Hope everyone is enjoying the festive season! Properly speaking the Christmas season continues until Epiphany (6 January) so that gives you plenty of time to read 'Mistletoe Madness' a new anthology of writing about Christmas just out from Kind of a Hurricane Press. You can find it in their book-store
(as I write this blog-post, it's the top item in their book-store, but
they publish quite a lot of anthologies, so it may be that you need to
scroll down to find it!).
I'm delighted to have a poem in there, alongside 34 other writers!
Best wishes for the rest of the Christmas season!
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Freshta by Petra Prochazkova
I was delighted to win a copy of Freshta in a Twitter competition run by Stork Press an independent publishing house based in London that focusses on new writing
from Central and Eastern Europe.
Herra, a Russian-Tadjik woman, met Nazir in Russia where they had both been studying. She fell in love with him and married him, moving to post Taliban Afghanistan to live with his family. The Freshta of the title is Herra's sister in law, who is desperate to leave her abusive husband.
This novel explores the culture Herra married into, offering insights into the way of life for women in modern Afghanistan with the constant restrictions on their freedom- for example all the women of Nazir's family have to hide in a closet whenever anyone visits who isn't family. The characters are vivid and the reader really feels for them all caught up in their family dilemmas and the cultural misunderstandings that arise with well meaning, but culturally unaware foreign aid workers.
Mostly this novel is brilliant, insightful and entertaining, though occasionally it becomes quite farcical, which I found a bit irritating.
This is an ideal book to read soon after The Taliban Cricket Club by Timeri N Murari which is set in Taliban controlled Afghanistan and which I reviewed here.
Freshta by Petra Prochazkova, translated by Julia Sherwood and published by Stork Press
As ever, coloured text contains hyperlinks that take you to other webpages where you can find out more.
Herra, a Russian-Tadjik woman, met Nazir in Russia where they had both been studying. She fell in love with him and married him, moving to post Taliban Afghanistan to live with his family. The Freshta of the title is Herra's sister in law, who is desperate to leave her abusive husband.
This novel explores the culture Herra married into, offering insights into the way of life for women in modern Afghanistan with the constant restrictions on their freedom- for example all the women of Nazir's family have to hide in a closet whenever anyone visits who isn't family. The characters are vivid and the reader really feels for them all caught up in their family dilemmas and the cultural misunderstandings that arise with well meaning, but culturally unaware foreign aid workers.
Mostly this novel is brilliant, insightful and entertaining, though occasionally it becomes quite farcical, which I found a bit irritating.
This is an ideal book to read soon after The Taliban Cricket Club by Timeri N Murari which is set in Taliban controlled Afghanistan and which I reviewed here.
Freshta by Petra Prochazkova, translated by Julia Sherwood and published by Stork Press
As ever, coloured text contains hyperlinks that take you to other webpages where you can find out more.
Saturday, November 10, 2012
Thinking in Numbers by Daniel Tammet
This is a brilliant book of essays that I won in a Goodreads First Reads Giveaway.
Each essay looks at a different aspect of maths in an accessible and engaging way. Many of the essays are in fact as much about linguistics as about maths. Hence we learn how to count to four in Icelandic (and other languages), find parallels between proverbs and the times tables and connections between calculus and the work of Tolstoy. Other essays muse on the nature of the ideal city, the connections between maths and art and whether there is intelligent life elsewhere in the Universe.
Every essay, though very short, will get you thinking deeply about all sorts of things without ever feeling like hard maths.
A fascinating book, which I would totally recommend to anyone interested in maths or linguistics and literature.
Thinking in Numbers by Daniel Tammet published by Hodder and Staughton.
Each essay looks at a different aspect of maths in an accessible and engaging way. Many of the essays are in fact as much about linguistics as about maths. Hence we learn how to count to four in Icelandic (and other languages), find parallels between proverbs and the times tables and connections between calculus and the work of Tolstoy. Other essays muse on the nature of the ideal city, the connections between maths and art and whether there is intelligent life elsewhere in the Universe.
Every essay, though very short, will get you thinking deeply about all sorts of things without ever feeling like hard maths.
A fascinating book, which I would totally recommend to anyone interested in maths or linguistics and literature.
Thinking in Numbers by Daniel Tammet published by Hodder and Staughton.
Tuesday, November 06, 2012
Un lapin francaise visite a Edimbourg!
