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Chartwell
The country home of Winston Churchill, this was our fourth visit, the last one being nearly four years ago. There are some lovely paths through the woods. There is the house, which we skipped this time, and the studio which we briefly looked in on. There is a second-hand bookshop which is not very good and a very pleasant café, both of which can be accessed without paying for entrance to the house and gardens.
More (better!) pictures can be seen from our previous visit in 2022.
No comments on Chartwell -
Leonardslee Gardens
We last visited Leonardslee Gardens in February 2024. (See Leonardslee Gardens – things change). On both visits we’ve been impressed by the gardens and the sculptures scattered throughout the grounds. There were very few people around today, it being a Monday, the schools are back, and it’s a little pricey. But well worth it! Don’t miss the dolls house museum which will stun children and adults.
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36 Books That May Change My Life
36 Books That May Change My Life
James Marriott’s essential reading list, from Proust to Sally Rooney. (Pinched from the Saturday Times!)
I’ll try to tick off as many as I can (but I may skip the poetry and it may take a long time!).I’m having trouble finding these books – I would like to avoid buying them new if possible! I’m hoping to find some of them in the Surrey and London libraries. This is where I am at the moment:
Book # Title Author Status 36 Nothing to be Frightened Of Julian Barnes Humorous memoir. DNF Book Author James Marriott’s description 1 The Corrections Jonathan Franzen Arguably the most absorbing novel on this list of absorbing novels. Franzen’s family saga is really decently readable. A book you can vanish inside. I think I might reread it later this year. 2 The Bonfire of the Vanities Tom Wolfe Critics were a bit sniffy about Tom Wolfe’s sprawling novel about New York society in the Eighties when it was first published. Time has vindicated it. The Bonfire of the Vanities transfixed me when I first read it in my teens. I returned to it a couple of years ago and it had the same effect. 3 The Line of Beauty Alan Hollinghurst Nobody I have given this book to has failed to thrill to it. Middle-class Nicholas Guest (a clue to the plot is in his name) is staying in the family home of the wealthy Tory MP Gerald, whose son he is in love with. Increasingly, Nick is drawn into this glamorous Tory world. Disasters and gay sex ensue. Hollinghurst is arguably our greatest living prose stylist. 4 Breathing Lessons Anne Tyler This novel takes place in the space of a day. Maggie and her husband, Ira, are driving to the funeral of an old friend. Over the course of the journey their minds flit back across their lives and disappointments. Other Anne Tyler novels I’ve read have irritated me with the slight mood of tweeness. This one is melancholy, funny and perfectly judged. 5 The Past Tessa Hadley I love Tessa Hadley. She is a great descriptive writer, a great writer about human psychology and a great observer of human relationships. In a just world, her mantelpiece would be groaning under Booker prizes. Unfortunately, her subject matter is deemed too unfashionably middle class. 6 In Gratitude Jenny Diski Everyone I have lent this memoir to has loved it. As a teenager, Jenny Diski was adopted by – of all people – the chaotic Nobel-prizewinning novelist Doris Lessing. You could read this gripping and insightful memoir in a day. 7 Through the Narrow Gate Karen Armstrong Another memoir. Karen Armstrong is now famous as a writer on the history of religions. As a teenager in the early Sixties she persuaded her parents to allow her to become a nun. Her experience of living in a monastic community is gripping. There is a scene near the end where Armstrong’s order sends her to university. She turns up and discovers that, while she has been locked away in her monastery, the Sixties has happened. 8 The Lying Life of Adults Elena Ferrante Everyone loves Ferrante’s Neapolitan Quartet. This later novel is just as good. Teenage Giovanna (living in Naples, of course) is intrigued by the mysterious aunt her family never talk about and goes in search of her. Ferrante is a genius. 9 The Poisonwood Bible Barbara Kingsolver This novel about an American missionary family who go to the Congo to spread religion in the Fifties was one of the books that helped me to get over the early-teens reading slump. It takes a bit of work to get into, but it pays off. 10 The Weirdest People in the World Joseph Henrich This book changed the way many people see the world. Joseph Henrich argues that although we tend to view western culture as “normal”, a kind of human default, it is radically different from every other culture in history. Countries such as Britain and the US are Weird (wealthy, educated, industrialised, rich and democratic). Our Weirdness shapes our families, societies and politics. You will never look at society the same way again. 