend a couple of pounds on cheaper editions or a lot on lovely hardbacks from Everyman Classics.  But I like Sets to be within the reach of many different pockets, if you follow.

In no particular order then.

DICKENS. THE OLD CURIOSITY SHOP.

Not one of the best known but I love this novel. It has characters to rival those in many of the Great Dickens Novels and it is richly funny and touching by turns.

BALZAC.  EUGENIE GRANDET

 

Balzac is too little known to us. His Comedie Humaine is Great Literature, marvellous observations of people in society and he is especially good on the relationship between people and money - an important subject. There are plenty of good translations and he translates well .. do try. This makes a good starting point, as would Pere Goriot too.

THOMAS HARDY. TWO ON A TOWER

Mighty writer and this is a minor novel of his. It is very unusual and very different from the usual Hardy. Not typical but, like Under the Greenwood Tree, it is enjoyed by many who do not enjoy the Bigger Hardy novels.

And lastly, a much better-known Classic, and one of the best reads ever...

DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.

Frightening, wonderfully well written, dark, spooky, disturbing.. what else would you want to read by the fire in winter ?

I reckon the right person would far prefer this Set to a Sock Set, an Aromatherapy Set or even a Chocolate Fondue Set.

I said I would do classics but I am doing Books to Make you Laugh or Funny Books because there are so many 'funny' books about in the Christmas promotions that are either not funny, fleetingly amusing or crude. My sets represent Real Reads and Value for Money so here are some extremely funny books. I know humour is a very individual thing but I cannot believe the person exists who would not find at least something to laugh at here - I find them all not only wonderfully, laugh-aloud funny but funny every time I re-read them and that is a wonderful thing.

1. THE JEEVES AND WOOSTER OMNIBUS by P.G.WODEHOUSE. Penguin. 10.99 for 800 whole pages of laughter !

I know not everyone finds PGW funny but they should. He was a master of the language and the humour does lie in the language rather than the scenarios (though these are indeed also very very funny.) This omnibus contains 3 of the very funniest Jeeves stories including my absolute all-time favourite, THE MATING SEASON.. it`s the one with the Village Concert. Lots of nice editions of PGW about, the handsomest being the Everyman, but this omnibus is excellent value - a set in itself indeed.

 

Next.. and I weep for you if you do not laugh your way through this wonderful book, about the Durrell family`s move to Greece and a succession of villas. Achingly funny scenes with Lawrence Durrell the desperately serious young would-be writer and Gerald the boy-naturalist.

MY FAMILY AND OTHER ANIMALS by GERALD DURRELL .Penguin 7.99

and lastly, a book I have only just discovered. I found it in our doctor's surgery when I went for my flu jab. They sell books to buy blood pressure machines and so on and there`s often a bargain to be had. Someone will tell me I should have known this book but I did not. I now have the joy of telling you that you MUST MUST read it, let alone add it to the Set. I have laughed through two days of it and again, though the scenario and characters are rich, it is the language - especially the one-liners, which do it. It`s a memoir, not a novel.

CONFESSIONS OF A FAILED SOUTHERN LADY by Florence King. Virago. 7.99 

This is a nice inexpensive SET so if you want to spend a bit more you could add THE BEANO ANNUAL 2009. Well,I would.

 

 

New post just up

For cooks and food lovers.. instead of the chocolate fondue set, the SH Book Set. No Jamie or Nigella. Something a little different.

It isn`t obligatory for a cookery writer to be able to, er, write but Madhur Jaffrey can. She is one of the nicest, most interesting and most modest of ladies and her story about the family in which she grew up and their way of cooking and eating is beautifully written and wonderfully evocative of place, time, family.. and food. So, book one of my set is

CLIMBING THE MANGO TREES. A Memory of Childhood in India  by Madhur Jaffrey. Ebury 7.99

next is another 'reading book' ... about Tuscany, food, wine, sun, cooking and  a happy marriage binding it all together.

A THOUSAND DAYS IN TUSCANY by  Marlena de Blasi (Virago.. 7.99)  Perfect companion to the above though everything about them is different.

now for two books to complete the set which are about cooking. The first is really major work of the culinary art.. some will only read it, others will dare to use it. The SP taught himself to cook from it.