We're delighted to be hosting Sylvain, the French travelling Moulin Roty bunny from Cottontails Baby! He is equally delighted to have found a shelf of French books in our flat!
You can read more over on Crafty Green Poet here.
As ever, coloured text contains hyperlinks that take you to other webpages where you can find out more!
You can read more over on Crafty Green Poet here.
As ever, coloured text contains hyperlinks that take you to other webpages where you can find out more!
Monday, October 15, 2012
Home
Home is a place you won’t see again
Home’s what you lost when you boarded the boat
Home is the songs you sing to keep sane
Home is the seeds in the hem of your coat
Home is the warm soft bread that you bake
Home is the old-country clothes that you make
Home is the musical language you speak
Home is the garden where you plant the seeds
Home is the tree that grows from your seeds
Home is the shelter and shade of the tree
Home is the love in your children’s eyes
Home is the future here to which they aspire.
Home’s what you lost when you boarded the boat
Home is the songs you sing to keep sane
Home is the seeds in the hem of your coat
Home is the warm soft bread that you bake
Home is the old-country clothes that you make
Home is the musical language you speak
Home is the garden where you plant the seeds
Home is the tree that grows from your seeds
Home is the shelter and shade of the tree
Home is the love in your children’s eyes
Home is the future here to which they aspire.
Sunday, October 07, 2012
The Blue Suitcase by Marianne Wheelaghan
Lots of novels have been written about the Second World War. Very few of them though are told from the point of view of ordinary German people.
The Blue Suitcase is Marianne Wheelaghan's first novel, based on her mother's diaries, the family's letters and additional historical research.
Told in the format of a diary, the novel follows Antonia from 1932 when she was 12, growing up in Silesia, a part of Germany that is now in Poland and ending in 1946, when she leaves Germany to start training as a nurse in the UK.
The diary format works brilliantly, you can sense Antonia's growing maturity, from her self centred attitude to her 12th birthday meal being disrupted through her unsuitable friendship with Liesl and Rolf who are the only children to befriend her when she first moves away from the town of Breslau (now Wroclaw) to a small village to her later forced labour helping to build the city defences during the siege of Breslau.
It is interesting to see the different reactions that her family have towards Hitler as he comes to power and takes over in Germany then their different responses to the war. One of her brothers joins the Communist party and is imprisoned in a series of concentration camps, another enthusiastically becomes a member of the Hitler Youth.Her mother, a doctor, vociferously opposes Hitler, and is pushed out of her job by his edicts against women working in the professions. She later becomes very ill.
This compelling and moving novel is essential reading for anyone who wants to see how the Second World War affected ordinary German families.
*
Having recently being totally taken in by Binjamin Wilkormski's Fragments (which I review here) I was pleased to read on Marianne's website a full explanation of how she wrote the book and where her information came from! (Scroll down on this page).
The Blue Suitcase by Marianne Wheelaghan, published by Pilrig Press.
*
Although this novel is unusual in being told from the viewpoint of an ordinary German during 2nd World War, it isn't unique. I recently reviewed Portrait of the Mother as a Young Woman by Friedrick Christian Delius.
As ever, all coloured text contains hyperlinks that take you to other webpages where you can find out more.
The Blue Suitcase is Marianne Wheelaghan's first novel, based on her mother's diaries, the family's letters and additional historical research.
Told in the format of a diary, the novel follows Antonia from 1932 when she was 12, growing up in Silesia, a part of Germany that is now in Poland and ending in 1946, when she leaves Germany to start training as a nurse in the UK.
The diary format works brilliantly, you can sense Antonia's growing maturity, from her self centred attitude to her 12th birthday meal being disrupted through her unsuitable friendship with Liesl and Rolf who are the only children to befriend her when she first moves away from the town of Breslau (now Wroclaw) to a small village to her later forced labour helping to build the city defences during the siege of Breslau.
It is interesting to see the different reactions that her family have towards Hitler as he comes to power and takes over in Germany then their different responses to the war. One of her brothers joins the Communist party and is imprisoned in a series of concentration camps, another enthusiastically becomes a member of the Hitler Youth.Her mother, a doctor, vociferously opposes Hitler, and is pushed out of her job by his edicts against women working in the professions. She later becomes very ill.
This compelling and moving novel is essential reading for anyone who wants to see how the Second World War affected ordinary German families.
