Why Public Toilets In Bridgend County Could Force Carwyn Jones To Resign As An Assembly Member

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

I have in this blog previously discussed both the proposed cuts in public toilets by the Bridgend Labour council and the Hobson's Choice facing ex First Minister Carwyn Jones whilst he is still an Assembly Member in the Welsh Senedd. Well today these issues combine.

Because the cuts have happened. Public toilets in Bridgend Town, Maesteg and Porthcawl have closed down. I'll come back to the one in Porthcawl in a moment and I don't know the one in Maesteg but the closure of the Bridgend Town convenience (which I discussed in a previous post) is just another knock for the urban tragedy caused by Welsh Labour incompetence.

The toilets in Porthcawl might reopen. The county council are currently in negotiation with the Town council. But for the moment they are closed. And so let's assume the worst. In cold January weather it probably isn't really a problem. But Porthcawl is a seaside town. In warm weather people come down to the place for day trips and longer. The place is thronging. The public toilets are just not only used. They are needed.

For now though, they are just history (and the Porthcawl public toilets were built in a time when public services were treated by government as important. I hope to visit the town next Thursday and you will see what I mean by history).

As I've explained previously in this blog, Bridgend council have instigated these cuts following the reduction in the local government grant from the Welsh National government, who have in turn blamed a reduction in monies from the UK government in Westminster. Exactly where the blame lies I do not know. But as I've said before if one part of Welsh Labour blames another part of Welsh Labour then surely Welsh Labour is responsible. Also I've read similar complaints from councils across Wales. The most notable being Caerphilly.

These cuts to local government grants were instigated when Carwyn Jones was First Minister. His Hobson's Choice is simple. If he doesn't even try to call for more money for Bridgend County in the Welsh Assembly he will have failed in his responsibilities to his constituency electorate. If he does his past actions as First Minister will mean he's just be slapped down by the Welsh Government.

(It's interesting to remind ourselves that there was a minister in Carwyn Jones' cabinet who said that local councils who asked for more money from the Welsh government were like Oliver Twist from the Charles Dickens novel. That's the sympathy Jones will get if he asks for more money for Bridgend county)

Bridgend County needs an Assembly Member not tied down by his/her past to effectively represent Bridgend County voters today.

Carwyn Jones is not that person.

Which is why he should resign now.

Until the next time.

On Books: Including Being Disappointed With Dickens And The Book Genre That Brexit Will Kill Part Two

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Haven't done a post with regard to the books I've read for a while so here we go.

Let's deal with The Lemon Tree Café by Cathy Bramley first. Regular readers to the blog know I like to randomly pick books from the library outside of my comfort zone. This piece of chick lit potboliery definitely comes into that category.

I wish to say I was pleasantly surprised. But no. Really was a waste of my reading time. Though let's be clear here as a fifty four year old man I was definitely not in the target audience.

Because as regular readers will know I make every effort not to spoil the plots of the books I chat about it's impossible to explain fully why I didn't like The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens. A spoiler was incidentally one of the reasons as I already knew what happens to one of the characters. It is difficult for a reader to hide him or herself from some part of a classic novel before reading it no matter how hard they try.

The other reason I can mention here is the fact that the chief villain, Mr Quilp, is of restricted height. Now I know what you're going to say. Why not just call him a dwarf? (My blog my rules) and also there are many able bodied villains in Dickens novels? Why get put out over this.

The answer to the second point is that Mr Quilp is a greedy landlord and moneylender. Assaults his wife and desires (when she is an adult) to have the character of Nell as his second wife. There are no redeeming features to him whatsoever. And to make that even more clear as a contrast to the pure and innocent Nell Dickens makes him physically different as well. This was clearly deliberate in a Victorian society where the only good "dwarfs" are those miners who help Snow White.

Dickens was playing to his audience.

You may remember some time back I chatted about the sort of book where a Briton, frustrated in one way or another about the way his/her life is going, decides to move to a country in the European Union (normally one with sunlight), starts growing [insert Mediterranean produce here], and slowly through misunderstandings with the locals and about their customs grows to love the new home.

