Byatt Matisse Stories

A S Byatt or Dame Antonia Susan Duffy (née Drabble; she's Margaret's sister) 1936-2023 was an English critic, novelist, poet and short-story writer, popular in the nineties. Raised a Quaker she herself lived as an agnostic. I'd never read anything by her but attracted by the lovely cover of this hardback book I bought it somewhere some years ago (it came out in 1993) and I have recently read the three stories it contains. It's proper literature in that it not only tells a story but makes you think about life. There is humour in each story - enough to make you smile not to belly laugh. She clearly was a very skilled writer and perhaps merits more investigation.

Five More Books Recently Read

I liked that idea of reviewing five books recently read, which I did last month. Here are another randoom five. I so enjoyed Alexander McCall Smith's collection of stories last time that I read another recently. Ths time the gifted story teller takes a series of old photographs and crafts his stories from these. It's a bit like Vivaldi perhaps - every piece well told but may be it's too easy. I also read for the first time Douglas Adams'  The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy., I bought a little box set years ago and have never looked at it so now I've made a start. A well written novel that is still quite funny. Secret Societies by Nick Harding simply goes through different ones informatvely and encyclopediacally. Filled a few gaps in my knowledge. I know Mack Tomlinson through my father-in-law and he recently gifted me a copy of his new hardback on the Brainerd brothers. It's a brilliant book - very informative. By looking at David alongside his brother John, a more realistic and nuanced picture emerges. This is really worth getting hold of. And then finally, Rev Samuel Davies Abroad is a book I've long known about for years. My recent studies on Samson Occom prompted me to look for it again and having found an old library copy online I have devoured it. Samuel Davies came to Britain in around 1754. His diary for the period os fascinating.

Jhumpa Lahiri

Looking at books in my local Waterstones the other day I saw a book I knew was on my shelves so back home I pulled it down and started to read. It is a book of nine short stories by the American based Bengali Asian writer Jhumpa Lahiri. The collection actually goes back to the year 2000 but I am rather slow at getting round to things. Some neighbours of mine saw me reading it and were very enthusiastic about it. The stories are gentle and well written and coming from a culture I am not so familiar with have a certain impact beyond the obvious. Perhaps the best done, apart from the title piece Interpreter of maladies is When Mr Pirzada came to dine a childhood reminiscence from the time of the India Pakistan war concerning Bangla Desh. Well worth digging out.

Christmas 2014 - Reading

I've just finished reading Jostein Gaarder's The Christmas Mystery which is based on the Advent Calendar. I've stuck pretty closely to one door a day since December 1 and that worked well. I was surprised to see in my copy that I bought it in 2001. This is the second time of reading right through. I rarely read a book a second time.

Also this Christmas I bought The Everyman Christmas Strories and read it. It contains 20 stories of varying lengths by well known (Dickens, Gogol, Conan Doyle, Trollope, Tolstoy, Chekhov, etc) and lesser known (Cather, Bowen, Cheever, Paley, Munro, Ford) authors. I bought it for the Gogol (Christmas Night) which I didn't enjoy that much. My favourite was Truman Capote's A Christmas Memory. I also enjoyed John Cheever's Christmas is a sad season for the poor and Alice Munro's The Turkey season.

I also went looking for other Christmas material and found another O Henry story The gift of the Magi a classic and the original of the Jimmy Stewart film A wonderful life which is called The Christmas gift.

We have been reading the Bible a s a family, of course, and had looked at many passages to do with Christmas in one way or another. I have also been reading J M Boice's The Christ of Christmas which varies but has many good things and little clues to other good sources.

I managed the opening chapter of Can reindeer fly? on Christmas and science but din't get any further. Another time perhaps.

The Frozen Thames

I happened on this the other week. By the Candain author, Helen Humphries, it really is a great book. It is a brilliant idea (taking each year the Thames froze over from 1142 to 1895 and weaving a short story or something similar from known facts of that year) brilliantly executed (the prose is brief, evocative, beautiful and tells story both local and universal in feel). The hardback presentation (10 cm X 10.5 cm) including the lovely prints adds to the pleasure. Hunt it down.

Proofs of Holy Writ

Rudyard Kipling's very last story was called "Proofs of Holy Writ". You can find it here. It was completed too late for inclusion in Limits and Renewals, his last collection, published in London in April 1932 but was published in The Strand magazine in April 1934, and reprinted there in 1947 with an introduction by Hilton Brown. It is also in volume 30 of the Sussex Edition.

It was said to have arisen from a dinner table conversation between Kipling and John Buchan about the process by which the splendidly poetic language of the KJV miraculously emerged from a committee of 47 learned men. Might they, Buchan wondered, have consulted the great creative writers of the day, like Will Shakespeare or Ben Jonson ? 'That's an idea', said Kipling, and went away to turn it into a tale. The story is prefaced by these words from Isaiah 60

ARISE, shine: for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.

2 For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.

3 And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising. ...

19 The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory.

20 Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended.

Barefoot in Mullyneeny

I caught a brilliant short story on the radio a little while ago called 'The white horse' (or was it 'Coping the lea'?). It was read in a beautiful Irish accent and was a magical bit of nostalgic and evocative reminiscing. More recently I came across this collection of 48 short stories and realised straight away that it was the source of the story I'd heard. Actually it says on the cover 'As heard on Radio 4's Home truths'. I have a soft spot for things Irish (must be in the genes somewhere) but whatever your background this is simply a well written collection of sometimes slight and sometimes more substantive material by amaster story teller who has worked hard on his material and who has a gift for observation and what makes people tick. The back story of Catholic Ulster in the forties and fifties is desperately tragic and wone is bound to be moved. I'm loathe to pick out one but if you read 'Noreen Bawn' about a girl he once saw who lost her innocence in England and are not moved you're made of stone. You can hear 'Coping the lea' here and four others.