Articles by Philip Spires on ArticleSnatch.com

Willie The Actor by David Barry

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0500

At one level Willie The Actor by David Barry is a crime novel in which a ruthless criminal commits bank robberies. On another it achieves the feel of dramatised documentary, for its eponymous anti-hero, William Sutton, is not fictitious and lived a real life. David Barry introduces us to Willy in 1923 and we bid him farewell in 1976. And it’s a farewell that is fonder than the reader might have been expected at the outset. Willie The Actor is not a “who dunnit” in any sense, because at no point in the book are we left in any doubt about who is perpetrating the robberies. We even have an insider’s description of his crimes, a rationale and a plan for their execution. It’s Willie, of course, who is behind them. They are his claim to fame, a fame that the novel fills out. Willie, or William, or Bill – however we meet him – did not commit one of the robberies, however, and that one proves to be a particularly important one for him and his future. In this case we find him falsely accused and wrongly convicted. **End Summary** Topics: willie]]> actor]]> david barry]]> novel]]> fiction]]> book]]> crime]]> bank robber]]> robbery]]> ]]> About the Author: ]]> Philip Spires Author of Mission, an African novel set in Kenya http://www.philipspires.co.uk Michael, a missionary priest, has just killed Munyasya. It was an accident, but Mulonzya, a politician, exploits the tragedy for his own ends. Boniface, a church worker, has just lost his child. He did not make it to the hospital in time, possibly because Michael went to the Mission to retrieve a letter from Janet, a teacher, and the priestâs neighbour. It is Munyasya who has the last laugh, however.

The Colonelâs Last Wicket by G V Rama Rao

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0500

The Colonel’s Last Wicket by G V Rama Rao is a delightful novel that uses scenarios and technicalities drawn from cricket to add poignancy to a gentle but moving story. This is not a book about cricket. It’s a book about people, about their development, their motivation and their identity. At the plot’s core are Colonel Seth and Raju, the former a retired, decorated Indian Army officer. He is a widower, proud of his successful daughters, but still suffers a little when he contemplates what might have been. Despite his medals, he was never promoted to the highest rank; his beloved wife died; he never had a son. And he never achieved the distinction of playing first class cricket. Raju’s life has been a thoroughly different story, however. He is an orphan, living a life of poverty in a poor area. Of dubious parentage, even his peers and playmates regard him with some disdain. But Colonel Seth sees talent and potential in Raju when, by chance, he watches the boy playing a makeshift game of cricket in the stubble of a rice field. Seth takes Raju under his wing, encourages him and strives to bring his talent to fruition. **End Summary** Topics: rama]]> rao]]> colonel]]> last]]> wicket]]> novel]]> india]]> fiction]]> cricket]]> ]]> About the Author: ]]> Philip Spires Author of Mission, an African novel set in Kenya http://www.philipspires.co.uk Michael, a missionary priest, has just killed Munyasya. It was an accident, but Mulonzya, a politician, exploits the tragedy for his own ends. Boniface, a church worker, has just lost his child. He did not make it to the hospital in time, possibly because Michael went to the Mission to retrieve a letter from Janet, a teacher, and the priestâs neighbour. It is Munyasya who has the last laugh, however.