Whilst a lot of this type of genre was smug twaddle I'd mentioned that this would die because of Brexit as even if you voted Remain it would be too depressing to read something that would be for most people unobtainable.

What did not occur to me until starting to read Lucy Wadham's excellent 2009 book The Secret Life Of France is there is another type of British immigrant to the EU. The sort of person who emigrated not out of a love of growing lemons but of a significant other.

Being British but having married and living in France she is the perfect guide to life there. The real skill of the book is to effortlessly discuss an aspect of French life, say health, on a national basis and combine it with her own experiences.

I read this in a day. It's that good.

The point is post Brexit whilst I'm sure there will be some Britons able to emigrate to an EU country and marry abroad these will surely drop. Then of those people able to move to the European Union how many of those would be able to write a book about their life in a new country as Ms Wadham has done?

This type of book will wither and probably die. Which is a tragedy. Because the British people will lose people like Ms Wadham giving us a guide to and an understanding of our European neighbours. And so Brexit amongst it's many other damaging consequences might lead to Britain just not understanding the people around us. Which will be a tragedy and potentially dangerous.

So treasure Ms Wadham's book and (if well written) books like it.

We won't see their like for a while.

Until the next time.

It Might Have Been International Women's Day But Fathers And Sons Is Better Than Wives And Daughters...And Other Books

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today,

Well have been reading a few books since we last chatted. So let's start with a biography of Robert Burns by John Sharp. If this book was a meal I'd describe it as edible but nothing more. I'm sure there are better bios to use your time on instead.

You may remember a few posts back that I chatted about Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell and that I didn't like it. Well in the random way I pick books to read the next book turned out to be Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev (and it was random....honest!).

Whilst not perfect I enjoyed it. On the one hand you get the sons, with their youthful hopes,ideals cynicism, and disdain for their elders. Also properly discovering for the first time the mystery that are women. On the other there are the fathers. Men you feel are dissatisfied. The feeling that as their best years have passed them by they haven't yet found a certain peace within themselves.

There is more of the sons than the fathers, and as now I belong to the former I would have rather seen it the other way. Still of the books I'm chatting about today this was the best in my view.

The Angel of Terror by Edgar Wallace is one of those books that's perfectly acceptable as long as your brain is cruising in first gear. That said, Erle Stanley Gardner is better.

To be clear with regard to my criticisms of other Wallace thrillers it didn't strike me as racist and regard to sexist whilst the heroine has moments of dimness where she needs the help of men the cleverest villain is a woman. So I suppose that is some sort of equality.

Beowulf then. No one knows who wrote this epic poem but I think we can hazard a guess that it was a man, Indeed I'll go further by saying that it was not the sort of man who would wander lonely as a cloud and chat about daffodils either.

At the risk of being beheaded by the ghost of some Viking warlord what it didn't do is become one of those exceptions to my disregard of poetry. Ditto The Dalby Bear and Other Ballads by George Borrow.This time though I think this was my fault as I downloaded writers mentioned by Robert Macfarlane in his book Tracks ( W H Hudson was another) but in my eagerness to download everything I disregarded the fact that this is a ballad so probably better appreciated with music. I'll give George a pass.

Regular readers will know that there are certain writers that I describe as literary Switzerland in that whilst I don't dislike them I don't understand why they're considered great either. Anton Chekhov falls into this category and taken as a whole The Schoolmistress and Other Stories does not change anything.

There are exceptions. The title story (which is the best of the collection) and a few others make you sit up and take notice. But for the most part I just shrugged and moved on to the next tale.

In another tick off the literary bucket list the book I'm reading now is The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens. Can't say I'm happy with the portrayal of the villain but I'll chat about that when I've finished.

Until the next time.

On Books:From Dickens to Golf,Science and Ending With East End Crime.....As You Do

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

When I finished my post on The Thirty Nine Steps so excited was I in throwing the theory forward that racist John Buchan is still remembered today because of sex harasser Alfred Hitchcock that I'd forgotten to mention what my next ebook on the Kindle was going to be.

