bookmark_borderAttention All Shipping

Attention All Shipping by Charlie Connelly

Received as a birthday present last year this was an ideal “train” book as it’s automatically broken into chunks for, as it says on the front cover, this book is “a journey round the shipping forecast”. It also holds a tiny bit of extra importance for me as the journey in question starts and ends on my birthday! (I’m certain my Dad knew that when he bought the book.. right Dad??)

Before I continue, I’ll ask you to stop reading and name as many areas in the shipping forecast as you can. Malin, Dogger, Fastnet, Trafalgar…. um …. Irish Sea?… erm… harder than it sounds, isn’t it. Well it was for me having never actually (knowingly) heard the shipping forecast itself. I did know of it mind you, although I’m not sure how. Osmosis is a wonderful thing. It was with this slightly befuddled, and somewhat sketchy, knowledge that I started reading.

The opening chapter of the book outlines a little of the history of the forecast, and the place it holds in the hearts of those who grew up with its weird and wonderful language. Of course the forecast is crucial for many but for us landlubbers.. well it’s all a bit odd, isn’t it, I mean what does “south-westerly veering north five or six, decreasing four” actually mean? Well, having read the book, I COULD tell you but that’d spoil all the fun.

The format of the book is fairly straightforward and has the author, Charlie Connelly, endeavouring to travel to each zone of the forecast within one calendar year. He takes us with him on a Bryson-esque look at the people and cultures that lie within the various shipping zones. From Spain to Iceland, from uninhabited rocks to inhabited metal turrets in the sea, he reveals the large variety of life held within the forecast area as he flits his away around it armed with little else than a dogged determination and the canny knack of always arriving at the airport several hours before his flight. Ohhh, he also travels on boats, which is just as well as it would have been a bit of a cheat, given the title of the book, to do it all by air.

Connelly comes across a likeable sole soul with a nice turn of phrase, he peppers the pages with an excellent mix of history, anthropology, and snippets of wonderfully quirky information; with historical names that include Chatsworth Musters and Sir Cloudesley Shovell he has plenty of “quirk” from which to choose. In fact, whilst we are on the topic of history, I’d like to apologise to the people of Barra for the way Lieutenant-Colonel John Gordon (for I presume he is related) manhandled them out of their homes. Appalling behaviour. I do hope his actions don’t preclude me from ever visiting Barra, although I’m pretty sure he is related on the ‘other’ side of the family, and distantly at that (hopefully my surname will throw them off the scent).

Attention All Shipping was a wonderful book to dip into, never failing to offer the reader something to ponder, and written in a welcoming, homely, style. Any man who can use the phrase “royster-doystering”, not once but twice, in a book surely deserves a glance, if not a thorough reading. He even manages to impart a lot of wisdom without ever patronising or boring, quite a talent indeed.

Comparisons with Bill Bryson are obvious – this is a travel journal, and Connelly has a similar gentle wit and easy way with words – so I’ll avoid them. Suffice to say that this is a well written, informative book that managed to illicit several chuckles from me (which in turn brought a few inquisitive looks from my fellow commuters).

Attention All Shipping, heartily recommended if you are looking for a change of pace, a change of scenery and change from a tenner.

bookmark_borderThe Dying of Delight

Where to begin? I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect, but any book that is described as “a spirited portrait of lives gone astray” is off to a pretty good start. The book tells the story of Silver and Edna, two women whose stories intertwine in many ways. It’s slightly odd in parts, exciting, funny and above all very well written.

Now I’ll admit that it took me a couple of chapters to get into, and now and again I’d lose the thread and have to re-read but those are minor annoyances. The first thing that caught my attention was the chapter numbers. 1, 17, 26, 2, 3, 18, 27, 4… and so on. Yet despite this odd numbering scheme the books flows well, the overlapping chapters merge and you barely notice the leap from one thread to the next. This is, in no small part, thanks to the wonderfully written main characters who slowly reveal themselves throughout the book. For me this was the strongest part of the book, and with each passing scenario I found myself mentally re-addressing the persona of each character.

The story itself is centred mainly around Silver, a young woman who gives up her day job and pretty much everything else to become an artist like her ever-so slightly insane mother (who features in the book despite being dead after jumping off the roof of the local British Legion hall). It also features a lot of drug taking and no small amount of social commentary, sex, and that’s all before you get to the darker parts of the book.

It’s kind of hard to describe the book as it’s not an out-and-out thriller nor is it purely a character study. It’s not wholly about death, or drugs, or love, or any other emotion, and it’s not set in a huge world with grand themes. What that does mean is that you get a very good picture of the life these people lead, the world they inhabit (and how limited it is for them) and it seems almost biographical at times (autobiographical maybe?).

I thoroughly enjoyed this, right up to the last few page-turning moments, and I whole heartedly recommend this to anyone who just loves reading.

I’d also point out that the author herself kindly signed my copy, and I’m sure she’d be delighted to do the same for you. Thanks Clare, great book!

bookmark_borderVoices in my head

How wrong Emily Dickinson was! Hope is not “the thing with feathers.” The thing with feathers has turned out to be my nephew. I must take him to a specialist in Zurich.