11 SPQR Mary Beard I love Mary Beard’s descriptions of what a grim, squalid and downright ordinary place Rome could be. A book to change your perspective on the past. 12 The Righteous Mind Jonathan Haidt People kept telling me I would love The Righteous Mind (a friend described it as “Marriott coded”). I finally read it a couple of years ago and they were right. It is probably the most convincing description of where our moral convictions come from – what makes us outraged, what makes us disgusted, what makes us feel righteous. None of it is remotely logical. 13 Amusing Ourselves to Death Neil Postman Neil Postman’s blistering polemic against the dawning screen age is the most prophetic non-fiction book of the latter half of the 20th century. Most polemics age badly. This one has only become more relevant with time. 14 What Good Are the Arts? John Carey In What Good Are the Arts? to my hero, the critic John Carey, tries to work out whether the arts are good for anything. The book ends with a gloriously biased (Carey was an English literature professor) defence of literature as the best and most democratic of all art forms. Nobody has made the case for reading better than this. 15 Slouching Towards Bethlehem Joan Didion Was any writer cooler than Joan Didion? Her first essay collection contains some of the most dazzling journalism – and indeed, dazzling writing – of the whole 20th century. Her description of the madness of Haight-Ashbury in the Sixties is unforgettable. 16 The Sleeping Beauties Suzanne O’Sullivan The doctor Suzanne O’Sullivan is famous for probing the mysterious interactions of the body and the mind. This study of mass hysteria opens with a mysterious epidemic of “sleeping sickness” among immigrant children and goes on to explain the extraordinary influence our thoughts and emotions have over our bodies. Revelatory. 17 In Pursuit of Civility Keith Thomas Keith Thomas is probably my favourite historian. He approaches the past like an anthropologist. A book about manners in the 18th century might sound obscure, but this is the best guide I have read to the weirdness of the past. It is full of fascinating details. Laughter was considered impolite (a kind of constrained smile was considered more appropriate) and relieving oneself at the fireplace was felt to be a reasonable thing to do. 18 Ariel Sylvia Plath A really good poet is one who persuades you that poetry could be something completely different from what you thought it was. This is what Sylvia Plath did for me. In my teens I found her poetry off-puttingly overblown and hysterical. I will always remember the day her poetry clicked for me. It reordered my whole sense of what language can do and what poetry can be. 19 The Blind Watchmaker Richard Dawkins I could have put any number of Richard Dawkins books on this list. For my money, he is the greatest science writer of modern times. Possibly ever. I wish every discipline could explain it to us. 20 Reality Is Not What It Seems Carlo Rovelli Speaking of Richard Dawkins… Carlo Rovelli is the closest you can get to a Dawkins of physics. Rovelli is an Italian theoretical physicist who writes intensely readable, popular books that make you feel (at least for five minutes) that you have some clue what quantum mechanics is all about. I went around annoying my friends for about a week saying things like, “Did you know space is a particle?” 21 The Years Annie Ernaux The idea of a “collective memoir” by a fashionable French writer may not sound tempting, but this is a wonderful and readable book. It deserves its fame. Annie Ernaux intertwines the story of her life with the social history of postwar France. She makes you see (as few writers are able to) how much we are shaped not by our own actions but by the societies and times in which we live. It changed the way I think about my life. Very wise and very readable. 22 The Mating Mind Geoffrey Miller We tend to assume that our fabulously complex human intelligence evolved to help us solve problems and therefore to survive more effectively. In this dazzling and provocative book, Geoffrey Miller examines the role of sexual selection in driving the evolution of the human mind. 23 Worldly Goods Lisa Jardine I have a strangely vivid memory of reading this book on holiday in France when I was in my mid-teens. I couldn’t believe how enjoyable I was finding it. In hindsight, I can see that the history books I thought I should like – the ones about battles, diplomatic treaties and who was king when – were never my thing. This book permanently changed the way I look at the past. 24 The Better Angels of Our Nature Steven Pinker This book is a triumphant, trumping counterblast to the default pessimism many people fall into nowadays. The cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker rakes through hundreds of years of data to show that human society is becoming safer, less violent and more rational. 