Florence â A Portrait by Michael Levey

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Having read Michael Levey’s From Giotto to Cezanne and A History of Western Art, I approached Florence – A Portrait thinking I knew what to expect. I did find the attention to detail, the keen critical evaluation and aesthetics that I expected. I did not envisage the book would turn out also to be quite the gargantuan work of scholarship and erudition that it is. Florence – A Portrait is much more than a history of art in the city state. It is almost a biography of the place, replete with historical, economic and political detail. What is missing, of course, is a picture of Florentine life from the point of view of the ordinary citizen, but we cannot criticize Michael Levey for not including what probably does not exist. I visited Florence thirty years ago and have never returned. At the time, memories of Kenneth Clark’s Civilisation were very clear in my mind and I focused on renaissance Florence, almost to the derision of the rest. Even after such time I found my memories of the architecture, paintings and sculptures were still fresh, however, when I read Michael Levey’s descriptions. **End Summary** Topics: michael]]> levey]]> florence]]> art]]> painting]]> sculpture]]> michaelangelo]]> history]]> medici]]> ]]> About the Author: ]]> Philip Spires Author of Mission, an African novel set in Kenya http://www.philipspires.co.uk Philip Spires was born in Wakefield, West Yorkshire in the United Kingdom and grew up in Sharlston, then a mining village. After London University he lived in Kenya. Then I taught in London before moving to Brunei and then the UAE. Since 2003, he has lived in Spain, completing a PhD and his first published novel, Mission.

Symphony No.7 Op.60 Dmitri Shostakovich - The Leningrad Symphony â a personal interpretation

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Like much music of quality, the Seventh Symphony of Dmitri Shostakovich, the Leningrad, is either loved or hated, rather than tolerated. It is famous, or infamous, depending on your point of view, for its first movement, a unique statement in the history of music, a movement lasting just under half of the symphony’s massive eighty minutes. It is also music, I believe, that is uniquely misunderstood, the popular interpretation being far too naïve an analysis of the motives of a composer as unpredictably and alternatively complex and trite as Shostakovich. So this is my personal version. First the description. I apologise if you already know the piece. The piece opens with a confident, harmonically complex theme which seems to pass from one place to another, from one orchestral section to another like question, answer and analysis. It seems to portray life lived ordinarily, but tangibly celebrating the sophistication and tolerance of negotiated social contact. There is conflict here, but resolution is at hand through thought, interaction and experience. The music seems to offer a sense of life lived in the unending complexity of community. But then the movement’s often derided second section begins. **End Summary** Topics: shostakovich]]> symphony]]> leningrad]]> ideology]]> war]]> fascism]]> orchestra]]> russia]]> soviet]]> ]]> About the Author: ]]> Philip Spires Author of Mission, an African novel set in Kenya http://www.philipspires.co.uk Philip Spires was born in Wakefield, West Yorkshire in the United Kingdom and grew up in Sharlston, then a mining village. After London University he lived in Kenya. Then I taught in London before moving to Brunei and then the UAE. Since 2003, he has lived in Spain, completing a PhD and his first published novel, Mission.

A Short Story on a Travel Theme - Strangers

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0500

We arrived more than two hours later than planned, but the west of England summer light had not yet faded even to dusk. A soft golden glow was just growing across the sunset, which had just tinged a flat-calm sea beyond this tumbling village. We were tourists here, strangers in this small, tightly-knit place. For us it was just part of a tour, a long weekend snatched in common from the clutches of our combined, ever demanding careers. I felt utterly liberated, that beautiful evening, as we walked the quarter mile or so down the steep dry cobbles from the obligatory car park into the car-less village, the deadlines and demands of advertising for once confined outside the limits of this small place. And I could tell from the spring in Jenny’s step that her battles with bottom sets in Lewisham were now further distant than our three days on the road. There was a small gift shop, a tourist-trap trinket place, just a hundred yards along the lane. I bought the newspaper our early departure from St. **End Summary** Topics: short story]]> story]]> fiction]]> england]]> devon]]> holiday]]> stranger]]> sourist]]> tourism]]> ]]> About the Author: ]]> Philip Spires Author of Mission, an African novel set in Kenya http://www.philipspires.co.uk Philip Spires was born in Wakefield, West Yorkshire in the United Kingdom and grew up in Sharlston, then a mining village. After London University he lived in Kenya. Then I taught in London before moving to Brunei and then the UAE. Since 2003, he has lived in Spain, completing a PhD and his first published novel, Mission.