*
Having recently being totally taken in by Binjamin Wilkormski's Fragments (which I review here) I was pleased to read on Marianne's website a full explanation of how she wrote the book and where her information came from! (Scroll down on this page).
The Blue Suitcase by Marianne Wheelaghan, published by Pilrig Press.
*
Although this novel is unusual in being told from the viewpoint of an ordinary German during 2nd World War, it isn't unique. I recently reviewed Portrait of the Mother as a Young Woman by Friedrick Christian Delius.
As ever, all coloured text contains hyperlinks that take you to other webpages where you can find out more.
Saturday, September 29, 2012
Fragments by Binjamin Wilkormski
I'm currently teaching a writing class on 'Writing Our Lives' and am reading through some memoirs to share with the class to give them an idea of the variety in this type of writing.
Fragments is an astonishing, powerful memoir about Binjamin Wilkormski's childhood in concentration camps and orphanages. It is never an easy read, but it is totally compelling.
If like me you have read a lot of books and watched a lot of films set during the Holocaust, you may think you are prepared for the horrors that lie in a book like this. I think though that this book gives more insights into the searing horror of the concentration camps than anything else I've read. The effect is particularly poignant because the author was so young at the time and he remembers things from a child's perspective. Things just happen to him and around him and he has no way of understanding or making sense of any of it, let along even hoping to have any control over things. The fragmented memories presented in the book, with memories from the concentration camp mixed up with memories from the orphanage, are incredibly powerful in the overall sense they give of hischildhood.
Most telling is how, when Wilmorski finds himself finally in a safe orphanage in Switzerland, he doesn't trust it and behaves as he would when he was in a concentration camp.
*
Talking of trust, though, I've just done an internet search to find a link for Binjamin Wilkomirski and apparently Fragments was in 1999 uncovered as a fabrication or more precisely a book based on false memories (It seems that Wilkimorski was actually Swiss, born Bruno Grosjean). I decided not to rewrite this review, the book remains just as powerful in its effect and still has truths to tell us about the Holocaust, and after all many novels have been written on the same topic. Or does the fact that it was fabricated and presented as a truth, now undermine it completely? What do you think?
You may be interested to read Why Would One Pretend to be a Victim of the Holocaust? which examines themes around false memories, with specific reference to Wilkomisrski's book.
As ever, coloured text contains hyperlinks to other webpages where you can find out more.
Fragments is an astonishing, powerful memoir about Binjamin Wilkormski's childhood in concentration camps and orphanages. It is never an easy read, but it is totally compelling.
If like me you have read a lot of books and watched a lot of films set during the Holocaust, you may think you are prepared for the horrors that lie in a book like this. I think though that this book gives more insights into the searing horror of the concentration camps than anything else I've read. The effect is particularly poignant because the author was so young at the time and he remembers things from a child's perspective. Things just happen to him and around him and he has no way of understanding or making sense of any of it, let along even hoping to have any control over things. The fragmented memories presented in the book, with memories from the concentration camp mixed up with memories from the orphanage, are incredibly powerful in the overall sense they give of hischildhood.
Most telling is how, when Wilmorski finds himself finally in a safe orphanage in Switzerland, he doesn't trust it and behaves as he would when he was in a concentration camp.
*
Talking of trust, though, I've just done an internet search to find a link for Binjamin Wilkomirski and apparently Fragments was in 1999 uncovered as a fabrication or more precisely a book based on false memories (It seems that Wilkimorski was actually Swiss, born Bruno Grosjean). I decided not to rewrite this review, the book remains just as powerful in its effect and still has truths to tell us about the Holocaust, and after all many novels have been written on the same topic. Or does the fact that it was fabricated and presented as a truth, now undermine it completely? What do you think?
You may be interested to read Why Would One Pretend to be a Victim of the Holocaust? which examines themes around false memories, with specific reference to Wilkomisrski's book.
As ever, coloured text contains hyperlinks to other webpages where you can find out more.
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Special offer on Unthinkable Skies!
If you buy a copy of my poetry pamphlet Unthinkable Skies from me
(£4.50 plus postage and packing) I'll add in a free bookmark of this style, while stocks last. If you'd like a specific bookmark let me
know, and I'll send it to you if it's still available otherwise it will
be the most similar one still in stock.