From Woody Allen, The Complete Prose

And so I sat there, chuckling to myself whilst my fellow commuters stared obstinately out of the train window. At least I hoped that’s what they were doing given that my involuntary giggles were at times quite loud and mostly sudden.

Now I’d warrant that you, dear reader, have heard Mr. Allen speak. You’ve heard the tones and inflections he imparts on his words, the stresses and strains he places on the punctuation, and the stuttering pause ridden asides that you realise are faked as soon as he starts to eloquently pontificate on whatever it is that currently irks – and here I’m thinking specifically of the Marshal McLuhan scene in Annie Hall, you know the one, where he breaks away from the cinema queue to berate the amateur film critic and people like him.

Must watch that movie again, it’s wonderful and probably has had more impact on modern cinema than a lot of people realise. I’m not a die-hard Woody Allen fan, he has produced a few duds in his time, and these days he is in severe danger of becoming a parody of himself, which in turn is probably a sign of his success and fame (and notoriety?).

I digress.

As mike noted a few weeks back, the written word can take on a whole new realm if you are aware of how the author uses phrasing and rhythm. The word patterns and movement that are created when speaking aloud offer a much deeper understanding of the words as they leap off the page and through your eardrums.

The spoken word goes back a long way, yes even before blogs or *gasp* the internet was invented (honestly, there was a time when there weren’t even computers, how did we manage?!), and it’s little wonder that it still carries the most impact. However I wonder if, given the rise in “personal publishing” in the past few years, there isn’t a requirement for a separate set of Writing Style Guidelines aimed solely at personal writing, where the writer is free to punctuate in a way that enforces the pauses and inflections they naturally use?

And no, I’m not talking about any free-form punctuation nonsense, but surely within the strict rules of grammar to which we all *coughs* adhere there is a little wiggle room for some artistic expression?

Or am I… you know… talking rubbish again?

Onto deeper matters then, why doesn’t Woody (Allen to his friends) have a blog? The one thing that hits me whilst reading his Complete Prose is how suited it would be to a blog format. Most of the pieces are short and punchy, and only really suit a compiled print publication. Ohhh sure he could write for a magazine, granted the bulk of the pieces in the book featured in New Yorker, but admit it, you’d LOVE a Woody Allen blog. Admittedly the fact rumour that he doesn’t own a compuer and still uses the manual typewriter on which he wrote his first screenplay might put the kibosh on that idea.

Mind you, thinking about it, a Woody Allen podcast would be much better.

bookmark_borderSlow Motion

Slow Motion: A Memoir by Dani Shapiro

I bought this book in the local charity shop, solely based on a few paragraphs and a stylish cover (not the one that Amazon have), I’ve been reading it on the way home from work on the train, and have to admit I’m surprised to have quite liked this.

The story of a young lady who has a life she doesn’t recognise, pretending to be an actress whilst having an affair with a married filthy rich lawyer in the boom times of the 80s, and how a car crash provides the literal, and metaphorical framing for her life.

It’s heartfelt and honest and whilst not many people will be able to relate to the circumstances, most will be able to empathise with the “not sure how my life got here” feelings and confusion that Dani has. It’s the story of a rebellious teenager who suddenly realises she is a young woman.

Not for everyone but certainly not particularly deep – at one point in the book some of Dani’s earliest writing for college is described as “skimming over the depths” – but it’s well written enough to keep you turning the pages.

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bookmark_borderLeaving Home

Leaving Home by Garrison Keillor

It has been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon.
So starts each chapter of this wonderful collection of stories, and the essence of the collection is fully contained in that one simple sentence as it is an entire book of quiet happenings and everyday occurances.

The stories are all set in a quiet mid-western town named Lake Wobegon, the kind of no-name town that exists all over the world, an entity within itself where everybody knows everybody else AND their business. Like most small towns the beauty exists in relation the people have with the society they are part of and Garrison Keillor gently introduces characters and buildings with the same soft qualities.

Reading the stories feels familiar, with a million oft-played household dramas reproduced with a gentle humour that only helps to enamour you to the town, the people, and the lives they lead. If you are looking for a quiet read for a lazy day I heartily recommend it, as it was recommended to me.

bookmark_borderThe Half-Blood Prince

Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling

Those of you who’ve never read any of the Harry Potter books should scroll on down to the next post. Although I will suggest you give them a try, they’re quite good fun, dead easy to read, and are a good way to unwind without having to read a “serious novel”.

And for those of you still reading, yes I do think the Harry Potter novels are serious, and the fact that I’m already looking forward to the next one worries me slightly as it’ll be a long wait!

Quite enjoyed this one but I think I should have re-read the previous book as so much was referred to that I kept having to stop and try and remember what had happened. Still it was good to see the characters mature further and…. well I’m gonna stop there as I don’t want to post any spoilers. I DO have a theory about the ending of the book though.

Beware, spoilers ahead!
Continue reading “The Half-Blood Prince”