What to read in APRIL - Mrs Mac suggests .......

Spring is here, and Summer follows, so drag yourself away from that fireside and get out and about!  How about a book with a mention of family in the title?

For example:

                  My Sister, My Love - Joyce Carol Oates

A Year of Marvellous Ways - Sarah Winman

Of course it was the title that struck. What is this one about? And the cover, what is that all about? Can I just say first that the cover was illustrated by someone who actually read the book and understood it too (so often this is not the case), so well done that man or woman. It's a beautiful cover which together with the dark turquoise page edges, make this a lovely paperback to have and hold. This is a story of love and loss. Of lives intertwined in the oddest of ways, of a very young and broken young man, and a very old and interesting woman.

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Miss Ways, Marvellous, never knew her mother. Francis Drake never knew his father. They find each other in Cornwall, a few years after the end of WW1, when he delivers a letter to the father of a young soldier killed in France and handed to him for delivery. In Cornwall, this man broken by war and the loss of a woman he loved, happens upon Marvellous, and collapses into her care. As she nurses him back to life and health again, she recalls her whole life, tells him bits of it and as he regains his health, he realises that what he has found is the most generous friend and nurse, a woman who has led a rich but very odd life, and who has dragged him back out of the mud that was his life into one full of optimism and hope. And Marvellous, with her yellow waterproof, grass in her hair and a gypsy caravan to call home, has found a new love - not in the sexual way, but in the way that sometimes we come across kindred spirits. It's an awakening of consciousness for both of them, and I loved my journey through their lives. There is a shock in the last couple of pages that I didn't see coming but enjoyed reading, so, just don't read the last few pages pages until you get there. It is a moving and funny and lovely and of course a Marvellous book.

Easily offended readers - LOOK AWAY NOW!

....... because there is a rather personal question coming up now.  One I have never seen mentioned in blogland (although it's probably out there somewhere, and I could Google it but "ain't nobody got time for that!").

Have you ever pee'd in a field? Hohoho; hahaha; OK, stop laughing now please!  Travelling across country from Cambridgshire to Dorset last weekend, and about an hour into the journey realised that with a full bladder, I would never make it to any services, nor a petrol station with a toilet.  Got to Go!  Study the large scale map very carefully, as GPS does not mark available fields....... :o).

OK.  Take the next left.  Oh dear, this is a dead-end full of lovely houses and cottages where obviously strangers don't go and even though each drive does not have a sign saying "no turning", I am sure that silently every home owner will not want you to turn the car in their particular space, but it's such a narrow lane that we have to.  Apologise to driver, and we are soon turned and back on the main road where, 500 yards further on is the turning we need. Criteria required?  Look out for field entrances with easy access; if possible no gate because that means there are no animals in the field; that you cannot see any houses or farm outbuildings, in case someone you can't see can see you; protection from the road by a hedge, and of course a tissue in your pocket.  Check? Check!

Also check on direction of the (very strong) wind that day for obvious reasons and Oh!  the relief.  Can do the next 3 hours comfortably now.  Driver also takes the chance and is also much relieved.

When I relay this story to Margaret, a very old friend, she cannot stop laughing (and she does have a very infectious laugh), and is gasping for breath.  Mrs Po-face (that's me) asks her "Well, have you never done that?"  to which her reply - unfathomable - is "Yes, but not at 68 years old!".  I think she feels that at 68, peeing in a field is just too undignified.......

Coromandel Sea Change - Rumer Godden

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 Patna Hall, an old fashioned but rather lovely hotel on the Coramandel coast of India, is owned and run by Sanita (Auntie Sanni) and Colonel McIndoe. The Colonel remains in the background, but Auntie Sanni has her hands on every string needed to run the hotel well.  She has regularly returning guests and those who arrive for the first time.  There is a party of Americans who are on an archeological trip, some of whom are not happy about foreign food and bathrooms, and some who love the whole thing.  There is a mysterious single woman, deeply unhappy and unable to pay her bill - why is she there?  There are others, too - a pair of political animals, staying because of the forthcoming election in the area, and a pair of young honeymooners.  It is they who will prove the catalyst for an eventful week. The staff at the hotel are well described, particularly Kuku, who has been taken on by Auntie Sanni to be trained as a hotel manager, but it seems, however good-natured Sannie always is in the control of her staff, that this one is not happy, in life or in her job.  The honeymooners are not happy either.  A pair of youngsters who perfectly fit the description "marry in haste repent at leisure".  He is a bully, she does not want to be bullied, and when she comes across the path of a would-be politican everything changes.  No year given, but set in the late 20th century, this is a mixture of intrigue, sex, politics,  death and misunderstandings.  I'd forgotten what a lovely, readable writing style Rumer Godden had, so if you find and like this one, she wrote loads of others!!


Intrigued by the title?  You can find out about the Coramandel coastline in India here. 