The Heather Blazing by Colm Toibin

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0500

The Heather Blazing by Colm Toibin is a deeply emotional, deeply moving book. It’s the story of Eamon Redmond, a complex man, grown on tender roots, influential friends, a keen intellect and a tangible distance between himself and those whom he loves. The book is set in three parts, each of which dips in and out of time. We are with Eamon as a child in the small Wexford seaside villages he forever regards as home. Coastal erosion changes them over time and provides, in itself, a metaphor of aging, both of the individual and the community. Eamon’s schoolteacher father is a significant figure, both locally as a renowned teacher, and nationally as a result of what he accomplished in his youth in the furtherance of Irish independence and political development. Eamon’s mother died when he was young, an act for which, perhaps, he could never forgive her. We also see Eamon as an adolescent, hormones abuzz, becoming aware of adulthood, a physical, intellectual and, for him, a political transformation. But it is also a time when his father’s illness complicates his life. Throughout, we are never sure whether Eamon’s perception of such difficulty remains primarily selfish, driven by self-interest. **End Summary** Topics: book]]> novel]]> fiction]]> toibin]]> ireland]]> irish]]> dublin]]> wexford]]> family]]> ]]> About the Author: ]]> Philip Spires Author of Mission, an African novel set in Kenya http://www.philipspires.co.uk Philip Spires was born in Wakefield, West Yorkshire in the United Kingdom and grew up in Sharlston, then a mining village. After London University he lived in Kenya. Then I taught in London before moving to Brunei and then the UAE. Since 2003, he has lived in Spain, completing a PhD and his first published novel, Mission.

In our grasp - how the interent and new technology will democratise publishing.

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0500

I am an author. Itâ€'s about six months since I first held a copy of my book in my grasp. It was a project I had lived with, on and off, for twenty years. I wrote the book in the 1980s and forgot about it until November 2006. I retrieved it, decided to finish it and then there was our publisher. So, in my grasp, there was the book. It was a strange feeling. It felt like it had a life of its own, as if it had nothing to do with me any more. I am proud of my novel. Itâ€'s not autobiographical, but many of the events in the book did happen. But, of course, I re-ordered them, changed them, made them fit the overall idea that I decided would underpin the book. I would not be so crass, so clichÃ©d, as to say that it is based on real eventsâ€, but I would claim that it contains a lot that derives from my personal experience. The book is my way of communicating that experience, hopefully in a way that goes beyond merely listing a series of events. Thereâ€'s meaning there, somewhere at least I hope there is. **End Summary** Topics: publish]]> internet]]> print]]> printing]]> demand]]> book]]> expression]]> education]]> democracy]]> ]]> About the Author: ]]> Philip Spires Author of Mission, an African novel set in Kenya http://www.philipspires.co.uk I was born in Wakefield, west Yorkshire in the United Kingdom and grew up in Sharlston, then a mining village. After London University I lived in Kenya. Then I taught in London before moving to Brunei and then the UAE. Since 2003, I have lived in Spain, completing a PhD and my first published novel, Mission.

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0500

I read A Thousand Splendid Suns having just finished Kite Runner. I would like the opportunity to live life again (who wouldnâ€'t?), if only to have a chance of reversing the order of this experience. I suspect that had I read A Thousand Splendid Suns first then none of the criticisms I raise about the book would even have been imagined, let alone expressed. A Thousand Splendid Suns is a wonderful book, a compelling and gut-wrenching story of two women, Mariam and Laila, who share a husband throughout the years of Afghanistanâ€'s tragedy and turmoil. The fact that Khaled Hosseini can sustain expression, narrative, emotion and interest across two novels with ostensibly similar themes in the same territory is testament both to his supreme skill and the depth of the countryâ€'s despond. Where Kite Runner tells the story of two boyhood friends approaching maturity, separating and reuniting, A Thousand Splendid Suns presents two women who are forced together by arrangement. As in Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini presents ethnic and social class differences as the givens of the story. **End Summary** Topics: afghanistan]]> thousand splndid suns]]> women]]> novel]]> book]]> fiction]]> politics]]> taliban]]> war]]> ]]> About the Author: ]]> Philip Spires Author of Mission, an African novel set in Kenya http://www.philipspires.co.uk Michael, a missionary priest, has just killed Munyasya. It was an accident, but Mulonzya, a politician, exploits the tragedy for his own ends. Boniface, a church worker, has just lost his child. He did not make it to the hospital in time, possibly because Michael went to the Mission to retrieve a letter from Janet, a teacher, and the priest"'s neighbour. It is Munyasya who has the last laugh, however.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0500