Well in the spirit of the season it's Charles Dickens' A Christmas....no only kidding...been there done that....seen the movie (and the musical as it happens).

It was in fact Martin Chuzzlewit.

I did not unfortunately like it. For me it seemed a lot more meandering than other books of his I've read and yet unlike those other ones it didn't seem to easily to move back into the central plot. Consequently my mind meandered as well. There are books that you persevere with because you feel as a reader you should but the only thing you're looking forward to is the end.

The only interesting thing to me about the novel were those scenes set in America. It made me wonder whether Dickens was the first writer (or the earliest still remembered today) to think that he could get greater American sales by setting part of the story there. Just a thought.

The next ebook turned out to be Arnold Palmer: Reflections On The Game by the aforementioned Arnold and Thomas Hauser. This I bought for free. Now I know why. It was just a few pages. A glorified magazine/newspaper article. Obviously Arnold Palmer had the right to chat about golf more than most people, but none of what I read held any surprise. It was a waste of the nothing I paid for it.

So the ebook I'm now reading is The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy. Gentleman by Lawrence Sterne. It's a classic of British literature and am looking forward to it.

Have also read two library books. This was the first.

The Accidental Scientist - Graeme Donald

As the cover explains it's about the great accidental discoveries in science. In this case it's a book that scientists would buy their non scientist friends ("See? Science can be fun")

The trouble with this and similar type books is that you realise as you're reading it that each chapter would have made a better complete book in it's own right. So what you're reading may not be awful, but it is unsatisfying.

This was the other library book.

David Meikle - Kate Beal Blyth - The Krays The Prison Years

I'm not old enough to remember The Krays in their gangster prime. But growing up in the East End of London (I was born in Forest Gate) I do remember that even in prison for the rest of their lives they still seemed to have this myth surrounding them. Indeed for longevity in the collective East End memory the only other icon I can immediately think of is Bobby Moore.

So a detailed book (based on a TV documentary - not revealed until the end) about this rarely documented period in their lives banged up in prison is a worthwhile addition to the library of stuff written about the Krays. It's also the best book of the four I've chatted about today (yes it was more interesting than Martin Chuzzlewit) but perhaps that's my East End background talking

It's not without problems. For me the biggest was the surprising little time spent to their early prison years. It also made me feel a little sympathetic towards Ronnie Kray, given that he was a diagnosed with severe mental problems including schizophrenia. You wondered what would have happened to them if he hadn't been plagued with these illnesses

Still I "enjoyed" reading it and it's recommended. Won't be able to get new library books until Tuesday so we'll see what they are then.

Until the next time.

On Books: Particularly The Best Non Fiction Book I've Read This Year Despite One Disappointment

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Well Absolute Friends by John Le Carre is finished. I did enjoy it, but on reflection it's not Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Mind you reading it for the most part whilst you're fighting dozing off in a hospital reception whilst your mother is having a cataract operation is probably not the best circumstance to give a book proper attention. But there you are.

The next ebook on the Kindle was (and I'm doing the Literary eqvilant of taking a deep breath here) The Lock And Key Library. Classic Mystery And Detective Stories. Old Time English. This Public Domain ebook (and so free) was basically a collection of horror stories by well known writers. These stories ranged from the surprisingly uninteresting (Lawrence Sterne, William Thackeray) to the downright bonkers (Bulwer-Lytton, Thomas De Quincey).

But it also had The Signalman by Charles Dickens. I'd been meaning to read this for a while. It was for the most part the calmest story in the whole collection but also the most chilling. For that alone I was happy to have read this book.

Which is more than I could say for The Great Cycle Adventure by James Plumley. A free ebook about a cycle ride he and his friends had in France,Spain and Morocco.

This is a slight book (took about fourteen minutes) and is basically his diary of the trips in print form. Really that's it. A few paragraphs here and there with no detail,explanation nothing. Really a waste of time.

The next ebook to read turns out to be You Can't Go Home Again by Thomas Wolfe. I'm looking forward to reading this I must admit. We'll see how it turns out.

Went to the library yesterday. The book I took out was:

Voices From D-Day - Jon E Lewis

Seems like the right book to read at the right time.

