SandDune's Retirement Reads 2022

Welcome to my first thread of 2022 and to my eleventh year doing the 75 Book Challenge. I'm a 60 year old accountant and, after spending most of my career in the City of London, I was until recently the Finance Manager of a local charity which provides support to children and adults with learning disabilities. But at the beginning of 2021 I retired and my husband (aka Mr SandDune) also started working part-time. We live about thirty miles north of London although retirement may take us elsewhere in the U.K. Our 21 year old son Jacob is now at the University of Lancaster in the North of England studying History. There's also our 9 year old Staffordshire Bull Terrier, Daisy, who tends to feature prominently in my threads.

I'm originally from Wales rather than England, so I do have an interest in all things Welsh (although I can't speak the language - at least only a few words) and I tend to get huffy if people call me English rather than Welsh! I am doing an introductory Welsh class this year though. I read mainly literary fiction, classics, science-fiction and fantasy, but I have been trying (and enjoying) some crime fiction. As far as non-fiction goes I’m interested in a number of topics in particular books about the environment and nature.

In the last couple of years I have read many more lighter and feel-good books. (I wonder why that could be - looking at you COVID! ) The number of books I'm reading is also down, although that's more to do with no longer listening to audio books during my commute).

All my family are avid readers. Jacob has inherited a love of reading science-fiction and fantasy from me and a love of reading history from Mr SandDune so our books are frequently shared. I read hardbacks, paperbacks, on kindle and listen to audio books particularly when driving or walking the dog.

Apart from reading I love travelling, eating out, and going to the theatre, when that's actually possible of course. As a lot of those activities haven’t been too feasible recently, I’ve been getting more involved with craft activities, in particular crochet and embroidery. As well as Welsh I'm learning French, and I enjoy messing about with my family history. I'm also getting more and more concerned about environmental issues and I have been quite involved in campaigning on climate change.

In 2022 I am going to start my threads with some pictures of places that have been important in my life. Thank you Paul Cranswick for the idea for this!

We’re starting with Florence (or Firenze to be correct Italian), where I spent nearly a year as an au pair after I’d finished university in 1982. It left me with a residual level of Italian (at one time it was pretty good, but that time has long gone) and a lifelong love of Italian food.

This is perhaps the standard view of Florence: the view of the Duomo with its baptistry and campanile.



Somewhere smaller in scale that I visited frequently was Vivoli’s gelateria, which had more flavours of ice cream than I had ever previously come across. I probably went there at least one or twice a week during my stay, particularly in the warmer months. There used to be an English language cinema in the vicinity, so I was often in the area.

Books Read in 2022:

1. The High House Jessie Greengrass ****1/2
2. Carrie's War Nina Bawden ****
3. A Bear Called Paddington Michael Bond *****
4. The Muse Jessie Burton ***
5. Just William Richmal Compton *****
6. Agent Running in the Field John Le Carre ****
7. The Island of Missing Trees Elif Shafak ****1/2

Favourites from 2021

Favourite Books:

Five star reads:
Piranesi Susanna Clarke
The Magician’s Nephew C.S. Lewis
Hamnet Maggie O’Farrell
Wilding: the Return of Nature to a British Farm Isabella Tree
Barchester Towers Anthony Trollope

Four and a half star reads:
The Mermaid of Black Conch Monique Roffey ****1/2
Night Waking Sarah Moss ****1/2
Komarr Lois McMaster Bujold ****1/2

Favourite Films:

The Power of the Dog
Grand Budapest Hotel
Dune
News of the World
Passing

Favourite TV:

Shtisel
Gomorrah
Landscapers
Call my Agent
Spiral

Plans for 2022:

I belong to a RL book club which has been going for 21 years and that meets monthly except for January & August. Our choices so far are as follows:

February: Agent Running in the Field John Le Carre
March: Letters From America Rupert Brooke
April:
May:
June:
July: Small Pleasures Claire Chambers
September:
October:
November:
December:

We are also reading the Costa Novel shortlist over the next couple of months:

The High House Jessie Greengrass
The Fortune Men Nadifa Mohamed
Unsettled Ground Claire Fuller
The Island of Missing Trees Elif Shafak

I have also recently joined another book club with the U3A which also meets monthly. I've only attended one meeting so far, so I'm still testing the waters with this one. Books are as follows:

January: The Muse Jessie Burton
February: Snap Belinda Bauer
March:
April:
May:
June:
July:
August:
September:
October:
November:
December:

Plans for 2022 (continued)

I hope to participate in the Asian book challenge for 2022, hopefully reading books that are in the house already:

January - Turkey
February - Israeli & Palestinian Authors
March - The Arab World
April - Iran
May - The Stans - There are 7 states all in the same region all ending in "Stan"
June - India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh
July - China
August - Japan
September - Korea
October - Indo-China
November - The Malay Archipelago - Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia
December - The Asian Diaspora - Ethnic Asian writers from elsewhere

I also hope to participate in the British Author Challenge:

January: Children's Classics
February: Mary Renault & Timothy Mo
March: The Interwar Period (11 November 1918-1 September 1939)
April: Kamila Shamsie & Clive Barker
May: Comic Books/Graphic Novels & Audiobooks
June: Jackie Kay & E. F. Benson
July: The Georgian Era (1714-1837)
August: Espionage
September: Retellings, Continuations, and Non-Series Prequels & Sequels
October: Aminatta Forna & Lawrence Durrell
November: Arthurian Legend
December: Books about books

Lovely new thread Rhian. Happy New Year to you and yours.

I think you might enjoy Still Life by Sarah Winman (paperback due in March). Mostly set in Firenze. It made me want to go back there, so its pencilled in for May 2023. Time to improve on very little existing Italian, and because I don't want to fly until things are more stable.

Hi Rhian! So who's getting the Turkish nod for the Asian challenge?

Happy new year, Rhian! Looking forward to another year following your reading.

I am hoping to introduce my husband to Florence sometime soon(ish). I spent 10 days there several years ago, and it remains one of my favorite places.

Hi and happy new year! Star duly dropped.

Hi Rhian my dear, Starred you again.

>7 Caroline_McElwee: I think that Still Life is one of the books scheduled for my new book club. If not, I will definitely add it to the Wish List.

>8 richardderus: It will either be Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak or My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk. Haven't quite decided yet.

>12 SandDune: I've only read My Name is Red of those two, but really enjoyed that read back in the Aughties.

>9 katiekrug: Hi Katie! I haven't been back to Florence since 1983, which is quite shocking, although I've been to Italy on a number of occasions, most recently to Rome in 2016. When Jacob was small Florence always seemed a much less suitable destination than other places in Italy as far as he was concerned: too many art galleries and not enough ruins!

>10 ArlieS: Welcome!

>11 johnsimpson: Hi John!

>13 richardderus: That's good to know. It's a book that we've had on the shelf for ages - I really should get around to it.

As those people who were following my 2021 thread will know, it was my mother's 100th birthday yesterday. We couldn't have the larger party that had been planned because of COVID, but we did manage to take her out for tea, which I think she enjoyed. To be honest I think she enjoyed it more than she would have done a larger party, which I think would have been too overwhelming for her.

Here she is with her birthday cake:



And at home with her cards (including the one from the Queen at centre stage). I wouldn't have said that my Mum was particularly royalist, but she did like her card from the Queen.



And here we all are: the maximum 6 people that are allowed in one party in hospitality venues in Wales at the moment. From left to right in front it's my sister, my mother and then me, then behind it's my sister's husband, Mr SandDune and Jacob.

Happy new year! Florence is one of my favorite places! I was able to take a couple of business trips there in the 2005 timeframe, one of which, Mrsdrneutron was able to come along. I’d love to go back some day!

Lovely photos of the birthday party, Rhian. I am sure your mum was thrilled with it all and you're probably right that she would have been overwhelmed by a larger gathering. I'm glad you were able to mark the occasion.

>15 SandDune: Happy Hundredth to your mum, Rhian, and I'm so glad you aren't in a big crowd.

Happy reading in 2022, Rhian!

>15 SandDune: Belated happy 100th birthday to your mother. Glad to see it worked out well.

>15 SandDune: Lovely photos of your mum's special celebration Rhian. I think the perfect outcome occurred.

We grew up with the willow pattern crockery too.

Happy new year and happy celebration of your mother's milestone birthday. The photos are lovely.
I've been skipping the process of posting photos on my thread but I love the idea of posting favorite places. (I might steal it.)

This group always helps me to read; welcome back to the group, Rhian.

Lovely photos of your mum's celebration; thanks so much for sharing a special moment.

>15 SandDune: She's looking great!

Have a great year of reading!

>16 drneutron: We’re hoping to do a train trip through Northern Italy (once travel to busier places becomes more appealing again) including some of the less well known cities, but Florence will definitely be on the list as well

>17 lauralkeet: >18 richardderus: >19 FAMeulstee: >20 Caroline_McElwee: >21 AnneDC: >22 PaulCranswick: I think taking her out for a small tea was a good compromise. We’d all seen each other a few days before and the six people in our party (the maximum allowed) were double-vaccinated and boosted, and we all took lateral flow tests before meeting up. And there were only two other tables occupied in the restaurant: all a long way away from us. Even though it was a very small celebration it meant we could mark the occasion properly. On the way to the restaurant we did a detour past the house where she lived as a child, which she hadn’t seen for some time, although it’s only about 5 miles from where she lives now, and she enjoyed that too.

>21 AnneDC: I stole the ‘favourite places’ idea from Paul, so feel free.

>22 PaulCranswick: Happy New Year Paul!

>23 quondame: Happy New Year to you too, Susan!

>24 thornton37814: Thanks!

Happy new year Rhian, glad to read your mum had a good celebration.

Congratulations and happy birthday to your mum. She looks very happy.



Happy New Year! Wishing you and your family the very best in joy, friendship, health, happiness and lots of good books for 2022.

Happy new year, Rhian!

Love the photos of Florence (one of my dream vacation destinations) and look forward to what other places you’ll be showing us through the year.

And happy birthday to your mum!

Happy new Year!

>15 SandDune: Wow! 100 years and still smiling :) Happy birthday to your mom.

I'm glad the party worked out well, and hope any disagreements are now behind you all. It's hard for me to imagine a very elderly person enjoying a large gathering - I wouldn't even at my more modest 64!

Happy New Year and happy first thread of 2022, Rhian!

>12 SandDune: I’ll be joining the Asian Authors challenge for January, too, and My Name is Red will arrive in a week or so.

>15 SandDune: Happy Birthday to your mother. Wonderful pictures, thank you for sharing.

Happy New Year, Rhian. I like your best of list. Hamnet made my list in 2020. I love Grand Budapest Hotel!!

Dropping a star, Rhian. Belated Happy Birthday wishes to your mother. I think the tea sounds lovely. She looks very happy - wonderful photos!