25 Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy I have a friend who says he plans to reread Anna Karenina once every decade until he dies. I reread it myself a couple of weeks ago and I think he is onto something. It is also completely enjoyable to read – not something that is true of every 19th-century Russian classic. 26 Emma Jane Austen For a long time I used to say this was my favourite novel. I have now decided it is silly to pick just one. But Emma is certainly Jane Austen’s best novel. It is the most complex, the most subtle and the funniest. 27 Collected Poems of Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy Dylan Thomas once said you could open the vast Collected Poems of Thomas Hardy on any page and find something worthwhile to read. I think he’s right. Hardy is the poet who can most reliably move me to tears. If you are new to his poetry, don’t be put off by his apparent clumsiness. You have to trust that he is a genius. If you do buy a copy of his Collected Poems, try one of these: Under the Waterfall, Beeny Cliff, The Voice, God-Forgotten, The Darkling Thrush, God’s Funeral. 28 The Collected Stories Katherine Mansfield One of my dad’s party tricks was reciting passages of Katherine Mansfield’s short story At the Bay by heart while driving us to school. This could have been annoying. It gave me a lifelong love of her writing. 29 All Our Yesterdays Natalia Ginzburg Natalia Ginzburg’s novel received a boost a couple of years ago when the author Sally Rooney recommended it. Rooney knows what she’s talking about. All Our Yesterdays is set in a small town in northern Italy during the Second World War. Sixteen-year-old Anna’s life changes when she falls pregnant after a brief romance. In the background, war and politics are becoming increasingly difficult to avoid. 30 Pnin Vladimir Nabokov Vladimir Nabokov is most famous for Lolita. I almost prefer Pnin, which was published two years later. This very short, very comic novel about a hapless emigré Russian professor stranded in America is probably the classic novel I reread most often. It is so witty and tender. And descriptive writing in English has never been brought to a greater perfection. Look out for the shudder-inducing but weirdly gorgeous description of what it is like having your teeth pulled out at the dentist. 31 What Maisie Knew Henry James Henry James, with his twisty, drifting sentences, is never a straightforward read. But this novel about a young girl whose selfish parents divorce and remarry might be the best description of childhood ever written. 32 Normal People Sally Rooney Sally Rooney’s second novel bowled me over when I first read it. Rooney has her detractors (an inevitable consequence of immense popularity) and I haven’t loved all her books, but I still think she is the real thing. 33 Love’s Executioner Irvin Yalom Not all books about therapy are sensible or wise. This one, however, by the psychotherapist Irvin Yalom, is brilliantly insightful about people and life. He is hilariously and fascinatingly unsparing about his clients. Unlike many books by therapists, you feel that Yalom has the skill of really understanding and seeing through people, rather than the skill of spewing fashionable jargon about them. 34 Swann’s Way Marcel Proust Marcel Proust doesn’t deserve his forbidding reputation. Yes, In Search of Lost Time is very long, but this gossipy, profound book is not boring. Small chunks of it can be read as standalone novels or novellas. A good place to start is Swann in Love. The wealthy Swann’s affair with the courtesan Odette is one of the greatest fictional romances of all time. 35 A Life of My Own Claire Tomalin Claire Tomalin’s biographies of Samuel Pepys, Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy are among my favourite books. But don’t miss her memoir. In it she looks back on a life of success and family grief. It ends with the reflection that the older she gets, the more she sees her life as part of a generational story. She puts it so well it is hard to stop seeing your own life in the same light. 36 Nothing to be Frightened Of Julian Barnes Ever since childhood, the novelist Julian Barnes has been terrified of death. This is his memoir of that fear. It is a deep book, but, it also much more entertaining than a book about death has any right to be. [Humorous memoir. DNF] Table created by taking a photo of the magazine pages and giving them to ChatGPT to extract into an Excel file and then a copy/paste into WordPress.