When I borrow a book from the Library I share it on Twitter. The literary version of instagramming the meal you're about to have. Normally there's no reaction. Occasionally a few people comment and that's it.

When I tweeted out that the next book from the library I was reading was The Old Ways by Robert Macfarlane I was inundated with likes and people saying how much they enjoyed it. I realised then that this was a book that men and women have taken to their hearts and loved.

Having read it now I can see why. Colour me converted.

It's a book about particular rambles the author takes on foot. Sometimes alone, other times with friends and or acquaintances. He can picture the scene and make you think you were there and definitely makes you wish you were there. The poet's language is evocative and moving.

But it's not all lyricism. He can go off in a tangent and discuss books and writers and paintings for example which have a connection to his journey and effortlessly go back to his trek. That takes talent. Once you read it for the first time you'll want to dip into it for the rest of your life. It can be described, in more ways than one but only as a term of praise, as a rambling book.

He can make the distant sounds of the M11 part of the countryside. Whereas the Essex part of the M11 I know (turn off from the M25 depart at Epping turn-off) is anything but.

This book for me is unique in that there are certain writers Mr Macfarlane mentions who I've already downloaded to read in due course. I've never done that before. Also it makes me seriously consider undertaking such routes through South Wales (as regular readers of this blog will know I've said previously I don't mind long walks as long as there was a purpose at the end of it).

And there's the disappointment.

For there is no walk undertaken in Wales in this book. There are walks undertaken in England (including Wiltshire in the west), Scotland and the all encompassing "abroad". But not in Wales. Which is a pity.

Now I'm sure you will say that I'm obsessed with Wales and/or you'll say that with regard to Robert Macfarlane it's his book and so his rules. You would be quite right. Which is why it's a disappointment and not a criticism. It does not hide the fact that it's a truly wonderful work which I heartily recommend and is unquestionably the best non fiction book I've read this year.

Until the next time.

North Pole Axed By Photos

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Before I concentrate on the main book I'm dealing with in this post let's quickly chat about the other books in my immediate reading universe first.

Finished Somebody's Luggage by Charles Dickens. Never heard of it before won't hear from it again. Really dull. The next ebook on the electronic pile in the moment is Absolute Friends by John Le Carre. Haven't read a Le Carre novel in a long, long while. So far so good.

Now the main book. Tom Avery's 2009 account of his expedition to the North Pole To The End Of The Earth.

When I was taught at school decades ago about the race to be the first person to either the North/South pole if there was a league table of importance the teachers gave it then this would be it.

1: Scott
2: Shackleton
3: Amudsson
4: (Way,way behind) Peary

The thing being of course that Scott and Shackleton were British and that though no one should deny their courage they failed.

(As a quick aside Beryl Bainbridge's short novel The Birthday Boys about the Scott expedition is a brilliant and poignant read. I'd highly recommend it)

Robert Peary was the leader of the first team to reach the North Pole. But, as I learnt in this book he was accused of cheating. The argument at it's most basic was that he was just too quick. What the author was doing was to lead an expedition basically following the route and equipment Peary and his team used to see whether he could be just as quick.

Now as a rule expeditions to either Pole have no interest to me, given that they've been reached what's the point? But this was different because it was more of an experiment than an expedition.

The first half of the book was interesting enough. Avery was a bit schoolgirl gushing over his sponsor Barclays Capital but otherwise it was OK. The expedition was just in it's early stages by the time the photos came.

Oh the photos......

Did Avery and his team complete their objective? I won't tell you. But the photos did. And reading the rest of the book was exactly like watching a football match you recorded and finding out what the final score was halfway through. This might be the greatest book about polar expeditions ever written but the photos blinded my mind to it. Rather like Brexit though I didn't know the route taken I knew what the basic destination of this book was going to be.

So if you read this tome take my advice and ignore the photos until the end.

The next book in time for Halloween is:

Dean Koontz - Hideaway

We'll see how scared I am at the end.

Until the next time.