Hoping to do a better job of keeping up with you in 2022.

Happy new year, Rhian!

Love the photos of your mom's birthday celebrations and glad you could have a small gathering.

Happy New Year from me n Miss Po!

Happy New Year, Rhian. I look forward to following your reading this year. Great pictures from your mother's birthday.

I love the photos from Firenze. One day we'll be able to travel again.

Great list of favorites from 2021. Some were on my list as well.

>3 SandDune: I love seeing these "Best of" lists! I have read both Piranesi and The Magician's Nephew. I have a copy of Hamnet on its way to me - I ordered it a couple of days ago.

Happy New Year, Rhian!

Hi, Rhian! - best wishes for your reading this year. :)

Congratulations on your mum's milestone, that's amazing!

Happy New Year, Rhian! I hope you have a great reading year. I look forward to more photos - you travel to such great places. We're hoping to visit Italy this year.

Congratulations to your mother - and i'm glad the family could still celebrate with her even if you couldn't have a big gathering.

>26 charl08: Thanks Charlotte!

>27 humouress: Happy New Year to you too, Nina.

>28 PawsforThought: Thanks Paws. I’m hoping to find my original photos of Florence in the next few weeks. We’re in the process of sorting out what’s in the loft (junk mostly) and I’ve a feeling that that is where they are.

>29 figsfromthistle: Happy New Year too!

>30 CDVicarage: >33 Crazymamie: >34 MickyFine: >39 AMQS: Well, the original party wasn’t going to be huge, about 40 people in total. Trouble was, as my sister has such a large family, even restricting it to just children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and their partners produces quite a large number. But I think she would have been overwhelmed with the large number, so it probably worked out for the best. She is having a small tea at the retirement complex where she lives next week.

>31 karenmarie: I think I’m going to start with My Name is Red too.

>32 msf59: Hi Mark! Earlier in 2021 we were doing a designated film night, with each person choosing a film individually, and it certainly meant that we watched a wider variety of films than previously. Although Mr SandDune complains that my choices are ‘odd’.

>35 sibylline: Happy New Year Lucy! Miss Po looking very regal there!

>36 BLBera: Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to travel? I know it’s theoretically possible at the moment (at least to certain countries) but I still don’t fancy it.

>37 alcottacre: I hope you enjoy Hamnet Stasia. I was worried that it wouldn’t live up to its hype, but it did.

>38 lyzard: Looking forward to seeing what you are reading as well!

>39 AMQS: Whereabouts in Italy will you be going Anne? Italy is one of my favourite places but there are so many areas where I haven’t been I can’t guarantee that all the photos will be as scenic as Florence though!

Happy 2022, Rhian. And congratulations to your mom on reaching 100. Smart to have a small gathering, for all the reasons you cited.

Jim and I traveled a bit too much this past half-year, and we are pulling back now as Omicron spreads out. It feels like the prudent thing to do, alas.

>41 SandDune: Marina will hopefully spend the 2022-2023 school year in Bologna, so if we go, we would definitely go there, and hopefully have a chance to visit other places as well. My brother and his family live in Munich, and my mother lives there for about half of the year, too. Typically she comes home (Colorado) from July through December and is in Munich the rest of the year. I think next year she may stay in Germany if Marina is in Italy, and we've talked about celebrating Christmas in Europe. Those are very tentative plans, but it's fun to dream about them:)

>42 ffortsa: We haven’t been abroad since 2019, the longest period in a very long time. I do miss it. And I also miss eating out, which we have done so much more rarely than usual. Usually on holiday we would eat out most nights, even when we are staying in self-catering accommodation, and I would really like to feel comfortable about doing that again.

>43 AMQS: Bologna, how lovely! I’ve visited about four times or so, and it’s a really interesting city. And very well placed for touring around. It’s an easy train ride down to Florence, certainly. Supposed to have the best food in Italy, as well.

Congratulations to your Mum. She looks wonderful for her age, and I am glad you all got to celebrate!
I've never been to Florence, but 2 of my art history friends and I are planning a trip to Florence and a few other art places in Italy for whenever covid cooperates.
Will you be having a thread in Club Read this year? If not, I'll be following you here.

>41 SandDune: I was worried that it wouldn’t live up to its hype, but it did.

Good to know! I am hoping it gets here soon.

Well, congratulations to your mother, such wonderful family photos. Thanks for sharing, Rhian - and I hope you'll have a great year reading and posting.

>45 arubabookwoman: I am starting a thread in Club Read and you reminded me that I hadn't done it yet. It's always a bit difficult keeping up with two threads in the first couple of days in the year!

>46 alcottacre: Stasia, I noticed your description of Obsession on the Board Games thread as 'a Jane Austen Novel in board game form', and thought 'That is the game for me'. So Caroline, Jacob's girlfriend, is searching me out a second-hand copy. It never occurred to me that there is a lively trade in second-hand board games, but I am informed that there is.

>47 ctpress: Thanks Carsten. Wishing you the same!

We've been having a reasonably quiet start to the New Year. I've made some good inroads into the first Costa book The High House by Jessie Greengrass and I've also just started Carrie's War by Nina Bawden for the British Authors Challenge.

Yesterday, we continued with an ongoing project to sort out our loft which we started before Christmas. This was prompted by my being able to find my old photo album when I was preparing my Mum's photo book. It wasn't in the loft after all and has now been found, but it made us realise how disorganised the loft storage is and how virtually impossible to find things in it. So yesterday we got more boxes down from the loft, mainly containing Jacob's childhood things, and started sorting through them. It was nice to see some of his favourite toys again (dinosaurs and trains featuring heavily) and those will be kept, but we also seem to have virtually every exercise book from his primary school days which I think is probably a little over the top. So we will be winnowing those down a little I think.

In the process we found: a six year old wetsuit which most definitely does not fit Jacob any more; a damaged sofa cover for our old sofa (we had a replacement from the shop probably 12 or 13 years ago; children's Christmas wrapping paper that must have been there at least 10 years (why did we put it in the loft in the first place); and numerous packing boxes for electrical items we no longer possess. Progress has been temporarily halted as Homebase have run out of the plastic crates that we wanted to replace the sagging cardboard storage boxes. There was a huge pile in store before Christmas but now there are none.

We went through a similar exercise a few years ago before moving house. We, too, had all of those school exercise books, art projects, yearbooks, etc. I did the winnowing, separating each daughter's stuff into separate crates. Someday they will want those crates for themselves, but for now we have more storage space and I have no problem keeping them. We also boxed up favorite children's books and toys, for use with future, currently hypothetical, grandchildren. And yes, we found an awful lot of items that made us wonder what we were thinking. It was actually a rather satisfying project once I put my mind to it.

I hope your plastic crate supply chain issues are resolved soon.

>50 lauralkeet: We will definitely be keeping some of the projects and writing and art. But I'm pretty sure that his maths and spelling books from when he was 6 or 7 aren't going to interest him much in the future! Part of the problem is more of organisation though, rather than the amount of stuff.

>49 SandDune: Oh dear; I have that project waiting for me at some future date. A long way into the future, for my preference.

>15 SandDune: Happy New Year of Reading, Rhian. Congratulations on your mother’s 100th birthday. She looks marvelous, as does the rest of the family in the group photo.

This is a good time to start an organization project. I have several boxes of books ready to leave the house. I enjoy reorganizing bookshelves but not so much the rest of the house. *sigh*

1. The High House Jessie Greengrass ****1/2



The high house stands above a small East Anglian village, protected from the sea by the marshes, dunes and a shingle bank. As the climate crisis deepens, four people make their home within its walls. Sally and her grandfather 'Grandy' had for many years been the only permanent inhabitants of the village as it had become abandoned to second homes and rental cottages. Caro and her young half-brother Pauly find their way to the house following a desperate final phone call from their father. For the high house has been prepared as a refuge for her child by Pauly's mother Francesca, a prominent environmentalist who despite not believing that there was any hope to save the planet, continues to try.

While the collapse of the world around the house forms the background to the book, at its heart is the love felt by one human being for another: Francesca's love for her son, despite her almost constant absences during his childhood; Caro's love for Pauly to whom she has been almost a surrogate mother; Sally's and Grandy's love for each other; and Sally's love for the child Pauly, representing the child that she will never have.

This book deals perfectly with how it is possible to logically know the facts about the climate crisis and yet act on a day to day basis as if those facts didn't exist. These two passages in particular rang very true with me:

She didn’t have the habit that the rest of us were learning of having our minds in two places at once, of seeing two futures – that ordinary one of summer holidays and new school terms, of Christmases and birthdays and bank accounts in an endless, uneventful round, and the other one, the long and empty one we spoke about in hypotheticals, or didn’t speak about at all.

It is so hard to remember, now, what it felt like to live in that space between two futures, fitting our whole lives into the gap between fear and certainty – but I think that perhaps it was most like those dreams in which one struggles to wake but can’t, so that over and over again one slips back against the mattress, lets the duvet fall and shuts one’s eyes. There is a kind of organic mercy, grown deep inside us, which makes it so much easier to care about small, close things, else how could we live? As I grew up, crisis slid from distant threat to imminent probability and we tuned it out like static, we adjusted to each emergent normality and we did what we had always done – the commutes and holidays, the Friday big shops, day trips to the countryside, afternoons in the park. We did these things not out of ignorance, nor through thoughtlessness, but only because there seemed nothing else to do – and we did them as well because they were a kind of fine-grained incantation, made in flesh and time. The unexalted, tedious familiarity of our daily lives would keep us safe, we thought, and even Francesca, who saw it all so clearly – even she who would not let herself be gulled by hope – stood by the open fridge at five o’clock in the afternoon and swore because there was nothing to give the baby for his tea.

This is a beautifully written book that fully deserves its place on the Costa Best Novel shortlist. If I have reservations, it is in some of the practicalities of the growing crisis that do not quite seem to make sense to me at times. But strongly recommended, nevertheless.

>52 humouress: >53 Donna828: Well, to be honest I don't mind the sorting out too much. And there is not too much stuff... And if we do move house it will be one less thing that needs doing.

>54 SandDune: - That sounds really good, Rhian. I'll have a look for it.

ETA: Perfect timing! It releases over here tomorrow :)

>54 SandDune: Those passages rang very true indeed. What a wonderful read to start 2022 with.

Hoping the rest of the year's reads live up to the standard.

>44 SandDune: That's what we've heard! Marina has begin the application process.

>49 SandDune: That's quite a project. You'll be glad to have that done.

>54 SandDune: that sound like a good one.

>56 katiekrug: I've noticed previously that the Costa novels don't tend to get as much publicity in the U.S. as the Booker. Personally, I think the Costa is my favourite literary prize.