This is a book that will live for ever. In it Khaled Hosseini has accomplished what many writers, most unsuccessfully, try to achieve. Itâ€'s the big stories, those turning points in history, which often attract us. They automatically have something to say, we might believe, something that needs to be aired, perhaps explained. So wars, revolutions, social upheavals, periods of turmoil, internecine struggles, ideological conflicts, all of these are the natural territory for the story teller. They are the backdrop that adds potentially unlimited drama, the context that can involve, inform and enlighten. But often writers are not up to the task. The attraction of that big issue is greater than the powers of judgment needed to create the right balance when the smallness of the storyâ€'s detail is pitched against the vast potential dominance of its setting. The balance, therefore, is often a fine one and, because of the power of the setting, the story is often belittled or, more usually, appears merely trite against the overbearing importance and significance of the backdrop. In recent times I have read several books which have revealed the limitations of the writerâ€'s concept by falling into one or other trap. **End Summary** Topics: khakled hosseini]]> kite runner]]> novel]]> book]]> fiction]]> afghanistan]]> politics]]> taliban]]> war]]> ]]> About the Author: ]]> Philip Spires Author of Mission, an African novel set in Kenya http://www.philipspires.co.uk Michael, a missionary priest, has just killed Munyasya. It was an accident, but Mulonzya, a politician, exploits the tragedy for his own ends. Boniface, a church worker, has just lost his child. He did not make it to the hospital in time, possibly because Michael went to the Mission to retrieve a letter from Janet, a teacher, and the priest"'s neighbour. It is Munyasya who has the last laugh, however.

A review of The Valkyries by Paulo Coelho

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0500

I found Paulo Coelhoâ€'s The Valkyries a bit of an enigma. I suspect the author at least partly intended it to be so. In a nutshell, the author seeks to discover new aspects of his psyche, to develop new angles on his existing skills. After a consultation with his mentor, he and his wife set off for a jaunt in the Mojave Desert to find what it is that they seek. Our author is in engaged in a quest, a search for his personal Angel. The reader, I am sure, will be convinced from the start that she accompanied him throughout. They wander off in full sun one day, take their clothes off (for some reason) and have to be rescued by Gene, who has seen it all before. He reassures the travellers that they will find their valkyries. And they do. They turn out to be a band of leather-clad women on motorbikes, ladies who have profound mystic powers which they practise amidst their regular partying. I was a bit perplexed by the narrator who claimed to have trained as an engineer in one breath and then discussed the existence of the universe in terms of ancient Greek elements. **End Summary** Topics: paolo]]> coelho]]> book]]> novel]]> fiction]]> valkyries]]> mexico]]> self-awareness]]> realisation]]> ]]> About the Author: ]]> Philip Spires Author of Mission, an African novel set in Kenya http://www.philipspires.co.uk I was born in Wakefield, west Yorkshire in the United Kingdom and grew up in Sharlston, then a mining village. After London University I lived in Kenya. Then I taught in London before moving to Brunei and then the UAE. Since 2003, I have lived in Spain, completing a PhD and my first published novel, Mission.