MASTERING THE ART OF FRENCH COOKING by Beck, Bertholle and Child.. Volumes 1 and 2 are published separately with dreary old covers and probably a bit hard to find though they are definitely in print. For those who are serious about it.

and to go with it a book from  a blog... the author cooked every recipe in Mastering the Art over the course of a year and wrote a blog about it. Highly original, fascinating, funny. Worth reading as a stand-alone  but even better if you have The Book to refer to.

JULIE AND JULIA. My Year of Cooking Dangerously by Julie Powell. Penguin 8.99

I reckon this is a terrific set for anyone who cooks or eats or both and not a Delia in sight. Not that I have anything against Delia you understand, she`s still the best.

Total about £35 again but shop around, as they say.

Tomorrow, my first set for lovers of Classic Novels. Some surprises.

According to the catalogues we have to buy our Christmas presents in Sets. Oh you know.... the Chocolate Fondue Set, the Nail Care Set, the Aromatherapy for Cats Set.

So I am joining them and recommending some DIY sets for you. Look no further, I have let my finger-clicking do your walking and you could solve every present problem without moving away from here over the coming days - except that, owing to time pressure, I cannot do the actual shopping for you. (Mind you, foir a hefty fee I would even do that.)

I hope I am avoiding the obvious and giving you some ideas beyond the ones they are pushing you to buy. You will probably not find my recommendations in the 3 for 2 or Half Price offers but you should get discount by shopping around online. I wanted to give you some different ideas, so here we go with

S.H`S SET OF BOOKS FOR GARDENERS AND GARDEN LOVERS.

I start with a book about a remarkable woman, Norah Lindsay. She  lived between 1873 and 1948 and began by creating her own wonderful garden at Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire but when her marriage failed and she was financially destitute she became a professional garden designer. She designed the gardens of quiet English manor houses and of international Royal palaces and worked with her friend Lawrence Johnston to create Hidcote - my own absolutely favourite garden and one which, fortunately, is 2 miles from my house. Incredibly hard working, she also gave the impression of being  just a social butterfly. She was talented, beautiful, intelligent and feisty. The book has over 300 wonderful pictures and I can`t recommend it highly enough - interesting about people and Edwardian times too.

NORAH LINDSAY. THE LIFE AND ART OF A GARDEN DESIGNER  by ALLYSON HAYWARD.  Frances Lincoln. £24.50.

Next in the set is a little book every gardener will wonder how they did without -

THE GARDENER`S POCKET BIBLE. Every Gardening rule of thumb at your fingertips. by RONI JAY and others. WHITE LADDER PRESS. 7.99

When should you plant this bulb, how prune that clematis, what kills slugs but is organic, how do you get stripes on your lawn ? And everything else in a neat and very well designed paperback. You can keep it in a pocket or on a shelf in the greenhouse. Great little book.

Last in the set, for settling down and reading with great pleasure when it is too cold, wet and desolate to be out there. Two of the 20th century`s great gardeners - Christopher Lloyd and Beth Chatto, were also friends.  Lloyd was also one of the very best garden writers ever. They wrote to one another and their letters have been collected into a stimulating, fascinating, interesting book.

DEAR FRIEND AND GARDENER. LETTERS ON LIFE AND GARDENING. By Beth Chatto and Christopher Llloyd. Frances Lincoln £14

I think these three books make a terrific set for a total price of around £35. How much better than a fancy set of gardening tools which they`ll almost certainly have got already.

Next set tomorrow... for COOKS.

 

This post is unashamed promotion for either my own books or Long Barn Books. Other Christmas recommendations later. First up, when shifting a lot of boxes in the book store I came upon two which were full of books I did not know I still had. LANTERNS ACROSS THE SNOW.. first published in 1988 and long out of print, I brought it back in an LBB special edition five years ago and it sold out. So I thought. It is a story about a childhood Christmas 100 years ago in a Cotswold Rectory and has wonderful wood engravings by John Lawrence. This limited edition of 500 is cloth bound in regal purple with a gold block image on the front and comes in a scarlet slipcase. This box was obviously overlooked and contains 30 copies. Each will be signed and have a few lines from the book hand written inside. First come first served. Price £15 - originally £20. Positively the last - I think.