>57 richardderus: I suffer from real climate anxiety at times, so actually the ability to think of two futures at once is a blessing.

>58 AMQS: I hope she enjoys Bologna!

>54 SandDune: You may have hit me with my second bullet of the year Rhian. RD had the first.

>54 SandDune: This sounds excellent, Rhian. And because it's just on the cusp of US release, the library queue is blissfully short. I'm #4 in line so I should get it soon after they have copies in circulation.

>25 SandDune: The Costa Prize category winners are out today. Shortlists are as follows:

Best Novel Shortlist:

The High House Jessie Greengrass
The Fortune Men Nadifa Mohamed
Unsettled Ground Claire Fuller (category winner)
The Island of Missing Trees Elif Shafak

Best First Novel Shortlist:

The Manningtree Witches by A. K. Blakemore
Fault Lines by Emily Itami
Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson (category winner)
The Stranding by Kate Sawyer

Best Biography Shortlist:

Consumed: A Sister's Story by Arifa Akbar
The Moth and the Mountain: A True Story of Love, War and Everest by Ed Caesar
Fall: The Mystery of Robert Maxwell by John Preston (category winner)
Free: Coming of Age at the End of History by Lea Ypi

Poetry Shortlist:

All The Names Given by Raymond Antrobus
A Blood Condition by Kayo Chingonyi
Eat Or We Both Starve by Victoria Kennefick
The Kids by Hannah Lowe (category winner)

Children's Shortlist

Maggie Blue and the Dark World by Anna Goodall
The Crossing by Manjeet Mann (category winner)
The Midnight Guardians by Ross Montgomery
The Boy Who Made Everyone Laugh by Helen Rutter

>60 Caroline_McElwee: >61 lauralkeet: I should have said that Mr SandDune has also just read this book (it was his Christmas present) and also rates it very highly.

I’ve edited my list in >62 SandDune: above to show the category winners, which were announced last night.

Hurray for Unsettled Ground! I haven't read any of the other nominated books, in any of the categories (tsk tsk) but I really enjoyed that one, and it's prize-worthy.

What >65 lauralkeet: Laura said! Unsettled Ground was so, so good.

>65 lauralkeet: >66 katiekrug: We will be reading Unsettled Ground sometime over the next few months as part of our Costa shortlist read. We haven’t set the order yet (apart from The High House being first) but now that Unsettled Ground has won I suspect that we might leave that one until last, which means we will be reading it in April.

Happy 100th to your mother! Amazing. I love to think of all she has experienced and all she knows.

Happy Humpday's reading, Rhian. Unsettled Ground isn't quite unknown here, but didn't get a "Costa bump" as it would've had it won the Booker. A surprising number (to me) of US readers watch the Booker. More than watch, say, the NBCC Award, which is native to us...but it's probably because there are US-based Booker winners now.

A thing of which I myownself *heartily*disapprove* and wish they would, with immediate effect, discontinue and reverse.

...George Bleedin' SAUNDERS a Booker winner...the horror, the horror!

>68 LovingLit: Thank you!

>69 richardderus: We used to read the Booker Prize shortlist, but stopped after 2016 when Paul Beatty won with The Sellout. I think most people in our group disliked quite a bit of the shortlist that year and it was pretty much consistently miserable, so it rather turned us against the Booker for a while. And the Costa is only four extra books to read rather than six. I wish they’d go back to only British & Commonwealth writers as well. I think a book like The Sellout illustrates why. If you are going to appreciate a satire on race relations then the reader really needs to understand what is being satirised. And my understanding of American race issues or American society isn’t good enough: I don’t get the nuances. If it had been a book by a British author set in London and covering the same topics then I’d have a much better appreciation of what was being written about.

I did like Lincoln in the Bardo though.

>70 SandDune: Did you...! Well. I wouldn't have taken you for one of them but, well, we are all as Heaven made us (to quote van Gulik's Judge Dee), aren't we.

>54 SandDune: Hi, Sanddune! You got me with The High House, but I’ll have to wait to read it— it’s on order at my library. I will try to be patient!

Happy new year!

Karen O

>62 SandDune: I was impressed by Open Water, great to see the author getting some recognition.

>69 richardderus: >70 SandDune: >71 richardderus: I'm with RD on Lincoln in the Bardo, pearl ruled after 80 pages. I really expected to like it and didn't.

I agree re the Booker too.

2. Carrie's War Nina Bawden ****



I did a dreadful thing, the worst thing of my life, when I was twelve and a half years old, or I feel that I did, and nothing can change it …’

At the start of World War II Carrie and her younger brother Nick are evacuated from their home in London to a small Welsh mining village. Their new life in the home of the stern and unsmiling grocer Mr Evans initially seems cold and joyless, and there are so many new rules:

As they went upstairs, Miss Evans rolled up the drugget behind them. ‘Mr Evans doesn’t like to see it down,’ she explained when she caught Carrie’s eye. ‘I just put it there while he’s out to keep the carpet spick and span. It’s a new one, you see, lovely deep pile, and Mr Evans doesn’t want it trodden on.’
‘How are you supposed to get up the stairs, then?’ Nick said. ‘Walk on the ceiling, or fly like a bird?’
‘Well. Well, of course …’ Miss Evans laughed, rather breathlessly. ‘Of course you have to walk on it sometimes but not too often. Mr Evans said twice a day would be quite enough. You see, four of us going up and down twice a day, morning and evening, makes sixteen times altogether, and Mr Evans thinks that’s quite enough traipsing. So if you could try to remember to bring down all the things you’ll want for the day, in the morning …’
'But the bathroom's upstairs,' Nick said in an outraged voice.

As time goes on the children grow to love Miss Evans, Mr Evans's much younger sister, or Aunty Lou as they call her, but they feel most at home at Druid's Bottom, the household of his estranged elder sister, Mrs Gotobed. Mrs Gotobed married into money, but the money has been spent and gambled away and there are few reminders of it except Mrs Gotobed's twenty-nine silken ball gowns hanging in the wardrobe. At Druid's Bottom the housekeeper Hepzibah cares for the dying Mrs Gotobed as well as the learning disabled Mister Johnny, and welcomes the children as if they were her own. But Carrie's much regretted action causes a train of events which endangers the security of the whole household ...

This is a nuanced book, where, unlike many children's books, people are neither wholly good or wholly evil. It has a strong sense of place, being based on Nina Bawden's own experience as an evacuee in Blaengarw. Recommended.

>71 richardderus: Sorry Richard! I'll try to do better.

>72 klobrien2: Definitely worth the wait.

>73 charl08: I hadn't heard of that one particularly. On the First novel shortlist I own The Manningtree Witches and I also liked the look of The Stranding.

>74 Caroline_McElwee: I listened to Lincoln in the Bardo - it was a good audio.

Great excitement in the SandDune household yesterday as it was the release date of the 1921 England & Wales census. I spent a happy hour of so tracking down the records for my grandparents and great-grandparents but will have to leave it there for the moment as individual records have to be paid for and it will start adding up! I found my father as a baby (he was born in 1920). Interestingly, his whole family is listed as speaking Welsh rather than English (or both). I had always got the impression that my grandparents had spoken Welsh to their eldest son only, and had than made the decision to speak English to their other children so that their English would improve and they would ‘get on’. Irritatingly, I was unable to find out my grandparents address in 1921 as they happened to be visiting relatives on census night!

>77 SandDune: How fun. I love trawling through old records like that.

>77 SandDune: that is exciting! And a great project.

>78 lauralkeet: >79 AMQS: I’ve been doing my family history on and off for very many years. It’s so much easier than it used to be now, with such a lot online. One thing I’ve noticed is that several men are listed as unemployed (this is in the South Wales coalfields) and I’ve rarely come across unemployment before. I must look into the social and economic history of the period a little more.

>80 SandDune: What I've enjoyed most about doing my family history is the way some new bit of data piques my interest in learning more about a period in time -- like your unemployment example. There's no end to the rabbit holes you can get lost in.

We've been out for a meal tonight at the house of Jacob's girlfriend's parents. We've met them before briefly but haven't really socialised at all because of COVID. But we all took lateral flow tests before meeting up this evening, so fingers crossed. I was slightly constrained with my conversation as I was provided by Jacob with a list of topics that I should steer clear off, including politics, Scottish independence, environmentalism, Brexit and fox hunting. And then I got kicked under the table when the topic of pheasant shooting came up! But the evening passed quite pleasantly nonetheless, but quite amusing that he is so concerned for me to make a good impression.

>81 lauralkeet: I've looked at census returns now from a variety of different countries and I find it interesting what information different countries choose to collect. Welsh censuses collected information about what language people spoke, Irish ones collected information about religion people, and U.S. ones collected the informants race.

>82 SandDune: I am put in mind of a scene from Auntie Mame where Patrick has severe collywobbles about Mame meeting the Upsons. Heh.

>77 SandDune: My goodness! Your fun times are just begun. I love poking around in data sets like that.

My mother was born in 1920, and how she wriggled that around! Her brother was born in 1915 and their mother lost a baby in the 1918 pandemic; both he and her uncle, when I asked them, remembered Mama being born in 1920. She insisted it wasn't 1920 but 1921, or '22, or....

As she was born at home there was no birth certificate filed until she registered for school...in 1926. At six, as was customary. Which she redacted ever after! Her passport was revoked in 1978 because there were so many different dates on her paperwork. Fun times.

>84 richardderus: My mother, born in 1918, had no birth certificate and to get a passport she had to get an affidavit from her father, who, according to her, misremembered her birth date by 3 days.

>84 richardderus: I think his other half’s parents are MUCH more conservative than we are, and I think from some things that Jacob has mentioned in the past they have got the impression that we are rabid lentil-eating, statue topping, road-blocking, left-wing revolutionaries. Well, I suppose some of that is true … But I think it took him quite a while to get into their good books, and he didn’t want our visit to get them into his bad books again.

>84 richardderus: >85 quondame: Was it that common not to register a birth? Both my grandparents had to get copies of their birth certificates when they became eligible for a pension, but they’re clearly copies of the original documents which had become lost, rather than a recreation of a non-existing record. I don’t know the percentage of births not registered after 1874 in the U.K. (when they brought in new regulations about it) but I think it’s pretty low, although births were not infrequently registered slightly later than they should have been, with an adjusted birth date to avoid the fine.

>82 SandDune: Oh my. Sounds like something from the 1950s hehe. Glad you survived Rhian, hope you don't have too many bruises.

>82 SandDune: We had a meetup with the parents of Julia's boyfriend last autumn. She told us beforehand that while they would never admit it, their aim was to make sure we weren't rabid Christian Trump supporters. Fortunately with that remit, we could just be ourselves without any prohibited topics.