Why Historical Fiction Writers Need To Cut The Crap, Sinclair Lewis And Other Books

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Now that I'm in my fifties I've found that I've grown rather sanguine about historical fiction. As long as any liberties the writer takes are so obvious that it can't be ignored ("Not tonight Josephine" said Napoleon as he was too busy on his laptop) then I really don't care. It is after all fiction.

The Great King by Christian Cameron has taught me however that the language used by a historical fiction writer can be equally important to a reader.

He had already annoyed me by staring with a glossary at the beginning of the book (OK OK I get it. You did your research). Then he had a "General Notes On Names And Personages"  (What is this a historical novel or a memory test?).

However what threw me was the beginning of episode two when suddenly the word "crap" was used. I'd always thought it was a Victorian word following from the legendary Thomas Crapper. But on checking the internet (yes I was checking the internet for the origins of the word crap. How sad am I?) I found that it originates in medieval times.

The point is that for the times of the war between Persia against Greece (and others) it was a word modern enough to jolt me away from the historical setting of the novel. There were other words as well (the F word and "barrack room lawyer" comes to mind) and given how proud he was over his historical research the way the author seemed free and easy over the language was surprising.

It occurs mainly in the first half of the book and it's a pity...because...

...although the quote on the cover is going too far ("Christian Cameron is one of the finest writers of historical fiction in the world" - Ben Kane) judged as an entertainment I found myself once my brain was back into ancient Greek gear enjoying the novel immensely. I hadn't expected to have liked this book as I did. You are swept along by the breath of the story he's telling and, and I think this is a good test, when I stopped reading for a while didn't realise how much of the work I'd gone through. Arguably in a good way it was the most surprising book I've read this year.

Finished on my Kindle Sinclair Lewis' 1920 novel Main Street. It's about a woman from the city who marries and moves with her husband to his home town and finds her life constricted by some of the people and surroundings around her.

As a story this worked when you assumed it was just going to be cliche. I thought as a reader that this was going one direction only to find it moving another. You really don't know how things will turn out until the end. Obviously female readers will identify with the main character. But for a man I can also read this as the struggles of a person to adapt to surroundings and attitudes that you are not comfortable with. The pressures when it appears you're battling against the odds. The pressures to conform to a perceived norm of how you should live your life and behave. I've got a few more Sinclair Lewis books to read and after Main Street am looking forward to doing so.

The next ebook turned out to be the 1916 tome My Book Of Indoor Games by Clarence Squareman. I thought this was going to be useful. Half term and all that. But the first group turned out to be games requiring a lot of people, the next bit were things like noughts and crosses which for my daughter's internet generation was just a non starter and only now have we come up to card games. Trouble is the pack of cards is in a box in the storage unit so I'll need to get another pack. This book then is being put on the back boiler. When I get a pack and test these games out I'll come back to you.

So the next ebook turns out to be Somebody's Luggage by Charles Dickens. I mean you don't read Dickens for years and then two come along relatively close to each other.

Ah well.

Until the next time

Charles Dickens Can Write. Plus the latest Library Visit

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Well it's been a while I know but after a great deal of distractions, including other books to read and, let's face it we're not talking about a slim volume here but anyway David Copperfield has at last been finished.

It is not an easy book to judge. Though I'll start by saying that I did not like it as much as Great Expectations or A Christmas Carol if only because though a novel it seems to be less of a plot and more of a biography. There were moments where we seemed to be led on a wide diversion before going back to the central story.

There are moments, rather as in Great Expectations, when you don't really like David Copperfield the adult,thinking that he's rather stuck up.Then, almost instantly you suddenly become his chief cheerleader in what happens to him ("Give me a D...."). And that's a skill, for the moment when your brain started to wander away from the story Dickens drew you back

So I would say it's a guarded thumbs up. Though I would be surprised if anybody said it was their favourite Dickens.

The next book to reads on the great pile of ebook unread is Main Street by Sinclair Lewis.

Went to the library and got two books. This was the first:

Carole Matthews - The Cake Shop In The Garden

I think it wins the "book cover illustrating what you're going to get award" for this year. Including the praise by Mary Berry.

The other book was:

David Attenborough - Life Stories

Given I've recently praised the sequal I'm expecting great things from this.