 

Last year we published an exact facsimile edition of John Betjeman`s only children`s book, ARCHIE AND THE STRICT BAPTISTS. The watercolours are by him and the story was handwritten.. This edition is again cloth bound in navy with a gold block of Betjeman`s signature and presented in a dark red slipcase. We published 500 and there are 25 left of the limited numbered edition. Price £30. This really is an heirloom. There is only one copy of the original in existence and there will never be any more of the facsimiles.

Other SH books for Christmas. THE MAN IN THE PICTURE, by new ghost story published by Profile Books. General edition £9.99, signed copies, to blog readers, £8 post free.

There are also 11 copies of the Special limited edition of just 100 left, signed and numbered and with a handwritten extract from the book - each one different. This edition is hand bound in black cloth with a silver block of the mask image. £25.

Len Chester`s BUGLE BOY would make a terrific present for anyone at all interested in WW2 and what life really was like for a young boy who joined the Royal Marines aged 14 in 1939 and went on the Arctic Convoys. This is history lived by one man - and the recording of such stories is vitally important, as the Duke of Edinburgh says in his Foreword.

Price 9.99... a great little hardback.

You can buy all the above books direct and POST FREE. Please e-mail your order to sales@longbarnbooks.com. You can pay by Paypal or cheque.

 

 

Having been off message and still rather so, I will catch up with reading books as against writing them - though on the latter front and having finished Serrailler 4 I find myself writing something entirely different while planning the next crime novel - this will not be a Serrailler. He is having a break. I have a new detective lined up for you. His name is Rick Bradshaw and he works in the Met -rather a time ago when things were a bit different. I wanted to write about London then as against London now, though not so long ago that Sherlock Holmes was around. But so much of modern Met life is to do with anti-terrorism and this was just not  a subject I wanted to get involved in. Rick Bradshaw is a maverick in the days when they were still allowed. He lives on a houseboat on the Thames and he is working on his own and slightly undercover. The book is called CORRUPTION. I`m rather excited.

What ? Oh sorry, reading books. I got carried away.

Anita Brookner has long been a favourite writer of mine and I have been revisiting some of her fine early novels, PROVIDENCE, which is extremely moving, and A START IN LIFE. I wish people would stop saying that she always writes the same novel because she doesn`t. She is so subtle, her observations about people, especially in families, sad, isolated, odd people who are too plain or too clever - or both - are subtle and intelligent; she knows how relationships work but better still, how they don`t.

Two terrific new books from the very enterprising Gallic Books who got off to a flying start  last year. They publish French novels in translation  and their two latest are both historical crime novels.  ThePere Lachaise Mystery by Claude Izner is set in 1890 and if you thrill to the phrase fin de siecle you will love this. Terrific atmosphere, unusual, full of drama. The Officer`s Prey by Armand Cabasson is set earlier, during the Napoleonic invasion of Russia. I enjoyed it slightly less but only because I am not a Napoleonic Wars person... the story is good though, the setting brilliantly conveyed - and this is a book you could well give to a MAN. This is the time of year when I look for good reads for men and it isn`t always easy unless your man happens to like Jeremy Clarkson - in which case he will be given ten copies of the latest. Try him with  The Officer`s Prey instead.

COMING NEXT HERE - RECOMMENDED BOOKS FOR CHRISTMAS.

 

There   more »

This is the week we have all been waiting for here at Long  Barn Books... Len Chester`s publication week and the one when he is making an appearance all over the place. Len is the author of our autumn lead title BUGLE BOY. When he was 14 in 1939 he joined the Royal Marines as a boy bugler and went on the Arctic Convoys to Russia. Imagine. FOURTEEN. Look around you at 14 year old boys and wonder.