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Hatchlands again
Another visit to Hatchlands, three weeks after our previous visit when the site was evacuated after a field caught fire. We do enjoy the walk around the estate. Managed to find three books from the bookshop – on our previous visit I was ejected due to the nearby fire!
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ChatGPT on my August reading
ChatGPT had a look at the books I’ve read in August. This is what she said:
You’ve had a pretty strong reading month, with a clear preference for literary fiction, psychological/crime stories, and memoirs — and a few books that you really did not enjoy.
⭐ Overall
You read 16 books, including 4 nonfiction. Your verdicts skew strongly positive: several highly recommended/fabulous/magnificent reads, a handful of decent books, and only a few outright failures.
The pattern in your reactions is interesting: you seem to value a strong story and distinctive characters, particularly when there’s psychological tension, strangeness, or a compelling real-life voice. You have considerably less patience for meandering, plotless writing — and My Bags Are Big appears to have committed the cardinal sin of doing precisely that.
Book of the month: Gaining Ground
Nonfiction of the month: Careless People
Best thriller: Blood Orange
Biggest surprise/quirkiest choice: School for Patriots
One to forget: My Bags Are Big 😄📚 Your month in books
Standouts
- Gaining Ground – Joan Barfoot — Your clear fiction favourite: “magnificent” and highly recommended.
- 501 Minutes to Christ – Poe Ballantine — A fabulous, grim collection of tales about an American drifter.
- Careless People – Sarah Wynn-Williams — Your standout nonfiction read; fascinating enough to earn a strong recommendation.
- Blood Orange – Harriet Tyce — A gripping psychological thriller featuring deeply dishonest lawyers.
- The Dark Road to Mercy – Wiley Cash — A fast-moving, dangerous kidnapping/chase story that really worked for you.
Good, but with reservations
- The World is a Wedding – Wendy Jones — A delightful continuation of Wilfred the undertaker’s story, set in 1920s Wales.
- The Odd Woman and the City – Vivian Gornick — An interesting, pleasant memoir built around life and conversations in New York.
- The Drunkard’s Walk – Leonard Mlodinow — Interesting exploration of randomness and probability, though sometimes beyond your comfort zone.
- School for Patriots – Martin Kohan — Strange, addictive and highly recommended “for some.”
- The Rest of Our Lives – Ben Markovits — Decent, but you felt you should have enjoyed it more.
- Liar – Ayelet Gundar-Goshen — An increasingly complicated web of lies that was OK, although the ending disappointed.
- Confessions of an Ivy League Bookie – Peter Alson — Short and perfectly acceptable.
The disappointments
- Malachy and His Family – Carlo Gébler — You found the whole thing tiresome.
- Antarctica – Claire Keegan — A few good stories, but short stories generally aren’t your thing.
- Dead West – Matt Goldman — Slow and tiresome, although ultimately OK.
- My Bags Are Big – Tibor Fischer — The month’s unequivocal disaster: plotless, meandering, expensive and hated.
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iPhones & cosmetic surgery
An iPhone powers itself up
I’ve started powering off my iPhone when I go to bed so I was somewhat taken aback to be woken up just before 4am by the screen lighting up (and vibrating?)! Thinking it might be a national emergency alert I typed in the start-up passcodes and there was nothing to report. Googling this it turns out to be a common issue, possibly related to polling for automatic updates to the system software. I’ve now disabled automatic updates! One would have thought that powering off a device would mean it’s dead-to-the-world, but in the case of an iPhone, apparently not.
A snippet from The Odd Woman and the City by Vivian Gornick
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Taphophobia & Safety Coffins
I came across the word taphophobia in a novel I was reading – I think it was The Thoughts and Happenings of Wilfred Price Purveyor of Superior Funerals by Wendy Jones. Looking the word up I discovered it’s a fear of being buried alive.