Until the next time.

Of Books Read And Borrowed Leading To My Big Enviormental Question

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Well the collected essays of Brian Aldiss is now finished. And for the most part I enjoyed it. You will rarely have a consistent view of any anthology but for the moment calling him the George Orwell of Science Fiction essays (though not all are Sci-fi) seems appropriate.

There are a few caveats. Some of these essays were so above me they were rocket to the moon length. Also this particular ebook lazily put certain volumes together even though some of the essays appeared twice, which was annoying. But approaching subjects like Mary Shelley or George Orwell from his sci-fi perspective is interesting and unusual. The book was worth reading for those essays alone.

Won't read the other Brian Aldiss I have on my Kindle yet, I'll save that for another day. So back to Charles Dickens and David Copperfield.

Went to Sully library to choose some new books. The Fiction choice was..

Edward Marston - Timetable of Death

I've never read The Railway Inspector crime series before. So this is new to me. But when waiting for my daughter at her school read sixty one pages of this book without realising I'd gone through so much in a short space of time. That is the mark of a good writer. Early days obviously, but it looks promising.

The other book. The one I wasn't sure to get but eventually decided upon was this.

David Attenborough - New Life Stories

This leads to my environmental question. Because I should explain first that I've never watched a David Attenborough or any animal programme.

So the question: Can you be truly care for the environment when you're wary in the presence of animals?

I believe in being environmentally friendly. I do believe in climate change and have shown that landscapes are important to me. Also I'm against zoos believing that animals should be allowed to roam free but at the same time I'm ambivalent to anything that's not human.

Part of the reason for this, possibly all of it, is my actual phobia for dogs. Brought on by being almost mauled by an Alsatian when I was a very young child. Even now, no matter how small the dog ("He won't bite,he's showing he likes you") my reaction is to stiffen with fear.

So I can't say I've read many animal books. When I finish it that will need to be borne in mind.

Until the next time.

How Bruce Chatwin, Brian Aldiss and the NRL Fared In The Rainy Sunday Test

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Although my daughter has one more day of the school holidays left to go but let's face it the Monday doesn't really count) the wife had plans for Sunday.

"Let's go to Tenby" she said on Saturday.

I shrugged. Been there done that. As I've said before in this blog I'm not really a beach person.But then again I'd no real alternative option so fine.

However it's now Sunday morning....and it's raining. It was one of those Sundays (wherever in the world you are) that aside from getting any necessary provisions you know from the moment you get up that you're staying in.

There's now a channel called FreeSports ....yippee to that...where you can watch....surprise,surprise sports without having to pay for it. As mentioned before because of the internet connection where we are renting at the moment I've had to drop BT Sports. This was good news for the wife and daughter as it meant the number of programmes I'd recorded dropped to one (Professor T). Now however I'm back DVR'ing as if my life depended on it. So they find they're watching something and then the screen suddenly changes to an Australian rugby league game. Oh how they love that

Ah yes Australian Rugby League. The NRL. A season about to go into it's final stages. I'm Ok with the sport. Football will always come first but don't dislike it. So on Sunday morning watched a recording of a few games. The most important for me being the North Queensland Cowboys versus the Brisbane Broncos.

This game, being the first to watch was going to decide which NRL club I was going to follow. But. even though it might mean that I wouldn't be able to watch them for the rest of the season I'm no glory seeker. So whoever lost would have, for what it's worth, my support.

Well.....go get them Cowboys from now on then.

I enjoyed the games of course having the advantage that not living in Australia meant I wouldn't know the result in advance and could watch them later. There is a possibility dem Cowboys will move into the final eight at time of writing but I don't know and am not finding out before I finish watching this week's games

In the afternoon though wife/daughter wanted to watch movies. In particular Evita starring Madonna. Wasn't interested in that (though it raises the question whatever happened to Jimmy Nail?) so picked up and continued to read In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin.

Now I haven't finished the book yet. But those of you hoping that I would be somehow transported into the wildlands of Argentina and wax lyrical about the prose will be disappointed. I don't like travel books where the natives are treated like exhibits for the examination of the writer. He is not superior.

