Something of Myself - Rudyard Kipling

I had a problem with this autobiography of the great (even Nobel Prizewinning) author of the late Victorian/Edwardian era.

It is only a slim volume, and yet it was very hard to read. Written in 1935, towards the end of his life Kipling reveals virtually nothing of himself (ironically in view of the tile)- and for an autobiography it is remarkably impersonal. It could just as easily have been written in the third person. We get nothing of his wife or children (his wedding day is referred to in a one sentence aside). Paradoxically Mr Kipling is sentimentally almost gushing about the debt he owed to his parents. The book also finishes effectively before the First World War and so makes no reference to the tragedy of Rudyard's son - medically unfit (extremely bad eyesight) for service and yet the rules were circumvented to enable him to be sent to his death in Flanders. There are the odd glimpses of life in India at the height of British rule, some fascinating comments on South Africa at the time of the Boer War, and interesting vignettes about life in America at the end of the nineteent century. But really this book is a curiosity rather than an entertainment. Rating: 5/10

Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death - M C Beaton

Every now and then I enjoy a quick light read and this (first in the Agatha Raisin series) is

certainly a nice easy light read. M C Beaton establishes the principal recurring characters - Bill Wong a mavarick (but only slightly) police detective, the Vicar's wife, Agatha Raisin herself - irritable and irritating - and her former colleagues at her PR firm, and the various inhabitants in the Cotswold village Agatha has 'retired' to. In a way the story is fairly incidental, but it is vaguely from the whodunnit genre. There are various believable red herrings, and a nice twist in the tale, so all in all it deserves a rating of 8/10

Trio - Cath Staincliffe

Now I was recommended Cath Staincliffe as a crime writer worthy of attention. I, however, didn't read the blurb on the cover of this book - this isn't one of Ms Staincliffe's crime novels. I was pleasantly surprised and would heartily recommend this thought-provoking story of three women and their three baby girls put up for adoption. The mother's are very different, and their tales vary considerably, but they are all extremely moving and without being over sentimental examine in depth why someone might feel compellecd to give away their child, and how that child reacts once they find out that they are adopted, and whether they wish to find out the truth of their origins. Of course the babies are born in the early 1960s when alternative choices were lacking, contraception was fairly non-existant and attitudes far less liberal than today. All three mothers are from Catholic families - and this affects the decisions that are taken by the women - and their families. What is interesting is the thought processes of both the mother's families, and the families into which the babies are adopted. The moment of conception has a permanent effect on the lives of so many people.
I was especially interested because I was a Registrar for nearly 30 years and regularly found I had to tell people that they had been adopted - when they applied for a birth certificate. Many parents who adopted would not tell their adopted children that they were not blood relatives. Sometimes I would be faced with the situation of adopted adults searching for their natural parents - and sometimes there was great joy, but sometime terrible sadness when the natural parent did not want to know - their lives had moved on. Recently I got a phone call from a woman who had been told that she had had a sister who had died at a very young age, and wanted to find the cause of her death. In fact the sister had been adopted out of her family. The woman started on a search, and found her sister was living in Canada. They have now met - after more than half a century. Remarkable.
This book is worth reading - very well written, without toppling into mawkishness. Rating 8/10

A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

As seen in a famous film with Dirk Bogarde - but any film of a Charles Dickens' book always misses out far too much. Now I reckon this is Dickens at his best - the long over convoluted sentences are rare, the plot is tight, the characters believable. Oh the suspense! This is one of the few historical novels from Mr Dickens, set just before and in the early years of Revolutionary France it is mixture of love story (Carton/Darnay battling over the lovely Lucie Manette) pure history - details of the horrors of the Ancien Regime and the effects of the Terror, and a study of the psychological effects of wrongful (and solitary) imprisonment in the person of Sr Manette - victim of the infamous lettres de cahier. The opening scenes at Blackheath and the political trial of Darnay set the novel off in an appropriately sinister way and establish ably the time of rumour and fear of the late eighteenth century. The descriptions of life in France are so vivid, and unrivalled. This book is how most of us get an impression of the French Revolution and the mass executions. A true classic - and well worth reading. Rating: 9/10

Books of 2007

I'm going to list the top ten books I've read in 2007 - in no particular order.

E Annie Proux - The Shipping News

Helene Hanff - 84 Charing Cross Road

Jane Smiley - Duplicate Keys

Daphne Du Maurier - Rebecca

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Half A Yellow Sun

Simon Brett - Death Under the Dryer

Jed Rubenfeld - The Interpretation of Murder

Patrick Marnham - Wild Mary - A Life of Mary wesley

Kate Atkinson - Case Histories

Alexander McCall Smith - Love Over Scotland

The Unfortunates - Laurie Graham

What a very strange book. I had tremendous difficulty getting to grips with this novel, a tale of a New York Jewish girl and her life throughout the 20th Century. And my what a lot happens to her - or rather around her because she truly is the spoilt rich kid, knowing the value of nothing - especially human relationships. She drifts through crises without any of their effects rubbing off on her at all. It is mildly amusing, and fairly tragic, but a little unsettling too because Popply (the mustard heiress) is just too brittle by far - most of her family are struck by tragedy, and yet she is the person who believes World War II broke out just to spoil her idea for a knitted necktie shop. Maybe I'll try another Laurie Graham - but not yet awhile. Rating 6/10