>83 SandDune: I've only looked at US Census data so I don't have as broad a perspective as you do. Even within the US, there are variations in data collection from one census to the next. The oldest ones I've seen (early 1800s) had the name of head of household, but everyone else was just represented by a tick mark indicating age & gender (i.e., males under 5). Soon they began identifying everyone by name (much more useful for family history thank you very much), and also recording occupation. And you are correct about race. I just came across census records from the mid-1800s that counted enslaved black people belonging to the head of household. Obviously I know that's part of the country's history but it still makes me squirm.

>87 Caroline_McElwee: >88 lauralkeet: I think they’re nice people and they do a huge amount of charity work but I don’t think we have much in common. We read The Guardian - they read the Telegraph. We were very pro-Remain: they were very pro-Brexit. I vote Labour or Green: they vote Conservative or Brexit party. We love pets: they have never even allowed a gerbil. All in all they are conservative with a small ‘c’ and we’re not. I get the impression from Jacob that they probably think I’m too ‘woke’ in the Daily Mail sense of the word.

>88 lauralkeet: The census questions vary here too and gradually get more and more detailed as the years have gone on. The census has been taken since 1801 but the individual records are only available to view from 1841 onwards - the household entries for the earlier years were destroyed. This 1921 census gives the name and address of employer for the first time, which is interesting.

When I first started dating The Wayne, my (very) conservative father called my aunt (who had met TW by that point) to make sure he (TW) wasn't a Communist... *smh*

>87 Caroline_McElwee: >88 lauralkeet: Thinking about it Jacob was probably wise to kick me at the time of the pheasant shooting conversation. I haven’t got any strong objections to pheasant hunting per se (I’m quite partial to a nice tasty pheasant) but I have been getting concerned recently about the environmental degradation that is caused by managing peat moorland for game birds. And also the impact on indigenous birds of releasing millions of game birds into the countryside. So I might possibly have gone down that track if it hadn’t been for the kick!

3. A Bear Called Paddington Michael Bond *****



Everyone knows Paddington Bear and this is the first book in the series. I loved the Paddington books as a child and my son loved them too when he was young. This first book tells the story of how Paddington came to London from his home in Darkest Peru, and how he came to live at number 32 Windsor Gardens with the Brown family.

This is aimed at fairly young children, but it still makes me laugh, and the rating is for the joy the series has given me in the past.

“I’m glad I emigrated,” said Paddington, as he reached out a paw and pulled the plate nearer. “Do you think anyone would mind if I stood on the table to eat?” Before Mr Brown could answer he had climbed up and placed his right paw firmly on the bun. It was a very large bun, the biggest and stickiest Mr Brown had been able to find, and in a matter of moments most of the inside found its way on to Paddington’s whiskers. People started to nudge each other and began staring in their direction. Mr Brown wished he had chosen a plain, ordinary bun, but he wasn’t very experienced in the ways of bears. He stirred his tea and looked out of the window, pretending he had tea with a bear on Paddington station every day of his life.

“Henry!” The sound of his wife’s voice brought him back to earth with a start. “Henry, whatever are you doing to that poor bear? Look at him! He’s covered all over with cream and jam.” Mr Brown jumped up in confusion. “He seemed rather hungry,” he answered, lamely.

Mrs Brown turned to her daughter. “This is what happens when I leave your father alone for five minutes.”'

>92 SandDune: One thing I have been wondering about since reading A Bear Called Paddington and that is why children's books find it necessary to update the currency. The book was originally published in 1958 but the edition that I have was published in 2003. So we have underground tickets for eighty pence whereas in reality it would be shillings and pence at that time. It's very obvious from the story that this isn't set in the current day - it's clearly the London of 60 years ago - so why change the money? Surely children can cope with the fact that things in the past were different?

>93 SandDune: Interesting Rhian. I agree, it doesn't need to be updated. It would lead to a discussion about currency change, with a child, and an adult should know.

Mind, that said, I've had to update a number of 20-30 somethings about things common in my earlier life!

>94 Caroline_McElwee: I may be biased as the young person in my life has always been so interested in history. But I don't see the point if pretending that things were always the same as today.

>89 SandDune:, >86 SandDune: Re: the 'rents...well. Special, that is. Torygraph readers...well! I suppose it's not the Deadly Male, so that's a mercy.

In the Western states where population density was low, home births weren't reliably registered at the time they happened until the 1930s. Texas, where Mama was born, has 254 counties because the constitution of the state mandates that no county seat be more than one day's horse ride from any point of population density. The County Clerk was thus pretty far away from most families. The requirement of a birth certificate to enter school was almost not passed: "Of course I was born, I'm here ain't I?" prevailed until They said it was to keep Mexicans from taking advantage of taxpayer-supported schools.

The county system's survived until the 21st century largely because changing them to match modern political reality is way too much trouble.

>92 SandDune: Reminded me that I need to send my Paddington to the hospital for some T.L.C. He was bought for me by my Aunty Jennie when I was 18 and about to go to University - they were very popular at that time. He's on his second hat and second coat, but I think his wellies are original. But he's lost an eye and probably needs another new coat now ...

>96 richardderus: I think it was much more strongly enforced here then. I'm not sure how big the fines were for non-registration but there were certainly fines.

Fascinating discussions here, Rhian. And you pointers from your son about what not to talk about with the girlfriend's parents made me laugh.

>97 SandDune: So sweet! And you got me with your review of A Bear Called Paddington - I have never read it.

>97 SandDune: What a wonderful Paddington Bear!

And, Happy Birthday 100th birthday to your mother.

Loving the talk about meeting what my father would have called the "out-laws". My parents' first impression of my husband's parents was that they must be "rolling in it", meaning filthy rich. They weren't. But they were living in a grand big house once owned by ancestors who were. It all worked out, as no one involved was a total git. And I don't remember setting any rules about conversation, but it was a long time ago.

I love researching family history, and I also do a lot of documentation of graves locally. As I live in a former coal-mining region of Pennsylvania, there are many many Welsh immigrants in our cemeteries. They seemed to have such a limited supply of Christian names! I expect to find Rhys and Owen and Emrys and Gwyneth and Angharad....what I get is William after William after Mary after Mary!

>86 SandDune: Well, my mother was born in 1918 to Jewish parents, so there wouldn't have been any baptismal or christening records and I guess in Colorado registering a birth wasn't necessary - or maybe my mother was trying to disguise the fact that her parents may not have been married at the time of her birth, which to anyone who knew anything about my grandfather, would always have been a possibility. He was a complete rotter, if an occasionally charming one.

>92 SandDune: I know of Paddington Bear, but haven't ever read any. Not even to my daughter as a child.

Aw, what a cute Paddington bear! I love Paddington, and started reading them a couple of years ago - I should get back to that because there a many still unread.

>99 Crazymamie: >100 Whisper1: >103 quondame: >104 PawsforThought: I think it’s always difficult with childhood favourites to work out how much of the enjoyment of reading them now is due to the remembrance of reading them as a child or to rereading then to my own child. But Paddington always make me laugh and he is always so sweet and well-meaning. I do love the films as well.

My Paddington isn’t doing too badly for being 42 years old I suppose. He saw pretty heavy usage when Jacob had him - he still lives in Jacob’s bedroom.

This wasn’t my original copy of A Bear called Paddington unfortunately. Pretty much all my childhood books were given to my sister for her children once I had grown out of them, and being as she had five children, by the time they had gone through all five they were pretty much falling apart.

>101 laytonwoman3rd: I had some relatives emigrate to Pennsylvania but they were shopkeepers rather than miners at that stage.

I think it was pretty common in Wales to have an anglicised version of your actual name recorded on official documentation. So those Williams might well have been called Gwilym in real life. I have a feeling that Emrys as a name might have become popular fairly late in the nineteenth century and I could be wrong but I would probably put Gwyneth as a twentieth century name. In the nineteenth century Gwenllion was much more popular. And I think Angharad was always fairly unusual.
I see names running in families, so I have a lot of repetition of Jenkin and Elias and Thomas in mine but not so much of William (or Mary for that matter).

>102 quondame: I managed to find an estimate that only 1-2% of births in the U.K. were unregistered after 1874 when the regulations were changed, and that this percentage decreased as the years went on. The fine for not registering a birth was £2 which would have been a sizeable amount for a working family, so I suppose people didn’t want to risk it.

I'm finding this discussion about censuses and genealogy really interesting (I'm doing genealogy too) and the differences between countries/regions is also quite fascinating. The Swedish census records didn't ask about either race, language or religion (very homogeneous country back then so not much variation in the answers). Birth records here have been really good for hundreds of years, since the Swedish church (who were in charge of this) kept near perfect record of everyone's birth, christening, moves, engagements, marriages, and deaths. (Mormons love coming here because the records are so easy.)

>106 SandDune: I have a lot of repetition of Jenkin and...
Aww, that makes me imagine you have Howl (from Howl's Moving Castle as one of your ancestors!
In my family there are a lot of variations of Christopher and Christina during the last 200 years (including currently), but more of a variety going back in time. There are some really out there names on some of the branches of the family tree.

>102 quondame: In theory, parish registers were kept here from 1538. In practice, many of them have been lost, and especially later on, miss out a large number of people in cities or families that did not belong to the Church of England. In Wales there was a patronymic system of naming. So my maiden name was only Thomas because in my particular family at the beginning of the nineteenth century a certain Jenkin ap Thomas decided to drop the patronymic system and adopt the English system which was much more prevalent by then. If it had happened a generation earlier my maiden name would have been Jenkins: a generation later and it would have been Elias.

I love (in the sense of "am amused by") the list of prohibited topics you got before meeting with girlfriend's parents. Do you suppose they also got a list, or is the assumption that they don't need to make a good impression on you, or that you are openminded and reasonable and they are not? I'd have a tough time meeting my own son's girlfriend's parents if they turned out to be die-hard Trump supporters (which they may be). We've never met, but I wonder who would get the advance instructions.

>110 AnneDC: I suspect that we got the list rather than them but that may have something to do with the fact that we tend to discuss politics and similar issues on a frequent basis. So it would not be unusual for me to offer my opinion of the latest political or environmental issue. Reading between the lines I don’t think they quite approved of Jacob when he first started going out with Caroline. He was restarting his A levels when she was going to University and he was going to a further education college to do them, which locally is perhaps more associated with vocational courses. I think they relented a bit when he got really good A level results and a scholarship to his chosen university.

>108 SandDune: Using church records my cousins were able to trace our ancestor, one of the two brothers who came to Massachusetts in the first half of the 17th century, back to Yorkshire, thus disproving the Scottish ancestry claims of my great-aunts who were besotted with Sir Walter. The family name is known on both sides of the border randomly spelled with a z or an s as it is in the USA as well. The one time I entered Scotland the custom agent recognized it as local.