He has written about his time as an RM in a wonderful little book. The Duke of Edinburgh liked it so much he has written as Foreword. Len will be on BBC Radio 4`s Today programme on Saturday morning, in  a film on ITV West country, on Channel 5 news, on the Daily Express website. His book has already received some wonderful reviews and there have been some great features about it.

You can buy BUGLE BOY on amazon or from Waterstones, Borders and many a good independent. If all else fails, try me.

 

New post up and there will be another longer one later.

Some six years ago our long barn caught fire. A mower, just put away in the old stable-cum-store below what was then my workroom burst into flames. I had left the room five minutes before. Workmen in the field got the horses out of the stables on the other side. They had already called the fire brigade who were with us in fifteen minutes. We have retained firefighters round here - they do other jobs but they answered their bleeps and were on the engine and with us before the whole barn was destroyed. Even so four other engines had to be called and restoring the damage cost the insurance company a great deal. Other than the time when I was dying of a wasp sting here and the ambulance came down the drive I have never been so pleased to see anyone, ever, as I was to see the fire engines.

A few weeks ago I was passing the church in the next village when a wedding had just ended and bride and groom were leaving. On an old fire engine. The bride was the daughter of some local people, her new husband a retained firefighter in the next county.

On Friday night, the SP arrived home from someone`s retirement dinner a little later than expected because, he said, the road he would normally take was closed and there was a huge blaze somewhere near. We could smell the smoke on the air here.

The fire you will have read about. One of the dead firemen was the one I saw leaving his wedding.

Until you have had a fire you cannot conceivably know what tackling a blaze is like for the men who do it, nor how brave they are.  Every single time they are called out to a blaze they are risking their lives.

We owe them.

 

 

 

 

(If you are reading this blog at all you are unlikely to be confused as to which Kate Mosse I mean.)

 

Predictably, the sneers started the second Kate Mosse`s new novel, SEPULCHRE was off the starting blocks. There are a number of reasons for this. Firstly, and mostly LABRYINTH has sold several million copies and was the Richard and Judy book of the year so of course it is time  for her to be taken down a peg or three. Now SEPULCHRE has appeared the reviewers I have read have taken the line that it doesn`t matter what they say, the book will sell in shedloads won`t it  -(implication, my literary standards are right up there but the suckers in the reading public only want schlock.) One  reviewer compares SEPULCHRE with Colm Toibin`s marvellous novel THE MASTER, about Henry James and implies that the latter is a literary novel and a fine one and so OF COURSE it has sold far fewer copies than Mosse`s books. I don’t see this comparison as THE MASTER is a very different novel and the two do not seem to be related in any way. And I am sure Kate Mosse is an admirer of Colm Toibin, as I am, but that she would say she was not actually trying to write like him in any sense. And why imply that the better the book the worse the sales when this is by no means always true ?

 

There are literary novels and there is popular fiction. Within those categories there are BAD and GOOD, very very bad, and very very good, of their kinds.  The public takes its choice. This is a democracy after all. Many people read the classics and they read literary novels. I do. Many people read good popular fiction. I do.

I have bought my copy of SEPULCHRE though I have not started to read it yet but if it is as good as LABRYINTH – and I have no reason  to doubt that it will be, it will be a good read into which one plunges as into a hot bath, full of atmosphere and with a clever plot, suspense, mystery, romance, the past mingling with the present – a great and very popular genre. People who like Kate Mosse like Susannah Clarke and The 13^th Tale and The Name of the Rose and The Quincunx. They may also admire and enjoy Doris Lessing and Anita Brookner and Jeanette Winterson, And Dickens and Hardy and Trollope and Faulkener and James Joyce. Or they may not.

 

Some of the sideways swipes at Kate Mosse in reviews have decided that she is now a ‘brand’ – that it is as a brand that her publishers will promote and  market her. Is itreally ? I doubt it. That is not the way publishers think. Besides, she may write an entirely different kind of novel next. That`d shake ‘em. Where would her brand be then ? But authors do this kind of thing. Kate Mosse`s little remembered first novel was called ESKIMO KISSING, and was absolutely nothing like her two recent ones. So ?