The Mission Song by John le CarrÃÂ©

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0500

In The Mission Song John le CarrÃ© re-visits the world of espionage that we associate with his writing. He is a master of the clandestine, the deniable, the re-definable. Bruno Salvador is a freelance linguist. His parentage is complex, his origins confused, but his skills beyond question. By virtue of an upbringing that had many influences, he develops the ability to absorb languages. Having lived in francophone Africa and then England, he is fluent in both English and French plus an encyclopaedia of central African languages. His unique gifts, considerable skills and highly idiosyncratic methods qualify him for occasional assignments as an interpreter. He is trusted. He is also, he discovers, pretty cheap, and already has considerable experience of working for those aspects of government and officialdom which sometimes transgress legality. He is also, therefore, vulnerable. So when a new assignment so urgent that he has to skip his wifeâ€'s party drags him to a secret destination, he initially takes everything very much in his stride. But Bruno is much more than a linguist, certainly much more than a translator and, as a result of the application of conscience, considerably more than the interpreter his employers have hired. **End Summary** Topics: le carre]]> intrigue]]> africa]]> congo]]> rwanda]]> mining]]> corporation]]> government]]> espionage]]> ]]> About the Author: ]]> Philip Spires Author of Mission, an African novel set in Kenya http://www.philipspires.co.uk I was born in Wakefield, west Yorkshire in the United Kingdom and grew up in Sharlston, then a mining village. After London University I lived in Kenya. Then I taught in London before moving to Brunei and then the UAE. Since 2003, I have lived in Spain, completing a PhD and my first published novel, Mission.

Shakespeare by Bill Bryson

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0500

At the start of Shakespeare Bill Bryson apologises for the fact that there is not much to tell. Every aspect of the bardâ€'s physical presence on the planet seems to be shrouded in doubt and mystery. We donâ€'t even know what he looked like. We donâ€'t know much about where he lived, or what he did with his time, apart from write and act. And, though we think we know a reasonable amount about what Will wrote, we know next to nothing about how his works were performed, alongside zero about what role the writer, himself, performed. So, having apologised for presenting a non-book with a non-story, Bill Bryson proceeds to fill two hundred pages with pure, unadulterated delight. The text provides context, detail and background. It is less than adulatory on the surface, apparently determined to stay within the bounds of the known and the probable. But when Bill Bryson does offer opinion, he reveals a clear and deeply felt love and admiration, almost worship, for his subject. The book is an absolute joy from beginning to end. **End Summary** Topics: bill bryson]]> bryson]]> shakespeare]]> biography]]> life]]> plays]]> theatre]]> drama]]> literature]]> ]]> About the Author: ]]> Philip Spires Author of Mission, an African novel set in Kenya http://www.philipspires.co.uk Michael, a missionary priest, has just killed Munyasya. It was an accident, but Mulonzya, a politician, exploits the tragedy for his own ends. Boniface, a church worker, has just lost his child. He did not make it to the hospital in time, possibly because Michael went to the Mission to retrieve a letter from Janet, a teacher, and the priest"'s neighbour. It is Munyasya who has the last laugh, however.

The Statement by Brian Moore

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0500

The Statement by Brian Moore is a little more than a pursuit thriller. I stress a little more because it genuinely transcends the whoâ€'s going to do itâ€ genre, though overall it misses an opportunity to address some important and potentially fascinating ideas. Pierre Brossard is the original, but not the only name of a politically right-wing Frenchman who worked with a wartime fascist militia in Vichy France. As part of his duties he was responsible for assisting the transport of Jews to Nazi concentration camps and at least once he organised killings, in particular a massacre of fourteen individuals. He was later tried and convicted, though years later a Presidential pardon meant that he was no longer a wanted man. Still one the run, however, he was convicted of a crime against humanity via a judgment and indeed a jurisdiction that not everyone in France either respected or recognised. Pierre Brossardâ€'s rediscovery of his Roman Catholic faith provided him with something more than solace. Through confession he could secure effective pardon, both within his own and also his sympathisersâ€' minds, where forgiveness was not needed. **End Summary** Topics: brian moore]]> statement]]> novel]]> book]]> jew]]> war]]> france]]> vichy]]> nazi]]> ]]> About the Author: ]]> Philip Spires Author of Mission, an African novel set in Kenya http://www.philipspires.co.uk Michael, a missionary priest, has just killed Munyasya. It was an accident, but Mulonzya, a politician, exploits the tragedy for his own ends. Boniface, a church worker, has just lost his child. He did not make it to the hospital in time, possibly because Michael went to the Mission to retrieve a letter from Janet, a teacher, and the priest"'s neighbour. It is Munyasya who has the last laugh, however.