>48 SandDune: Oh, yes, there is a lively trade in board games. Over here in the states, we have a company that specializes in them, BoardgameCo. I have no idea if there is something similar in the UK.

>54 SandDune: I already have The High House in the BlackHole or I would be adding it again.

>62 SandDune: I just finished The Fortune Men the other day and enjoyed it. Thus far, it is the only book on the list that I have read.

>75 SandDune: Adding that one to the BlackHole. Thanks for the recommendation, Rhian.

I have already read Paddington. My daughters loved him when they were younger.

Have a wonderful week!

>106 SandDune: I do find the occasional Gwilym, and Blodwen is fairly common too. I find the origin of names fascinating.

Thanks for the reminder about the 1921 census, I had been aware that the records were due to be released as I was working on some genealogy records a few weeks ago but had forgotten. I especially find the records on the Irish census of how many children were birthed and how many still living helpful. Gosh, another rabbit hole to disappear down, I have lots of stalled areas in my family tree to go look at again.

>93 SandDune: I read Alfonso Bonzo (1986) late last year and my 2006 Scholastic edition had been updated to include the Harry Potter books. I think the main character remarked on reading them or something.

>115 avatiakh: how many children were birthed and how many still living They had that in the 1911 British census but unfortunately it is nor repeated in the 1921 census. I found that useful as well.

I haven't been reading much over the last couple of days, as I've been a bit busy, but I have been engrossed in our latest political scandal. For those who do not follow British politics, before Christmas we had numerous allegations of parties being held at 10 Downing Street during lockdown periods, when it was absolutely forbidden to socialise with anyone indoors and socialising outside was only allowed with one other person for exercise only. People were moved on by police if they sat on a park bench. An investigation was set up and it all went a bit quiet over Christmas, but then a couple of days ago emails surfaced from May 2020 inviting about 100 Downing Street staff to a party in the garden and asking them to bring a bottle. Witnesses said that both Boris Johnson and his wife were there. So there's been a huge fuss about that and Boris was initially saying nothing. And then yesterday he had to admit that he had been there after all, but 'he though it was a business event'. And he was very sorry if some people had misunderstood.... I read today in one of the polling companies, that a bigger percentage of people think that the moon landings were faked, than think that Boris is telling the truth.

Apparently 66% of voters think he should resign, but he won't go until enough Conservative MP's agree: it needs 54 Conservative MPs to trigger a vote of no confidence... I think they'll push if they think he's become a liability rather than as asset, but we'll see. All the Scottish Conservative MPs are particularly cross apparently, and aren't inviting Boris to their conference any more.

>117 SandDune: Do as we say... ugh.

I've loved the conversations about the research, birth records, name changes, and more. My mom has a false birth certificate. She was adopted within the family, and I think they must have paid to issue a "legitimate" birth certificate showing the parents as the birth parents. This would have been in Idaho in the 1940s. Her adoptive parents are actually her great uncle and his wife. He entered the country at age 2 from Wales with the name Idris, which we have been told was then changed to David, though the family always called him Idris. When Marina and I visited Wales people sometimes wanted to know why we were there if not doing "the grand UK tour." They were thrilled that we were just in Wales and thrilled that her middle name is Idris. People told her it's a boy's name but suits her beautifully:)

Paddington. Ah, they're wonderful. They were favorites of ours when I was growing up and my brother still has a Paddington Bear from the 70s. They're wonderful on audio narrated by Stephen Fry also!

>69 richardderus: >70 SandDune: I am reading Lincoln in the Bardo now and I have to say....what the actual? I cannot catch its thread at all; it is impenetrable, inexplicable, and just way too far out there for me. I WILL finish it though, to ensure that I have the whole picture before I give my full assessment.

I haven't read, or heard about, The Sellout though.

I am feeling the lure of the Booker waning.

>117 SandDune: He so needs to go Rhian. The man has the chip missing from his brain that most of us have in relation to shame and lies. I'm not sure he even understands the concept.

>119 LovingLit: It's always a variable thing, Megan, the quality of a given year's winner. But opening the prize up to US writers was a giant eff up.

About Saunders, I will say there is no there there and not one single beneficial thing will occur if you continue to slug it out with the gray, featureless fog-bank of verbiage steadily dampening you with its morning-breath moistened emissions of nonsense.

Hi Rhian!

My mother's family were Avery's from Scotland who came to America in the Revolutionary Era and my Aunts loved to track the records down into the darkness of history.

Hunting through the records is a grand game and loads of fun when you are able to put two or more of the puzzle pieces together.

I've started off my thread visiting this year behind as usual so just getting to your thread now, Rhian. The photos of your mum's birthday tea are wonderful. Love that she enjoyed her card from the Queen.

I have just peeked at the 1921 census and haven't yet spent. Perhaps my Scottish roots are showing. I found the family by looking for my dad who was born in 1917. They were in London's East End so I don't think that language would be a question asked there - although you never know.

>118 AMQS: Adoptions were certainly much less regulated in the past. One of my aunts was adopted by her aunt and uncle who had no children of their own. She's down as adopted daughter on the 1921 census. But it was all very informal. And one of my mother's cousins was sent to stay with an aunt while her mother was having her 6th or 7th baby, and then just never went home again.

>119 LovingLit: >121 richardderus: I have found that a lot of people who liked Lincoln in the Bardo listened to the audiobook, as I did. I'm not saying any more or Richard will shout at me!

>120 Caroline_McElwee: That's exactly it. I've never been a Conservative voter, but I have been able to recognise, in certain Conservative politicians, that they are doing what they believe to be best for the country. It's just that their ideas of how the country should be governed differ from mine. But Boris Johnson has just no moral compass whatsoever, and the whole Cabinet is made in his image.

>123 magicians_nephew: So far my ancestors are terribly homogeneous. Mainly Welsh, a little English. No Irish, no Scottish, no anything else as far as I can tell!

>124 Familyhistorian: They didn't ask about languages in England. It was purely a question on the census in Wales, Scotland and Isle of Man where they asked you if you spoke Welsh, Scottish Gaelic or Manx, or were bilingual. There was nowhere to record if you spoke some other language, so I'm not sure what immigrants who couldn't speak English we're supposed to put down.

>125 SandDune: *pshaw* "shout at you" faugh such arrant nonsense! I only shout at people who are Wrong. Like the Yahoos who opened up the Booker to US writers. They merit shouting at.

Not innocent dupes of their spiritual decay.

Jacob has gone back to Uni today - he is on the train as we speak but as there seems to be major disruption on the West Coast Main Line so goodness knows what time he will be getting into Lancaster. It's going to be a lot quieter without him!

On Saturday we went up to Cambridge to buy Jacob new shoes. I think he'd have been quite happy without new shoes, but being as his old pair would have looked scruffy in a homeless shelter, I thought it was time for decisive action. I've never met anyone who was quite so averse to buying shoes. So after the shoe shopping we had a nice little trip to Heffers where I bought To Cook A Bear by Mikael Niemi and The Passenger by Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz, both on Heffers 'Books of the Year' shelves. I didn't realise till I got them home that both are translations, from Swedish and German respectively. Usually we would go for lunch in Cambridge, but I'm still not all that comfortable eating in restaurants, so we got a burger from the market and ate it sitting on a bench overlooking King's College Chapel.

You hear people talk about how Welsh just about died out as a spoken language but a lot of busy-bodies and sturdy Welshmen got it taught in the schools and quite literally brought the usage back from the dead. Good on them!

>125 SandDune: The “went to stay with relatives for a bit and never came home” happened to my dad and two of his brothers too. In the late 40’s.

>128 magicians_nephew: It never died out as a spoken language (or a written one come to that) although it got a lot less prevalent in the south especially. I've met people who really didn't speak much English but they were either very young (so before learning it in school) or very old (just hadn't needed it in their community). But certainly it's easier to learn as a second language these days. There is an American lady on my Welsh course who lives about 2 miles from where I was brought up (her husband is Welsh) and her children go to a Welsh language school, which just wasn't an option at all when I was growing up.

Greetings, Rhian. I've started a new thread so don't lose me: https://www.librarything.com/topic/338892

Hi Rhian, I've been reading your thread but (I think) not posting...
I did love that photo from when your mum had her tea ~ she looks so happy and imho, a tea and cake with just immediate family sounds just the ticket.

I was amused at the boy-who-doesn't-shop shoe story. Very frugal that, since decent-quality shoes seem so outrageously priced these days.
No BBs here for me this time and good thing, 'cos I'm having trouble avoiding those this month!

>131 richardderus: I’ve seen your thread but I haven’t been posting much last few days as I’m still a bit engrossed in the political shenanigans over here.

The issue of the parties at Number 10 been causing ructions locally too as our local MP has thrown a complete hissy fit with the local paper. They give her a column every 2 weeks to write about what she is doing - apparently usually she gets a completely free rein in deciding what to write - but this week they asked her to write about her views on the No 10 controversy, which to be honest is what people want to hear about. She refused, so they refused to print her article and instead put in a full page spread explaining why they weren’t printing it. She then went on the attack in social media accusing them of bullying and misogyny and dictating to her what she could write, in defence of which she provided a (perfectly polite) email the paper had sent last year the only other time they had previously asked for a specific topic. Unfortunately, that specific topic had been her reasons for voting against free school meals during the pandemic, which was another deeply unpopular government policy, so her actions haven’t quite had the effect that she hoped, just reminded people of bad government decisions of a year or so ago. It really annoys me when women accuse people of misogyny when all that’s happening is that they’re just not getting their own way. There’s enough real discrimination in the world without inventing it where none exists.

>132 SandyAMcPherson: It’s not that he won’t spend money exactly - but he hates shopping. And doesn’t see the point of clothes and shoes other than to keep warm and dry …

>133 SandDune: It's an old, old staple of "conservatives" across the globe: "they're not doing what *I* want so that means I'm being canceled/bullied/ignored/whatever the nonce-word is" when what it means in actual fact is, "they don't agree with me."

Because of course it can't be that. Perish forbid.

>133 SandDune:.Wow, she sounds like a peach. Voting against FSM! Our MP has had to have special police protection after stalking / death threats (one of the guys is now in prison I think?) And she just keeps going. I admire her for it (although perhaps I would say that, as I vote for her!)

>134 richardderus: >135 charl08: I think the general opinion locally is that the local paper has won the spat hands down. Their beautifully snarky reply has meant that the issue is getting much wider coverage on social media that her column would ever had got if she’d just written something non-commital on the matter in hand.
https://twitter.com/narrowboatlucy/status/1484539253539446784?s=21

>133 SandDune: Interesting that the newspaper did that. Good for them I must say, Rhian.

I think Boris has to go. He seems to have a utter disdain for being bound by the same rules he foisted on everyone else and for which sacrifice many believed for the greater good. Just as bad as that is the fact that he cannot open that trap of his without spewing untruth. Good for David Davis for having the cojones to tell him to his face in parliament to sl\ing his hook.