According to Wikipedia it was not an uncommon fear before the era of modern medicine. In 1905, the English reformer William Tebb collected accounts of premature burial. He found 219 cases of near live burial, 149 actual live burials, 10 cases of live dissection and 2 cases of awakening while being embalmed. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taphophobia)
The fear of premature burial led to the invention of many safety devices which could be incorporated into coffins. Most consisted of some type of device for communication to the outside world such as a cord attached to a bell that the interred person could ring should they revive after the burial. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safety_coffin)
There’s an interesting but tragic case of premature burial concerning a woman Alice Blunden who died in 1674. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Blunden)
Edgar Allan Poe wrote several short stories around the subject, including The Premature Burial and The Fall of the House of Usher. Around my late teens I read a collection of his stories (probably bought at the long-gone Paperback Parade in Southampton!).
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Rabbit pie pub
We were out on a walk and the following messages appeared on our street’s WhatsApp group:
- “Just seen a rabbit in our garden. Usually only have foxes. Anyone missing a pet?”
- “Not me, but If you can catch it before a fox 🦊 or a cat 🐱 catches it and kills it, that would be marvellous.”
- “We are trying to.”
- Well done 👍🏽 and good luck 🍀”
- “What method are you using to catch the rabbit? 🐇”
- “I rescued an injured baby squirrel from a cat in our back garden many years ago. I took a large upturned plastic swing top bin, and eventually (2 hours) managed to corner it and carefully lower the bin over it to trap it. Then carefully slid a piece of board underneath the bin. Then carefully tuned it right way up whilst holding bin and board tightly together. Final step – replace board lid with a strong sack, tied on with rope. I then took it to the animal hospital in Leatherhead, where after four days of care it was well enough to be released into the wild.”
- “I wish you and your guest bunny a similarly happy conclusion. 🙏🏽”
- “Bunny has left ours and gone to the block of flats next door. Currently have 2 foxes sunning themselves in the garden so not trying to get bunny back.”
- “Phew! 😅 Seems like the bunny has had a narrow escape!…at least for now.”
- “He/she could have been foxes’ lunch!”
- “Two days back, I had seen the fox eating the squirrel behind our garden, felt very sad. The squirrels were happy visitors to our garden, they steal the entire sun flower pod and eating whatever they can. This year I have not seen them.”
- “Ah that’s tough. Poor squirrel met their fate. The dark side of Mother Nature.”
I was tempted to comment with the following:
“One of our favourite pub meals is rabbit pie at the Feversham Arms Inn in Church Houses on the North York Moors. It’s best to order the small size as the meals are rather generous.”
In the end I decided it was perhaps a bit insensitive 🤣, so I decided against posting! Checking out the pub’s website rabbit pie doesn’t appear on the current menu but game pie (no rabbit) does. Worse still the current, long-time owners are leaving at the end of October, so who knows what the food will be like after then.
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Ejected from bookshop!
Another trip to Hatchlands, a National Trust property, ended prematurely when a fire broke out in a field not too far from the house and gardens. It wasn’t initially clear that the staff were requesting visitors to leave the site, so I wandered into the empty second-hand bookshop, not panicking being my usual response to things! (My wife however was panicking!!) It wasn’t long before a member of staff spotted me and I was requested to leave the bookshop and the site along with all the other visitors.
We had managed a good walk and picnic before the evacuation so we enjoyed the few hours we were there.
Nature produces some weird things… -
Picture Book by The Kinks
There’s a great article in yesterday’s Guardian – The Kinks’ 40 greatest songs – ranked!
I like the Kinks but now I realise I only know their hits. One of the songs mentioned in the article is Picture Book.
Once heard you want to replay it, again and again. Well that’s been my reaction. Best listened through headphones or proper speakers, not a laptop’s speakers.
I must check out their catalogue for more gems.
Picture Book lyrics
Picture yourself when you’re getting old
Sat by the fireside a-pondering onPicture book, pictures of your mama
Taken by your papa, a long time ago
Picture book, of people with each other
To prove they love each other
A long time agoA picture of you in your birthday suit
You sat in the sun on a hot afternoonPicture book, your mama and your papa
And fat old Uncle Charlie
Out boozing with their friends
Picture book, a holiday in August
Outside a bed and breakfast
In sunny Southend
Picture book, when you were just a baby
Those days when you were happy
A long time ago