 

Anyone who sells well, becomes popular, makes a great deal of money and/or gets the Richard and Judy accolade, is up for being sneered at, for being compared unfavourably with ‘the best’, with ‘great literature’ and with ‘literary fiction.’ And of course, God help us, with ART.

I daresay if Colm Toibin was picked as the R and J book of the year and had sold several million copies he too would have to endure the jeers and the sneers.

 

Why are these silly comparisons made ? Why is everyone envious ? Why does Kate Mosse now have to be shot down ?  Mind you, she need only remember Liberace`s great dictum and  ‘cry all the way to the bank.’ 

But she shouldn`t have to. She is writing damn good entertaining, well researched, rich stories that give a very great many people a great deal of satisfaction and pleasure. So did Dickens, So did Trollope. So did Scott. So did Hardy. Shakespeare thought of himself as a popular working playwright and would have been astounded to find himself called a Great Artistic Genius, a Classic, our Greatest Author.

 

One of the definitions of a great writer is richness of language. One of the definitions of a not-great writer is paucity of language. I am reading John le Carre`s THE MISSION SONG just now, one I missed and picked up at a local church fete  for 50p. You don`t get much more popular or rich and successful and best-selling over many years than le Carre. His language takes your breath away. He uses it wonderfully, it is rich and varied and inventive and deadly accurate. His stories are terrific, his characters as good as those of Dickens.  I haven`t heard many voices raised in sneering tones at him. He is something of the darling of the literati indeed, in spite of being popular and so he should be.

 

I`m looking forward to reading SEPULCHRE over a few dark evenings and to enjoying it very much. I will report but I bet I like it.

Meanwhile, on my bedside table are also The Odyssey, Little Dorrit,a Doris Lessing and Jeeves in the Offing I shall enjoy those too.

 

I know I am not very bright but after reading something in the Independent today I find I am an even dimmer lightbulb than I thought I was. There is one of the usual boring articles about what we should and should not do for our own and everybody else`s goods - this one is about how we all waste too much food. I can tell you why too - those of us who remember our mothers scraping the butter paper and measuring out flour by the  half teaspooon and dried egg can`t believe our luck that there is so much food to waste so we waste it. OK, not good, not green, think of the starving. I do take the point. But beside this article, in which inevitably the phrase 'more research is needed' is bound to be, there is a recipe. LUXURY FROM LEFTOVERS. I looked at it with interest, wondering what anyone could possibly concoct from the potato peelings and  out-of-date pots of yoghurt dumped in my pedal bin along with a few leftover carrots. And I read this ( I have shrunk it down but everything is there)

BANANA AND WALNUT BREAD.

4 medium bananas/vanilla essence/ bicarb/baking soda/ 250 gm plain flour/ 180 gm brown sugar/125 gm walnuts/ 2 eggs/ 125 gm butter/ pinch cinnamon/ 3 tbsp milk.

Now I have read this recipe several - nay, many, times. And I simply do not understand it.  80% of it is dry goods from the store cupboard, but Will someone please explain why 4 bananas, 2 eggs, flour, butter and milk are LEFTOVERS ??????

Very dim lightbulb here.

 

You are all quite wonderful and thank you for the purple handbag links. I did forget to say that I wouldn`t pay more than about 30 quid for any handbag anywhere and even that`s going it a bit. I will investigate New Look and Accessorize though last time I was in either there was nothing in purple, nor in Debenhams, another good handbag source.

Anyway, twas but a whim and wanton greed.

 

 

finished my book, I have finished my book, I have finished my book.....

And I read somewhere that if you want just one item which will put you on song with this season`s fashion trends then that one item MUST be a purple handbag.

OK, find me one. Because I have now been looking, admittedly online only, ever since I finished my book. Must be BIG but this season`s bags are big. So. A big. Purple. Handbag.

Now there`s a challenge.

Oh, did I tell you I`d finished my book. Simon Serrailler number 4. Casino Serrailler. You only Live Serrailler. Octoserrailler. On Serrailler`s Secret Service. Dr Serrailler.

At the moment it is called THE VOWS OF SILENCE but I might change that.

Simon Serrailler and the Mystery of the Purple Handbag has a nice ring.