I hope it is someone from outside that coterie of clods who comes forward to take the country forward. Jeremy Hunt perhaps? Davis himself?

>136 SandDune: Oh my goodness. I do love the Indie's response! Heh.

>137 PaulCranswick: someone from outside that coterie of clods I do hope so, but somehow I doubt it. At the moment the bookies have Rishi Sunak as the favourite, but he’s definitely part of the coterie (and I can’t believe he didn’t know what was happening at 10 Downing Street when he lives next door and his balcony overlooks the garden). And I find it difficult to see how someone so very rich can really understand the issues facing ordinary people. Liz Truss is second favourite -a complete mystery to me as to why -every time I’ve seen her on TV she’s been completely out of her depth. Third is Jeremy Hunt. Of the candidates at the last Tory leadership election my favourite was Rory Stewart, (who at least seemed to be a decent human being) but he’s not an MP any more, so that’s not going to happen. Another old Etonian though -of which we have had too many.

>138 richardderus: It’s a good little local paper. The editor isn’t afraid to upset people at times. And in this case their letters pages have been complaining about the party issues for weeks, so our MP’s view on the subject definitely was what people wanted to read.

I proudly present - one highland cow!



It's a birthday present for Jacob's girlfriend, and I am very proud of it as it caused me a lot of angst, doing all the loops!

>140 SandDune: It is very pretty, Rhian, and cuddly.

>140 SandDune: I love the cow! That mop of yarn on its head is adorable and is a perfect way to turn a plain cow into a highland cow. Very sweet.

I have too many books on the go at the moment

David Copperfield Charles Dickens - started listening to this on audio, and am enjoying it (sorry Richard) but it has been put on hold for me to listen to The Island of Missing Trees Elif Shafak which is my next Costa book (and extra read for Book Club Number 1).
My Name is Red Orhan Pamuk was my hard copy book which has also been put aside (temporarily) for The Muse by Jessie Burton which I need to finish by next Wednesday for Book Club Number 2.
And then I'm also reading Agent Running in the Field John Le Carre (my bedtime kindle book) which I need to finish by 1st February as the normal book for Book Club Number 1.
AND I felt like something humorous so I also started listening to an old download of Just William, a children's book that always makes me laugh.

>141 FAMeulstee: >142 lauralkeet: She has a thing about highland cows, so hopefully she'll like it.

>138 richardderus: Moi, aussi. I loved the snark, in fact. It's great to see the public so engaged, too.

It is also refreshing to see such brilliantly done independent news in a local paper. I've added this newspaper website to my "UK News" folder along with the other papers I follow from the UK.

>145 SandyAMcPherson: Well it is a very, very local paper! It really just covers the town of around 40,000 people where we live and the surrounding countryside for about 5 miles around. But it does a good job of doing that. To be honest though it doesn’t do a great deal on its website - I think it’s business model is to sell paper copies.

>139 SandDune: I did see the betting and like you I just don't see the appeal of Liz Truss who has a distinct charisma deficiency. Rishi Sunak is a bit charmless and Gove, Raab and Javed have blotted their own personal copybooks once too often. Funnily enough I like Jacob Rees Mogg despite not agreeing with him on Europe as he is at least honest, erudite and passingly honourable. I'm not a Tory and don't get a vote of course but I would look outside the cabinet and that means either David Davis or Jeremy Hunt both of whom would be far more Prime Ministerial than Boris and would get proper haircuts.

Remembering Tom Tugendhat's brave and principled speech upon the withdrawal from Afghanistan and his views on community conservatism he is probably the closest a Conservative will ever get to my own thinking. That was probably the finest speech I have heard since Hilary Benn's Syria speech or Robin Cook's resignation speech. He is the best they have but they won't call upon him.

>147 PaulCranswick: I think I have to disagree with you on Jacob Rees-Mogg! I can think of very few politicians that I dislike more - he’s right up there with Boris Johnson in my book. And I just hate that faux Victorian English gentleman persona that he projects … If he became Prime Minister I would give the Union five years max!

>147 PaulCranswick: Hahaha Rhian. I was pulling your leg, I knew that would get you going. J R-M is not a Prime Minister for the Modern Age.

Rishi Sunak, the chancellor?! Ewewewew! He's the British Dick Cheney: no discernable moral compass, just a credit-card reader in its place. *gaaak*

>140 SandDune: Adorable beast, and my hand ache just imagining all that loopery.

I'm quite sure I did NOT see a favorable mention of the Victorian Stephen King.

>150 richardderus: Hehe RD, the mind boggles!

Ooh, I love the highland cow! It's darling, and I hope she loves it!

>140 SandDune: Love it, you are rightfully proud. There s nothing to beat a handmade present either.

>147 PaulCranswick: >149 PaulCranswick: Smack wrist Pauli. Naughty boy.

>140 SandDune: Moo!

>140 SandDune: The cow is awesome.

4. The Muse Jessie Burton ***



In the London of 1967, Odelle Bastien, a Trinidadian immigrant to the U.K., is delighted to be offered a job at the Skelton art gallery in London. And she is also delighted to meet the desirable Lawrie at the wedding of her friend. But when Lawrie brings a painting owned by his late mother, seemingly by an unknown artist, to the Skelton for valuation Odelle is surprised at the effect its appearance has on Quick, one of the senior employees of the business. But why will Quick not explain why the painting clearly affects her so deeply? And does Laurie really know as little about the painting's origins as he claims?

Thirty years earlier, in a Spain where tensions are building towards the civil war, the art dealer Harold Schloss rents a country house with his rich wife Sarah and dissatisfied daughter Olive. Olive is desperate to become an artist in her own right despite her mother's seeming uninterest and her father's dismissal of the abilities of female painters:

'Her father always said that of course women could pick up a paintbrush and paint, but the fact was, they didn't make good artists. Olive had never quite worked out what the difference was. Since she was a little girl, playing in the corner of his gallery, she would hear Harold discussing the issue with his clients, both men and women – and often the women would agree with him, preferring to put their money behind young men rather than anyone of their own sex. The artist as naturally male was such a widely held presupposition that Olive had at times come to believe in it herself.'

Into the lives of this dysfunctional family come the teenage Teresa and her older brother Isaac, with consequences that will have echoes in Odelle's London so many years later.

This was an enjoyable read without being anything particularly special. I enjoyed the same author's The Miniaturist a few years ago (apart from the ending which I remember I found very dissatisfying ) but now can't really remember very much about it at all. I suspect that this might be the same.

>156 SandDune: Ooh, this looks like it could be my kind of read. Arts and some kind of mystery - sounds just right.
I think I have a copy of The Miniaturist somewhere but haven’t read it yet.

>156 SandDune: I'm happy that it did its job as a read, that being the one unfailable test for me to read a second work by an author. I wasn't impressed by The Miniaturist. Not bad...just not above average as a read.

So it seems this is a Jessie Burton trait....

>149 PaulCranswick: So pleased to hear that Paul!

>150 richardderus: At the moment it’s just new scandals every day. Since posting above we’ve had an islamophobia scandal, a minister resigning because he can’t support the government writing off £4.5bn of fraudulent COVID loans and new allegations of parties at No 10.

>152 AMQS: >153 Caroline_McElwee: >154 ArlieS: >155 Oberon: Thank you for the cow love!

>156 SandDune: >157 PawsforThought: Unfortunately I don’t seem to have written a review of The Miniaturist but my recollection is that I did enjoy it quite a bit, but it really felt like the author didn’t know how to finish the book and the ending left me very dissatisfied. And the whole miniaturist plot line didn’t really seem to go anywhere or make sense by the end of the book.

Hi Rhian!

>77 SandDune: How exciting to see the census records, how frustrating that your grandparents were visiting relatives and you don’t know their address.

>82 SandDune: I cracked up at the list of subjects that were off limit and your getting kicked under the table when pheasant shooting came up.

>86 SandDune: My dad always thought he was born in 1922, and was apparently quite shocked when his birth certificate showed 1921. I never thought to ask him why he thought 1922, alas.

>117 SandDune: Regardless of his politics, Boris is a major jerk in every newspaper article I’ve ever read about him.

>125 SandDune: I’m one of the oddballs who loved Lincoln in the Bardo – first read as a paper book, then listened to as an audiobook while keeping up with the paper book again. I don’t understand folks who don’t get it, but of course they don’t understand how I do. *smile*

>127 SandDune: My daughter’s partner got her new Van tennis shoes for Christmas on the condition that Jenna throw away her 13-year old ratty old Converse tennis shoes. Jenna and her dad took pictures of the shoes being thrown away. We made sure they stayed thrown away!

>140 SandDune: I’m impressed, and just looking at him (? Do female highland cows have horns?) makes me smile.

>160 karenmarie: how frustrating that your grandparents were visiting relatives and you don’t know their address I suppose it's not a major thing - they moved into their permanent home when my mother, their oldest child, was still a baby, so probably about 1922. It must have been one of the first lot of council houses built and I remember my grandmother saying how much nicer it was than their previous accommodation, so I've always wondered about where that was and what it was like. But a nice solid three bedroom house with electricity, an indoor bathroom, and a decent garden was probably quite luxurious for 1922. We drove past it when we were taking my Mum to her 100th birthday tea and I was most shocked to discover that the current owners had moved the door! How dare they do that to my grandparents house!

>160 karenmarie: the list of subjects that were off limit I get the impression that it has taken Jacob quite some time to get into their good books and he didn't want me to ruin it! I think he feels that I express my opinions very forthrightly at times!

>160 karenmarie: Boris is a major jerk You can say that again. Mr SandDune says even the children in school are making jokes about it now. How the government can be doing any actual work when all their energies go into protecting Boris is beyond me.

>160 karenmarie: Do female highland cows have horns Yes they do apparently. I think my cow is a girl!

>127 SandDune: I finished The Passenger a couple of weeks ago. A good read.

>156 SandDune: I haven't read anything by Jessie Burton but did buy her Medusa a couple of weeks ago as it was a lovely illustrated edition.

>140 SandDune: I love it! I am sure Jacob's girlfriend will like it as well :)

>162 avatiakh: I didn't realise that she'd written children's / YA books as well. I thought it was just her two books for adults.

>163 figsfromthistle: Hopefully! I think she will. It is the sort of thing she likes.

Several new books have made it into the house today.