Kingsblood Royal - Sinclair Lewis

I was born the year this book was written - 1947.  I grew up knowing nothing about prejudices;  my parents never discussed any kind of hatred of others, just that there were good and bad in all countries in all walks of life.  And my lovely Mum expressed that with "there are good people in prison and bad people outside".  I remember newsreel from America about segregation of white and black, and about the repeal of segregation laws by John Kennedy.  I remember newsreel of the Detroit riots in 1967.   But I didn't understand why anyone would want to beat anyone so badly because their skin was a different colour.  Still don't.

This book was a stunner in the way a spade over the back of your head would stun you.  Neil Kingsblood, the son of  a decent man, works for a bank, after returning from WW2 in Europe with a limp.  He's married to the daughter of a decent man too, and they have a small child, and a black maid.  It's not very long before you realise that race is going to raise it's ugly head - the little asides to each other in the maid's hearing, the taking of the spare key and entering of her own, private room to mock the cheapness and the untidyness.  And yet, and yet........ they are not cruel people, and they don't consider themselves racists. They just view "darkies" - and yes, there were many times when I winced a lot whilst reading just a page or two - as different, and not to be too worried about, because you can always dismiss one, and get another, can't you?  Of course you wouldn't want to get the porter on the train or the head waiter at the classy restaurant into trouble, you've known them for years, and they are charming, polite and part of your hometown scenery.

And then one day Neil's father tells him a family secret.  They are probably descended from Royal blood, Henry the Eighth of England no less.  Would Neil do some family research - for if this turns out to be true, their standing in society will be different altogether?  Neil does the research and finds that far from being descended from King Henry his great great grandfather was a black frontiersman, making him black too.   He's white, he looks white, he talks white, he behaves white.  But that 32nd share of his blood is black - and there is no going back.

The town he lives in is not in one of the Southern states of America.  He's on the Yankee side of the divide. Nevertheless, see how quickly bigotry can change the way people deal with you; how they see you.

The writing style shows its age:  in the reading of it, 1947 seems so far away.  The content is hard, cruel and believable.  I got this as a challenge to read a book the year I was born.  So glad I found it secondhand.  I believed it to be unobtainable, but no, you can get it in paperback.  I am not urging you to read this, but if like me you acquire it you may find it hard going for both both the writing style and the content.  But it will open your eyes and when another black man is beaten by police, or a black man is found hung (Mississippi today, 20 March 2015) You may find yourself thinking long and hard.

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You can find out more about the book here  and also and more about the author on Wikipedia.

Bed and Breakfast Guests we Remember (2)

From time to time I am dropping in little memories about guests in my occasional B&B, to cheer you up, readers, and also to encourage (?!) those who are thinking about going down this fun route!!

"Where are you?"
 was my reply to a little family from Italy who were late arriving, and eventually phoned the house, only able to tell me they could not find me.
 "Co-operative for Food"
came the reply and I heaved a sigh of relief. Mr Mac had not partaken of any beers that day, so maybe we could pull off a quick rescue!
"Colour and make of car?"
 "Red Nissan Note"
"Stay where you are! My husband will come and get you - he's driving a small blue car".
Urging Mr Mac to drive down to our local co-op, he was gone in a flash, only to call me 5 minutes later.
"They're not here".
"Drive round again"
"I've been round twice already - there are no Red Nissan Notes in this car park!"

What to do? I have their mobile phone number and I call.
"We can't see you. Where exactly are you?"
"Co-operative for food"
"What can you see from your car?"
"Co-operative for food"

Frustrated, I know I cannot explain that Mr Mac is sitting in the Co-op car park and they are not, so I think again.
"What else can you see from your car?"
"Texaco petrol"
 Penny drops! They are in our local petrol station, and the little shop that goes with the business is indeed Co-operative for food! But it isn't in the same place as the supermarket, is it?!   I call Mr Mac again.
"They're in the petrol station!"
"I'll go now".

 And five minutes later they were walking down the garden, laughing, towards me, also laughing, and clapping too. They'd made it!

The Greatcoat - Helen Dunmore

Ghost stories? I can take them or leave them. I enjoyed "The Small Hand" by Susan Hill, but some of the more famous titles have left me cold. This short novel, more a slit in the fabric of time than a ghost story, nevertheless is haunting, in the best possible way. Isobel, just married to a newly qualified doctor, lives in rented accommodation on the ground floor of a converted house. It's always cold, the landlady is always nosy and Isobel has no job (her husband would rather she remain at home and be supported by him). Tucked away at the back of an old cupboard she finds an RAF greatcoat, which she uses to keep warm in bed, the quality of the blankets supplied by the landlady not being the thickest or the best. And then, one night, there is a tap at the kitchen window. Her husband is out on a call, and she thinks that the tap is himself. But it isn't, it's a fellow in RAF uniform.... Spooky in the best way, well written and the clues are there - but you don't notice them for a while. Less than 250 pages, and no hardship to read. If you like ghost stories I think you will like this one, and if you don't, why not try it?

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