A review of A Room At The Top by John Braine

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Itâ€'s fifty years since A Room At The Top first appeared. Against a backdrop of post-war Britain, a period when people really did believe that a new future, a different kind of society was just around the corner, Joe Lampton, born January 1921, aspired to social and economic elevation. Though competent and already promoted, as a local government officer in a grubby northern English town, with spare time interests in amateur dramatics, cigarettes and beer, even he himself rated his prospects of success as very poor. But Joeâ€'s other passion was the ladies. Two in particular caught his eye. Alice Aisgarth was married, older than him, and had a local reputation for being a bit forwardâ€. Basically she wanted love and passion to light up her dull, unhappy life with excitement. Susan Brown was a different prospect entirely, being nineteen, virginal and daughter of a rich businessman. If Joe Lampton could never work his way to wealth, he might just be able to marry it. His problems arose out of Susanâ€'s desire to remain pure during their courtship, a position that meant Joe had to continue seeing Alice to satisfy his needs. **End Summary** Topics: john brain]]> britain]]> class]]> north]]> yorkshire]]> system]]> room at the top]]> novel]]> fiction]]> ]]> About the Author: ]]> Philip Spires Author of Mission, an African novel set in Kenya http://www.philipspires.co.uk I was born in Wakefield, west Yorkshire in the United Kingdom and grew up in Sharlston, then a mining village. After London University I lived in Kenya. Then I taught in London before moving to Brunei and then the UAE. Since 2003, I have lived in Spain, completing a PhD and my first published novel, Mission.

A review of A S Byatt's A Whistling Woman

Fri, 07 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0500

A S Byattâ€'s A Whistling Woman is a strange book. At one level itâ€'s a straightforward account of university life, with its politics, affairs and academic pursuit. But then thereâ€'s the suspicion that none of this is ever satisfying for those involved. They yearn for something bigger, whilst at the same time trying to deny its significance in their lives. Another strand is the career of Federica, one of the bookâ€'s principal characters. Almost by default, she finds herself host of a BBC2-style arts review or in-depth discussion. She is forced via the subject matter of her programmes to re-examine a whole host of assumptions. So while the scientists try to identify a mechanism by which memory is both stimulated and fixed by means of electrical stimulation, Federica, via her television shows, offers apparently ever more arcane subject matter, leaving us confused as to what we think we might believe or even remember. And these are just some of the strands of plot and characterisation in A Whistling Woman, certainly one of the more complex novels I have read in many years. I have not read the previous three works in the series. **End Summary** Topics: byatt]]> whistling]]> woman]]> book]]> novel]]> fiction]]> british]]> university]]> television]]> ]]> About the Author: ]]> Philip Spires Author of Mission, an African novel set in Kenya http://www.philipspires.co.uk I was born in Wakefield, west Yorkshire in the United Kingdom and grew up in Sharlston, then a mining village. After London University I lived in Kenya. Then I taught in London before moving to Brunei and then the UAE. Since 2003, I have lived in Spain, completing a PhD and my first published novel, Mission.