Furthermore the chapters are short,very short, one, two, three pages long. Tells a story and moves on when you're sure he could have got into more detail.

You know what? It might have been a better read as a blog (before his time I know).

When the skies grew darker I turned to my Kindle and it's backlight for further reading. However Charles Dickens will  have to wait. Amazon always throw offers at you when you've bought a Kindle. Normally I can ignore them. But recently they've offered deals on works by the recently deceased writer Brian Aldiss who I wrote about recently. Well I was tempted and bought a complete set of the short stories he wrote in the fifties as well as a complete set of his essays. Not only that but cannot resist reading them (starting with the essays) now thus jumping the queue of the great ebook unread.

Will chat about it when I've finished. All I'll say now is that I'm not disappointed.

It's Monday as I'm writing this. It's raining...but I have work coming up.

Until the next time.

Have I Been Persuaded By Jane Austen? Well....

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

So picture the scene. I'm at the rented apartment from doing the afternoon/evening shift at work. Daughter is on her tablet. Wife, who moans when daughter or me are online, is on the laptop playing Mahjong.

I go to my normal returning from work routine. Ask loved ones how they are (incidentally never argue when you've just returned to work late at night. Your brain....well my brain anyway...is not up to it). Go to the toilet (TMI? Sorry). Change my clothes, contact my mother in Essex and ping a microwave meal (I've boiled it down to two. Beef Lasagne or Spaghetti Bolognese

And what then? It's about eleven pm. I have to stay up for about an hour before going to bed to rest my wide stomach. So what do I do? Normally I'd watch something on YouTube or Netflix and nod off on the sofa, or listen to a downloaded programme on the BBC radio iplayer and nod off. But not this day, Saturday. For my Kindle has told me that I've only half an hour left of Persuasion to read and I'm going to finish it come what may.

This task then, the reading equivalent of having a walk after dinner (it's after eleven at night I'm not walking out), is completed. From never reading Austen I've now read two of her novels in a short space of time. Things and indeed me have certainly changed recently.

Having said that, and mentally registering your round of applause, regular readers of this blog will remember my rather ambivalent view of Emma. That I did not dislike it but didn't feel as if I was reading great literature either. Thus Jane Austen was part of that group of writers such as  F Scott Fitzgerald and Anton Chekhov that I was literary Switzerland towards.

Now I have read two Austens I must be to the majority of the male population a freak. A male not in the artistic or educational worlds who has read two Austens?! Clearly to most men that and the fact I wear glasses must make me an expert on the subject.

So let me start by saying this. I much preferred Persuasion to Emma. It is a book with less of the Austen clichés. Less dances,less indeed a dance of manners.

Perhaps more importantly however it has a character (which I'm not going to spoil  by revealing here though obviously you can surmise it's a woman) that the reader can root for. Whilst there was no one I actually hated in Emma, it did thinking retrospectively lack that emotional hook.

And that central character is believable as well. There is no way that Gwnyeth Paltrow could justifiably played her without being laughed at all the way to the goop. Out of curiosity after I read the book I checked who played this person in the 1995 film adaptation. She seemed exactly the right fit to my imaginary picture.

But.....

The other thing that I've realised having read two of her books now is that Jane Austen characters rarely go beyond second gear emotionally. No throws of passion or spasms of anger. To me as a reader this seems irritating and unrealistic.

Still, what do I know....being a boy. (an old one admittedly) ?

So Jane Austen stays for me in a state of literary Switzerland. Which as I've said before is more difficult to explain than disliking her because if you're neutral towards a writer there's more chance that you've missed something (you dislike a writer them there are weapons you have to explain why).

Now to the next book which turns out to be David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. It's been a while since I've read any Dickens ( so many books so little time) so I'm looking forward to reading it.

Now tying up the loose ends I've also finished The Golden Rules of Blogging (& When To Break Them) by Robin Houghton. To be honest all it taught me is that if your blog is not a business then the best rule is simply trial and error. Adhere to the "rules" and you will just miss the fun of creating and running it.

Until the next time.