Thursday, 19 March 2015

Helen Macdonald, H is for Hawk, Karl Ove Knausgaard. A Man In Love: My Struggle Book 2, Owen Jones, The Establishment: And How They Get Away With It

I learnt nothing new from 'The Establishment' and agreed with every word. Reinforcing already-held assumptions among lefties the nation over. He does write well and with an incisiveness and clarity. Whether he can be fairly called ' The Orwell of our times', as Russell Brand does, is another question entirely. He does appear to be utterly hated by commentators at The Spectator website though, which has to be in his favour.
I'm fully invested in Knausgaard's fascinating epic now. It does remain the story of his life in the minutest detail, which no-one can possible remember, so it has to be fictionalised. And yet. . . He opens up his soul, exposes his weaknesses and has ruined his own family life over the writing of these books (or has he?). 'H is for Hawk' is a similar confessional, and 3 stories intertwining; a story about the training of a goshawk, the story of the author's grief for her dead father, and the biography of TH White. Goshawks appear to be great, but they're no badgers.

Freddie and I have been regularly doing the Woking Park Run since Christmas. He's up to the full distance and getting steadily quicker - 11 minute miles now. More to the point, he seems to really enjoy it and it's a lovely thing to do together. His keenness to do it every Saturday may also be influenced by the treats lavished on him by an indulgent father if he manages a PB too, of course. Helen is running too, on a 'Couch to 5K' programme. She's finding it touch, but every time she goes out she gets a bit better. I'd love to see her and Fred to a Park Run (3 miles) sometime this summer. She's convinced she's embarrass herself though, so I'm encouraging her as much as poss. Fred would be so proud to do it with her. 

Monday, 2 March 2015

Sebastian Faulks, Jeeves & The Wedding Bells, Robin Fleming, Britain After Rome: The Fall and Rise, 400 to 1070: Anglo-Saxon Britain Vol 2 (The Penguin History of Britain), Rachel Joyce, Perfect

Was concerned  that Sebastian Faulks' latest homage (after his Bond novel) would be a disappointment, but he's obviously a huge fan and stuck generally to the formula. There were a couple of notes that made for a better novel (it was a novel rather than the short stories of Wodehouse), but didn't ring true; Bertie is given more of a back story and is occasionally given to contemplation of the horrors and loss of the Great War which had no place in the sunny Sunday afternoon atmosphere of a Wodehouse story. 'Perfect' was the follow-up to 'The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry'  which I really enjoyed, with it's shameless tugging of the heart strings. 'Perfect' took longer to grip me, but it kept me rapt towards the end, the sort of book you read every spare second you have; walking along, on the loo, surreptitious glances at work. . .

Libby, along with every other UK female aged 3-11 is absolutely obsessed with the film 'Frozen' at the moment. She had a Frozen-themed birthday party with games like Pin the Carrot on the Olaf and just about every card or present had Elsa or Anna on it. Disney are now responsible for a generation that will pronounce 'Anna' with an r sound after the first 'A'. I love her here singing so much. She doesn't know the words, and only just about knows he tune, but she belts it out like a club singer just the same, bless her. Fred & Lib have come to expect my rendition of 'One Spring Morning' and 'Sally Brown' as their lullabies, so both can belt those out too. Last night Lib decided to accompany 'One Spring Morning' by singing an entirely different song (Do You Want To Build A Snowman?) at the same time