A review of The Gathering by Anne Enright

Fri, 07 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0500

Anne Enrightâ€'s The Gathering deserves every ounce of praise it has received, and perhaps a bit more. Itâ€'s a family history of the Hegartys, told by Veronica after the death of her brother, Liam. So, and therefore, it is a wake, a stream of consciousness response to bereavement. There are more than shades of Molly Bloom here, as Veronica recounts intimate details of her own and her relativesâ€' ultimately inconsequential lives. And despite its obvious and necessary preoccupation with death and mourning, it is eventually an optimistic work, as optimistic as it can be when we are all revealed as rather inconsequential, temporal additions to the grand scheme of things, a grand scheme which, itself, is neither grand nor, indeed, a scheme. In such a void, we need blame to compensate grief. And after that is duly apportioned, at least we can just get on with it. What The gathering is not, by the way, is the kind of book that would appeal to anyone wanting instant gratification, a murder on every page, celebrity, wealth, empty melodrama, character that can be worn, or even axe-grinding. It is not snobbish to say that The Gathering runs kilometres above such pulp. **End Summary** Topics: enright]]> gathering]]> booker prize]]> fiction]]> ireland]]> irish]]> bereavement]]> wake]]> fiction]]> ]]> About the Author: ]]> Philip Spires Author of Mission, an African novel set in Kenya http://www.philipspires.co.uk I was born in Wakefield, west Yorkshire in the United Kingdom and grew up in Sharlston, then a mining village. After London University I lived in Kenya. Then I taught in London before moving to Brunei and then the UAE. Since 2003, I have lived in Spain, completing a PhD and my first published novel, Mission.

A Bucket of Ashes, a romantic novel by Jill Lanchbery is published by Libros International

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0500

At the heart of A Bucket of Ashes by Jill Lanchbery is an old fashioned love story. Joanna Townsend has it all. She has her own home in a beautiful Sussex village, a successful career as a freelance fashion illustrator, a fourteen year old son who she adores and a gorgeous boyfriend, Tom who wants to marry her. Sally Akinola, mother of four teenage daughters, thinks she has it all too until she learns that her handsome Nigerian husband Isaac has a second wife who has produced the sons that his family and culture value so highly. It is when Joanna is offered a prestigious assignment in Lagos that the two women, once friends but now separated by time distance and culture, rekindle their friendship. As their two lives - past and present - parallel and intertwine, ducking and diving between modern day and fifteen years earlier, they are forced to confront their own personal problems compelling them to make choices they had never wanted or expected to make. Joanna, once again under the spell of her son's father, Marcus, the man who had abandoned her, must decide whether or not she can trust him a second time; **End Summary** Topics: jill]]> lanchbery]]> bucket of ashes]]> love]]> romance]]> romantic]]> novel]]> book]]> fiction]]> ]]> About the Author: ]]> Philip Spires Libros International http://www.librosinternational.co.uk http://www.jill-lanchbery.co.uk http://www.philipspires.co.uk

A review of The Waterfall by Margaret Drabble

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0500

Itâ€'s almost 40 years since Margaret Drabble published The Waterfall, a novel, therefore, of the swinging, liberal, liberated sixties. The scenario is simple. Jan and Malcolm and Lucy and James are two (heterosexual) couples. Then Jane initiates a shuffle of the cards and has an affair with James. By 2007 standards, this might provide enough material for page one of a contemporary inter-relationship novel. In Margaret Drabbleâ€'s hands it is more than enough to sustain a substantial book. The narrative is seen entirely from Janeâ€'s point of view. Alternately written in the first and third persons, we get to know Janeâ€'s character from within and from without. She is not always honest, either with us or herself. She admits manipulation, duplicity, selfishness and infidelity. But they were the right things to do at the time, she convinces herself, the right things, that is, until she later reassesses what she did. So she justifies her inconsistencies, her whims, her foibles, her weaknesses through a belief that they were the right thing to do in the circumstances, at least as they unacceptably presented themselves. She is sometimes assertive, sometimes vulnerable, both satisfied and frustrated, accomplished and bereft. **End Summary** Topics: margaret drabble]]> drabble]]> waterfall]]> novel]]> fiction]]> marriage]]> relationship]]> woman]]> women]]> ]]> About the Author: ]]> Philip Spires Author of Mission, an African novel set in Kenya http://www.philipspires.co.uk Michael, a missionary priest, has just killed Munyasya. It was an accident, but Mulonzya, a politician, exploits the tragedy for his own ends. Boniface, a church worker, has just lost his child. He did not make it to the hospital in time, possibly because Michael went to the Mission to retrieve a letter from Janet, a teacher, and the priest"'s neighbour. It is Munyasya who has the last laugh, however.

