Lots of Reading

I've not really been very far over the last couple of weeks due to some dismal weather, possible diesel shortages and not feeling the need to go out just for the sake of it. That means I've had plenty of time to finish reading the library books before the library van comes round again tomorrow.

Apologies for cheating at doing proper reviews and just copying bits from amazon! but they usually sum things up better than me.

 

Ronald Blythe - Village Hours. 

 

 

Britain’s best loved rural writer chronicles the progress of the seasons in the Stour valley on the Essex/Suffolk border where he has lived and worked among artists, writers, farmers and, increasingly, commuters. For all the changes in the contemporary countryside, timeless qualities remain and both are captured here with a poet’s understanding and imagination. The year takes its shape from the seasons of nature and the feasts and festivals of the Christian year. Each informs and illuminates the other in this loving celebration of nature’s gifts and neighbourly friendship. Literature, poetry, spirituality and memory all merge to create an exquisite series of stories of our times. These short essays first appeared in the ‘Word From Wormingford’ column, a popular back page feature of the Church Times.

Alis Hawkins - In Two Minds

  A new to me author, mentioned on Jennies blog I think. The library only had the second of now 4 in a series about Teifi Valley Coroner Henry Probert-Lloyd. Set in the 1850s it's a large book and took me a while to get into as I'd not read the 1st. I loved the setting of Tresaith as that's somewhere we've had holidays a couple of times.

Harry Probert-Lloyd, a young barrister forced home from London by encroaching blindness, has begun work as the acting coroner of Teifi Valley with solicitor's clerk John Davies as his assistant.

When a faceless body is found on an isolated beach, Harry must lead the inquest. But his dogged pursuit of the truth begins to ruffle feathers. Especially when he decides to work alongside a local doctor with a dubious reputation and experimental theories considered radical and dangerous.

Refusing to accept easy answers might not only jeopardise Harry's chance to be elected coroner permanently, but could, it seems implicate his own family in a crime.

 I went onto the suggestions page on the website to ask the library to buy the other three, and they will ...........hooray!

Chris Nickson - The Blood Covenant.

 
Leeds. November, 1823. When a doctor from the infirmary tells thief-taker Simon Westow about the brutal deaths of two young boys at the hands of a mill overseer, Simon's painful memories of his childhood reawaken. Unable to sleep, he goes for a walk - and stumbles upon the body of a young man being pulled from the river.

Simon and his assistant, Jane, are drawn into investigating the deaths, seeking a measure of justice for the powerless dead. But the pursuit of the truth takes them down a dangerous and deadly path. Can they overcome a powerful enemy who knows he stands above the law in Leeds - and the shadowy figure that stands behind him?

 After reading these I was left with the book of short crime stories by Ann Granger but didn't fancy more crime so pulled a WWII Home Front book from my shelves. A book I've had a while but not read

Duff Hart-Davis- Our Land at War:A Portrait of Rural Britain 1939-1945..

 

 

A rich account of the impact of the Second World War on the lives of people living in the farms and villages of Britain.

On the outbreak of war, the countryside was invaded by service personnel and evacuee children by the thousand; land was taken arbitrarily for airfields, training grounds and firing ranges, and whole communities were evicted. Prisoner-of-war camps brought captured enemy soldiers to close quarters, and as horses gave way to tractors and combines farmers were burdened with aggressive new restrictions on what they could and could not grow. Land Girls and Lumber Jills worked in fields and forests. Food – or the lack of it – was a major preoccupation and rationing strictly enforced. And although rabbits were poached, apples scrumped and mushrooms gathered, there was still not enough to eat.

Drawing from diaries, letters, books, official records and interviews, Duff Hart Davis revisits rural Britain to describe how ordinary people survived the war years. He tells of houses turned over to military use such as Bletchley and RAF Medmenham as well as those that became schools, notably Chatsworth in Derbyshire.

Combining both hardship and farce, the book examines the profound changes war brought to Britain’s countryside: from the Home Guard, struggling with the provision of ludicrous equipment, to the role of the XII Corps Observation Unit. whose task was to enlarge rabbit warrens and badger setts into bunkers for harassing the enemy in the event of a German invasion; to the unexpected tenderness shown by many to German and Italian prisoners-of-war at work on the land. Fascinating, sad and at times hilarious, this warm-hearted book tells great stories – and casts new light on Britain during the war.

 

 

Writing about the Royal Observer Corp the author mentions a painting by Eric Ravilious (who I've written about before) and a black and white photo of the painting is included in the book.

He also mentions the book Akenfield which is written coincidentally by Ronald Blythe - author of the first book here. Akenfield is a book of reminiscences and memories of the people of Charsfield and Debach which are two villages in East Suffolk. Gathered together by Blythe when he lived there in the 1960's.

Back Tomorrow

Sue