Firstly, my new Welsh beginner books. These are very short and designed to fit in with the course I am doing:
Blacmêl Pegi Talfryn
Gangsters yn y glaw Pegi Talfryn
Gorau Glas Lois Arnold

Then I've picked up my next book for my U3A book club: Snap by Belinda Bauer, a crime novel that was long listed for the Booker in 2018. I also found One Night, Markovitch by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen in the library which I thought might work for Israel in the February Asian Book challenge. And also picked up The Drowned City by K. J. Maitland, a historical mystery which attracted me in with this sentence in the blurb: "As a devastating tidal wave sweeps the Bristol Channel". As someone who was brought up right on the shores of the Bristol Channel (and I mean right on the shore - we occasionally got sandbagged in a very high tide) I find anything about the tsunami that supposedly hit in the seventeenth century fascinating. I thought the name K. J. Maitland sounded familiar and I've realised that I read her Company of Liars years ago.

5. Just William Richmal Crompton *****



I've read Just William several times, but I've never reviewed it, thinking perhaps it was too familiar (at least to British readers). But Just William is a book that makes me laugh out loud consistently, and not just me: I remember we listened to the audio version (wonderfully narrated by Martin Jarvis) on a journey through France many years ago and Mr SandDune having to stop the car because he was laughing so much that he couldn't safely drive. (Incidentally, the story 'The Show' in this book is the one that prompted that.)

William Brown is 11. He is always 11 (despite the first book being written in 1922 and the last in 1970). He lives with his very long-suffering mother, his bewildered father, and his much more grown-up siblings Ethel and Robert (and a cook and a housemaid and a gardener as well) in a small town somewhere in the South of England. William doesn't exactly mean to be bad, at times he has a definite sense of morality, but in practice everything William touches turns to chaos. He just doesn't understand the adult world and the adult world, especially the genteel middle-class world inhabited by the Browns, most definitely does not understand him.

In 'A Question of Grammar' William persuades himself that his father has given permission for him to have a party when his family is out:

'The party then proceeded.

It fulfilled the expectations of the guests that it was to be a party unlike any other party. At other parties they played "Hide and Seek”—with smiling but firm mothers and aunts and sisters stationed at intervals with damping effects upon one’s spirits, with “not in the bedrooms, dear,” and “mind the umbrella stand,” and “certainly not in the drawing-room,” and “don’t shout so loud, darling.” But this was Hide and Seek from the realms of perfection. Up the stairs and down the stairs, in all the bedrooms, sliding down the balusters, in and out of the drawing-room, leaving trails of muddy boots and shattered ornaments as they went! Ginger found a splendid hiding-place in Robert’s bed, where his boots left a perfect impression of their muddy soles in several places. Henry found another in Ethel’s wardrobe, crouching upon her satin evening shoes among her evening dresses. George banged the drawing-room door with such violence that the handle came off in his hand. Douglas became entangled in the dining-room curtain, which yielded to his struggles and descended upon him and an old china bowl upon the sideboard. It was such a party as none of them had dreamed of; it was bliss undiluted. The house was full of shouting and yelling, of running to and fro of small boys mingled with subterranean murmurs of cook’s rage.

Recommended for all ages - as long that is as you don't expect your children's fiction to have an improving quality!

>166 SandDune: That sounds amusing...especially a cook, a housemaid, and a gardener in 1970.

I tend to prefer fiction about children, as opposed to *for* them, so should this hove across my bows I will have a look.

Happy weekend-ahead's reads.

>167 richardderus: I’ve not read the later books in the series - apparently they’re always set at the time in which they are written. So while a cook, housemaid and gardener is appropriate for that type of family in 1922 I doubt if they appear in the later ones.

Something I’ve noticed is that U.S. children’s books have a tendency to be somewhat more moral than their British counterparts. Or perhaps that there is more of an expectation that there should be a moral lesson learnt? In Just William there is none of that - William behaves appallingly and not infrequently comes out on top!

>168 SandDune: It's all y'all's fault. You're the ones who shipped us your religious nuts. They got a stranglehold on the conversation from the jump, and look where it's led us!

Couldn't've sent 'em to Africa, or China, or someplace. Nooooooooo hadda wish 'em on us, ya ratfinks.

>169 richardderus: Sorry Richard!

*grumble*

6. Agent Running in the Field John Le Carre ****



At 47 Nat is coming to the end of his career at the 'Office', as the British Intelligence service for which he works is colloquially known. Spying, it seems, is a young man's game. But he is offered one last chance at a London backwater code named the Haven. Nat has spent his career superficially being a minor diplomat around much of Europe, while in practice enticing agents of other countries to work for the British. At the Haven he is offered one last chance to 'run' a seemingly unimportant Russian sleeper agent, who proves to be slightly less unimportant than expected ...

A keen (and pretty good) badminton player, Nat is challenged by the much younger Ed to a match. A friendship of sorts develops, seemingly world's apart from Nat's secretive working life. But the world's collide and Nat is left wondering where his loyalties really lie ...

Apparently, the archetypally English John Le Carre was adamantly opposed to Brexit, to the extent of taking Irish citizenship before he died so that he could remain European. The outspoken Ed is, of course, a character, but the reader can't help thinking that he is a mouthpiece for Le Carré's own views when he rails against the foreign secretary (‘that fucking Etonian narcissistic elitist without a decent conviction in his body bar his own advancement' (hmm, wonder who he could be thinking of)) and rants against Brexit and Donald Trump:

‘You walk out of Europe with your British noses stuck in the air. “We’re special. We’re British. We don’t need Europe. We won all our wars alone. No Americans, no Russians, no anyone. We’re supermen.” The great freedom-loving President Donald Trump is going to save your economic arses, I hear. You know what Trump is?’ ‘Tell me.’ ‘He’s Putin’s shithouse cleaner. He does everything for little Vladi that little Vladi can’t do for himself: pisses on European unity, pisses on human rights, pisses on NATO.'

I read quite a few John Le Carré books back in the day, but I haven't read one for years. I think I probably ought to go back and see what I've been missing.

>156 SandDune: and >157 PawsforThought: I liked The Miniaturist very much and found Jessie Burton's 2nd and third novels to be good reads but not as good as her first There is a sequel coming soon, perhaps next month, to The Miniaturist and I will be looking to borrow it from the library and adding it to my Amazon wishlist as one of the ways I stalk Kindle bargains.

>143 SandDune: Who is the audio of David Copperfield you're listening to read by?

I was quite anti Dickens when I was young, but have softened my stance as I get older. Years ago when I first got online I joined a Victorian fiction email based discission group, which was really good until someone decided we should abandon reading and discussion schedules of 100 pages or so a week and do a novel a month whatever its length - I think that messed up how the group worked, and that I wasn't the only one that it didn't really work for to. It made it possible to have both Victorian literary tomes and shorter fast paced crime novels "on the go".

>169 richardderus:: Are you not a descendant of our "religious nuts", Richard?

>174 elkiedee: Nope. I'm Scottish (and some Welsh) on the UK side, and those ancestors came to Virginia not the religious-nutball Nawth! Didn't stop the Jewish Zombie's Cult from eating my mother's brain, though.

>172 SandDune: Hoooeeee did le Carré have BoJo and the Brexiteers' number or what. I do love that he took Irish citizenship to avoid dying not-European.

I am not even trying to catch up, Rhian, but I wanted to stop by and thank you for dropping by my thread while I have been sick. It is much appreciated.

Have a wonderful weekend!

We've had a nice Saturday lunchtime entertaining my nephew and his wife and their toddler Jesse. Mr SandDune enjoyed getting out Jacob's old trains:





Daisy enjoyed the fact that Jesse sat under the dining table with her and fed her his tangerine and the remains of his yogurt!

>173 elkiedee: Who is the audio of David Copperfield you're listening to read by? Richard Armitage, who is an excellent narrator. I've softened my stance quite a bit as well. I think he works well on audio at a gradual pace, which I suppose is how he would have been encountered originally.

>175 richardderus: My nephew was talking about going to live in Spain for a year or so, which is their current intention. I was about to ask about the practicalities of residency, and then I remembered he's got an Irish passport, so he doesn't have to worry about all that. I really feel like the right to live in Europe has been stolen from me, Jacob and any future grandchildren, and I really resent it.

>176 alcottacre: Hope you're starting to feel better Stasia!

>178 SandDune: I really feel like the right to live in Europe has been stolen from me, Jacob and any future grandchildren, and I really resent it.
...and all to protect The City from having to obey European privacy laws...

>177 SandDune: I love Daisy's eager ears! "What *are* these people doing?"

So adorable.

Wayne's grandmother was born in Ireland, and he says that entitles him to an Irish passport (if he could get all the proper documentation). I told him he should definitely go for it...

>179 richardderus: all to protect The City from having to obey European privacy laws... I don't think that's the reason. Certainly our digital privacy laws at least haven't changed, and Brexit has already led to huge loss of business from the City. I suppose you could write a whole library of books on the reasons why. To me it seems like there's always been an anti-European among certain sections of the community, which was whipped up during a period of austerity to focus on European immigration with 'foreigners coming over here and taking our jobs' rhetoric. It was the old that voted for it and it's going to be the young that lives with it, unfortunately, as really there have been absolutely no up-sides to Brexit at all as far as I can see.

>180 katiekrug: Most people I know who are entitled to an Irish passport have got one, even those from traditionally Protestant backgrounds, who forty years ago wouldn't have dreamed of doing such a thing.

>172 SandDune: I've just bought this one Rhian, I'll save your review till I've read it (soonish) to compare notes, glad it got your 4* rating though.

>177 SandDune: I like Daisy's attention in the second one. Glad you had a lovely day.

>177 SandDune: Oh Thomas! Becky had a set! She was Thomas for her first Halloween costume, so cute!

>180 katiekrug: I'm pretty sure he is right. I should try and get mine too to be honest.

Have a great Sunday, Rhian.
I used to love going to York railway museum when I was younger and the tales of The Flying Scotsman and The Mallard always fascinated, but for some reason I never had the patience needed to enjoy train sets.

>182 Caroline_McElwee: Daisy’s always been pretty good with little children (not that she’s seen many of late). She was very gentle when taking the pieces of tangerine, and very careful to clean his hands up with a good lick afterwards.

>183 quondame: Jacob was obsessed with Thomas the Tank Engine when he was small. We had all the books, all the videos and loads of wooden trains and track. He used to like making complicated track layouts even when he’d grown out of actually playing with the trains.

I remember this particular nephew (who had also been slightly obsessed with Brio as a child) coming around when Jacob was about 5 or 6 and making him the most complicated train track possible. Jacob was very impressed!

>184 PaulCranswick: Jacob enjoyed the Railway Museum as well - I think we went there a couple of times when he was in his train phase. It was always trains with Jacob, he never showed the slightest interest in cars.

>185 SandDune: It is funny, Rhian, because Kyran is exactly the same as Jacob with cars. Has not shown the slightest interest either in getting himself a licence and learning to drive. He likes public transport. Yasmyne on the other hand got her licence at 17.

>185 SandDune: We had the Duplo railway set and I had to make a layout for Andrew every day, until he could do it himself!