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Grave with Lights by JoAnne McKay
On our recent holiday in Dumfries and Galloway (which you can read about on Crafty Green Poet here, here, here and here) Crafty Green Boyfriend had a lovely lunch with poet JoAnne McKay, who blogs at Titus the Dog. JoAnne gave me a copy of her latest poetry pamphlet Grave with Lights.
The first thing you notice about this book is that it's a beautiful object, beautifully packaged in a handmade fabric cover.
The beautiful presentation continues inside with paintings from Victor Henderson to complement the poetry. I do like poetry pamphlets that make full use of the possibilities of presentation, making the pamphlet a lovely thing in itself not just the plain vehicle for the poetry. There is a risk of style over substance of course, but this isn't an issue in this case as these poems certainly have plenty of substance. Variety too.
The poems here range over slaughterhouses, pets, damaged souls, waiting rooms and convents. My favourite poem is I Would Be Fast in which the speaker imagines herself a bicycle and the words whoosh along at the speed and rhythm of a cyclist:
push against casing to ride alongside
racing lines, Cycling pedals hypnotise
on passing, moving air, rush, moving air, rush.
There are only thirteen poems in this pamphlet, but they're all well worth reading and re-reading and the quality of the production means that you'll want to keep picking the book up!
Grave with Lights by JoAnne McKay, £10 plus postage and packaging, available here.
The first thing you notice about this book is that it's a beautiful object, beautifully packaged in a handmade fabric cover.
The poems here range over slaughterhouses, pets, damaged souls, waiting rooms and convents. My favourite poem is I Would Be Fast in which the speaker imagines herself a bicycle and the words whoosh along at the speed and rhythm of a cyclist:
push against casing to ride alongside
racing lines, Cycling pedals hypnotise
on passing, moving air, rush, moving air, rush.
There are only thirteen poems in this pamphlet, but they're all well worth reading and re-reading and the quality of the production means that you'll want to keep picking the book up!
Grave with Lights by JoAnne McKay, £10 plus postage and packaging, available here.
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
The Taliban Cricket Club by Timeri N Murari
When I was a child I used to watch in bemused fascination the cricket that my Dad used to follow on TV. So although I've never been a cricket fan I've certainly always had a certain interest which was very much piqued when I came across The Taliban Cricket Club. (In fact I won the book in a competition on the Curious Book Fans' website.)
The concept of Afghanistan under the Taliban deciding to start a national cricket team is one of those audaciously bizarre plot ideas that really grabs the readers attention (though this unlikely seeming premise is actually true though the novel is entirely fictional).
Rukhsana is a young Afghan woman, educated in Delhi and a respected journalist before the Taliban prevented her from working (at which point she went undercover in her writing). She had learned to play cricket in India and when her brother and cousins get the opportunity to put together a team she coaches them.
Rukhsana is a brilliant character, who the reader can engage with immediately. She is feisty and likeable, pulled between her desire for freedom and her love for her ageing and ill mother. The novel is very well plotted, with the several twists and turns reading entirely naturally, while keeping the reader guessing all the time. The political background is really well drawn too and Murari does an excellent job of weaving telling political detail into the narrative without it bogging down the plotting.
It may be far fetched in some ways, but it's engaging, entertaining and well written, while offering insights into Afghanistan under the Taliban.
The Taliban Cricket Club by Timeri N Murari published by Allen and Unwin.
As ever, coloured text takes you to other web-pages where you can find out more.
The concept of Afghanistan under the Taliban deciding to start a national cricket team is one of those audaciously bizarre plot ideas that really grabs the readers attention (though this unlikely seeming premise is actually true though the novel is entirely fictional).
Rukhsana is a young Afghan woman, educated in Delhi and a respected journalist before the Taliban prevented her from working (at which point she went undercover in her writing). She had learned to play cricket in India and when her brother and cousins get the opportunity to put together a team she coaches them.
Rukhsana is a brilliant character, who the reader can engage with immediately. She is feisty and likeable, pulled between her desire for freedom and her love for her ageing and ill mother. The novel is very well plotted, with the several twists and turns reading entirely naturally, while keeping the reader guessing all the time. The political background is really well drawn too and Murari does an excellent job of weaving telling political detail into the narrative without it bogging down the plotting.
It may be far fetched in some ways, but it's engaging, entertaining and well written, while offering insights into Afghanistan under the Taliban.
The Taliban Cricket Club by Timeri N Murari published by Allen and Unwin.
As ever, coloured text takes you to other web-pages where you can find out more.
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