>177 SandDune: very sweet photos, Rhian. I love that Daisy took such an active role in the proceedings.

>186 PaulCranswick: Jacob can't drive yet, neither can his girlfriend. Although that's not unusual - I read that the average age of passing your driving test in the U.K. is around 24-25. It was 26 but has come down a bit in the pandemic as people want to avoid public transport.

>187 CDVicarage: They do get obsessed with things when they are little don't they? Jacob's obsessions were trains and (slightly later) dinosaurs.

>189 lauralkeet: Daisy always likes to join in!

I have been doing the Big Garden Birdwatch this morning, organised by the R.S.P.B. In my hour's bird watching (of my garden) I saw:

13 House sparrows
11 Starlings
3 Magpies
3 Wood pigeons
2 Blackbirds
2 Blue tits (one inspecting our nest box)
1 Robin
1 Dunnock
1 Blackcap

The numbers are the maximum at any one time that actually land in the garden. We get great tits, collared doves and a wren on a regular basis too, but didn't see these this morning.

Luckily I didn't pick a little later to do the birdwatching as a cat came into the garden just as I'd finished and scared all the birds off. Thinking it had gone I let Daisy into the garden a little later on, but it was still there and she found it. It was quite a large cat and shall we just say I don't think it was a very nervous one? It was still there quite a while later and Daisy had obviously completely failed in her attempt to see it off. Any cat that is prepared to stare Daisy out pretty much always gets the better of her. We've noticed that Daisy has been wanting to go out more frequently than usual over the last few days, so I wondered if the cat has been in the garden before and she has smelt it.

>191 SandDune: No partridge in a pear tree?

I would of course never make the obvious joke about there being a pair of blue tits in the garden considering the extremely chilly weather.

>192 PaulCranswick: I would of course never make the obvious jokeDefinitely not Paul! I hope you're having a good weekend? We are spending this afternoon planning a trip to France in the summer.

>193 SandDune: Lovely! I adore Brittany but I like the South West even more.

>190 SandDune: Yes, Andrew moved on to dinosaurs - at the time of the BBC series 'Walking with Dinosaurs' - and he used to spend the 10-15 minute walk to school reciting all the dinosaurs he knew!

>195 CDVicarage: Oh Jacob loved Walking with Dinosaurs too: he could virtually recite it word for word! We’ve still got the DVD’s somewhere …

>190 SandDune: TWENTY-SIX?! I started driving when I was fifteen! Wow.

Hoping you're well, warm, and adequately booked.

>197 richardderus: Well the earliest you can start driving is 17, and it usually takes at least two attempts (if not more) to pass the practical test, and they have to do the theory test before that. And car insurance for 17 year olds (or teenagers generally) is astronomically expensive.

>198 SandDune: it usually takes at least two attempts (if not more) ...
We had to get UK licenses when we lived there. We were strongly advised to take driving lessons, despite being experienced drivers, and I'm so glad we did. We both passed on the first try, but we knew that was by no means guaranteed. Driving on the other side of the road isn't difficult, but some of the laws are different. Also the level of knowledge and the testing rigor are much greater than the (lax) US requirements.

>198 SandDune: it usually takes at least two attempts (if not more)

Really? Driving instructors here will tell you when they think you’re good enough to pass the test and then book a time for you. Of course you can still book a time before that if you want but it’s unusual. And it’s very rare that people fail their driving test more than once. Most people I know passed the first time.

You’re allowed to start driving with an instructor at 16 here, but you can’t take the test (either written or driving) until you’re 18. Most people get their license between 18 and 19. I was 24, but that was because I went abroad and then university got in the way.

>185 SandDune: We also enhanced Thomas' layout with Brio, though I seem to recall them not being a perfect fit and even had a table to set them up. I don't think we ever set it up in the house we live in now - slot cars were the thing the first few years - and the table died in the garage.

>200 PawsforThought: I got my license back when 16 was the minimum age - my mother was trying to teach me parallel parking at the DMV station and was not reacting calmly to my maneuvers, well she was going ape-shit, so I just went into the station, asked to take my test, and managed to squeak through with a couple of spare points. We were both quite relieved, but she didn't forgive me.

>199 lauralkeet: >200 PawsforThought: >201 quondame: They say on average that people in the U.K. need 40-45 hours of driving lessons, and 20 hours of practice before someone’s ready to take the practical test.

>202 SandDune: Holy cow! I took “a lot” of driving lessons (mind you, I’d had some basic driving lessons with my dad first, learning how to start the car, manoeuvre, etc.) and I took 26. I don’t think I know anyone else who took more than 22 or so. And our lessons are about half an hour-40 mins I think (things may have changed since I got my license - is been 15 years).
This is just practical driving, of course, you have to spend a lot of time practicing for the written exam, too. And there are several smaller tests you have to pass before you can take the big one, most importantly Risk 1 and Risk 2 (a.k.a. the slippery slide where you drive in fake winter conditions).

I found this:

>202 SandDune: It took me nearly two years of weekly driving lessons and four attempts to get my licence. Two times I panicked at the exam. The theoretical part, that you need first, was far easier for me, got it at first attempt.
I must admit I drove home a few times before I had my licence, mostly at night when Frank had a few beers (and a few more), and was absolutely sure he could drive safely (not!).

>204 SandDune: Wow! No test in Mexico? It would be interesting to compare collision rates with those countries that require a test. Wouldn't it be something if Mexico had fewer accidents?

>205 FAMeulstee: >206 figsfromthistle: I looked it up. Scandinavian countries seem to be generally the most safe, with Sweden right up there with only 2.2 deaths per 100,000 people per annum, the U.K.’s not much higher at 2.9 deaths, the U.S. and Mexico are neck and neck at 12.4 and 12.3. I wonder if it’s the age at which you can obtain a licence which makes the difference in the U.S.? It does seem to be an outlier in allowing driving so young. Certainly in the U.K. teenage drivers seem to have many more accidents than you would expect from their numbers on the road. Here there have been frequent calls to increase driving age to 18.

>207 SandDune: I think you're right in your thinking that it's age-related. We know that the teenage brain is not fully developed and teenagers are both more risk-taking and are worse at considering consequences than adults are.
I'm actually surprised that we're no. 1 in safety - I thought our winter roads combined with wildlife would drive up the numbers. But I guess it could be that most of those accidents aren't fatal.

A pretty big talking point here regarding driving and road safety is the existence of so-called "moped cars" (or EPA-tractors, as most people call them). They're regular cars that have been adjusted so they can (if the person driving is following the rules) only go at 30 km/h. You don't need a license at all to drive one of those. Personally I think that's crazy, and I'm not the only one. But it's legal, and in many parts of the country they're incredibly common (like here).

The Wikipedia article on minimum driving age by country is pretty fascinating. My province allows you to obtain your learner's license at 14 but you are supposed to have a fully licensed driver in the vehicle with you until you receive your graduated driver's license (which you can test for at 16). I'd assume the excuse for driving so young is that we've got a lot of farm country around here and being able to get your teen to drive the truck is handy. :P

7. The Island of Missing Trees Eli Shafak ****1/2



In Cyprus, in 1974, 17 year old Kostas and 18 year old Dafne fall in love. A relationship between a Greek Cypriot boy and a Turkish Cypriot girl would always be fraught with difficulties, but in the Spring of 1974, when violence between the two communities was spiralling out of control and Turkey was preparing to invade the country, it was impossible.

Jump to London in the late 2010s: Dafne is dead and Kostas struggles to understand his teenage daughter. Ada has never been to Cyprus, but her life has nevertheless been impacted by the effects of a civil war where so many of the dead remain hidden:

Some day the water will rust away the metal and the chains will snap, and the concrete's rigid heart will soften as even the most rigid hearts tend to do with the passing of the years. Only then will the two corpses, finally free, swim towards the chink of sky overhead, shimmering in the refracted sunlight; they will ascend towards that blissful blue, at first slowly, then fast and frantic, like pearl divers ascending for air.

Kostas is a botanist who tends the fig tree in his garden, brought as a cutting from Cyprus, with loving care. And as well as the historical events of the novel, via the (surprisingly successful) musings of the fig tree the plants and animals of Cyprus are brought beautifully to life.

This was a beautifully written book which brought to life a period of history that might be unfamiliar to many people.

>210 SandDune: That does sound evocative. I do remember the Cyprus conflict, probably because my mother subscribed to Paris Match and it had a very different view of the world than the LA Times.

>210 SandDune: One of the best evocations of the book's appeal that I've seen. Brava, Rhian!

>211 quondame: >212 richardderus: I was particularly interested in the topic of this book as my sister has lived on Cyprus on and off since 1992 and we have travelled there on a number of occasions. And travelling with a history obsessed husband, and more recently a history obsessed son, it’s impossible to go anywhere without learning at least a little of the history of the places that we visit. Particularly so somewhere like Cyprus where the evidence of its recent history is still very evident. We’ve visited the abandoned Turkish Cypriot villages near Paphos where my sister lives, an area that traditionally had a large Muslim population.

When we first visited Cyprus in around 1992 it was only possible for tourists to visit the North via one checkpoint in Nicosia, and then only for one day - no overnight stays. Later overnight stays were possible but still via Nicosia. At our latest visit in 2017 there were a number of border crossings but the border is still not normalised. The no-man’s zone of the green line is still there, several miles wide in some places. The most noticeable indication for a foreign traveller that the border is still anything but normal is that on neither side is the border signposted. Not too tricky to negotiate to find a border crossing in the rural west when really there is only one road that could possibly be going to the border, rather more tricky on the outskirts of Famagusta when any one of a number of roads could be going in the right direction.

We’ve never visited Nicosia, but we have visited a number of other places mentioned in the book: Kyrenia, Famagusta, and and Saint Hilarion Castle. I’ll attach some photos below of the castle, which is very impressive.

St.Hilarion Castle:



Actually it's a pretty big castle, but because of its position climbing up the side of a very steep hill, it was impossible to get more than a small part of the castle in view at any time.

Here is the view looking down to the coast and Kyrenia.

>214 SandDune: I do like that castle! I'm sure back in its heydey, they enjoyed watching the sea/ocean!

>215 thornton37814: There was a lovely view from the top, but it was a hard climb up

>214 SandDune: That is indeed some view, Rhian.

>214 SandDune: How strange memory is. Until you mentioned Famagusta and Saint Hilarion I didn't recollect that one of my favorite historical novels, Race of Scorpions, takes place on Cyprus in the 15th century, and involves nasty sieges. Well I guess all sieges are nasty business.

Your pictures are amazing.

>214 SandDune: Yay! I've been there. My parents owned a house in Kyrenia at the time. St. Hilarion is so worth the visit.

Edited to say, I'm sorry I missed this end of your January thread. I posted on the new one now.