A review of The Debt to Pleasure by John Lanchester

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0500

One of my greatest pleasures is eating, so I must cook. I savour, therefore I cook. I like tasty food made with fresh ingredients that address all four of our tastes salt, sour, sweet and bitter to create a complementary whole. Of course, there is now the fifth taste, unami, the expanding universe within soy sauce, that can amplify other inputs. I have just made an English pie, with chicken, mushrooms, a little diced bacon, seasoning and fresh herbs. It was moistened with stock and an egg before being baked in my own short-crust. Fresh gravy and vegetables alongside is all it will need. It thus has sweet, salt and bitter, but lacks sourness. A squeeze of lemon on the vegetables will compensate. For the expansion, take one novel closely related to cooking and read. Do try the recipes, but proceed with care. Cook things right through before committing to taste. John Lanchesterâ€'s The Debt to Pleasure is my recommendation. Itâ€'s a highly original, highly informative cookbook written by one Tarquin Winot, an expert in the field. In one of the most original books I have ever read, John Lanchester creates a real anti-hero. **End Summary** Topics: john lanchester]]> lanchester]]> debt]]> pleasure]]> cook]]> cooking]]> food]]> poison]]> mushroom]]> ]]> About the Author: ]]> Philip Spires Author of Mission, an African novel set in Kenya http://www.philipspires.co.uk Michael, a missionary priest, has just killed Munyasya. It was an accident, but Mulonzya, a politician, exploits the tragedy for his own ends. Boniface, a church worker, has just lost his child. He did not make it to the hospital in time, possibly because Michael went to the Mission to retrieve a letter from Janet, a teacher, and the priest"'s neighbour. It is Munyasya who has the last laugh, however.

A review of Going Home by Doris Lessing

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0500

It is fifty years since Doris Lessing published Going Home, an account of her return to Rhodesia, the country where she grew up. By then in her thirties, she had already achieved the status of restricted person because of her political allegiances and her declared opposition to illiberal white rule. These days Zimbabwe makes the news because of internal strife and oppression. It is worth remembering, however, that fifty years ago the very structures of Southern Rhodesian society were built upon oppression, an oppression based purely on race. Fifty years on Doris Lessingâ€'s Going Home an historical record of this noxious system, a record that is more effective, indeed more powerful because of its reflective and observational, rather than analytical style. Doris Lessing, a one-time card-carrying Communist, laid a large slice of the blame for the perpetuation of discrimination firmly at the door of the white working class. Though not all white workers were rich indeed she records that many were abjectly poor what they had and sought to preserve was an elevated status relative to the black population. She describes white artisans as white first and artisans second. **End Summary** Topics: doris]]> lessing]]> doris lessing]]> africa]]> rhodesia]]> zimbabwe]]> colony]]> colonial]]> race]]> ]]> About the Author: ]]> Philip Spires Author of Mission, an African novel set in Kenya http://www.philipspires.co.uk Michael, a missionary priest, has just killed Munyasya. It was an accident, but Mulonzya, a politician, exploits the tragedy for his own ends. Boniface, a church worker, has just lost his child. He did not make it to the hospital in time, possibly because Michael went to the Mission to retrieve a letter from Janet, a teacher, and the priest"'s neighbour. It is Munyasya who has the last laugh, however.

A review of Disgrace by J M Coetzee

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0500

Disgrace is a novel of a manâ€'s, even a familyâ€'s decline. David Lurie is a university teacher, the kind of teacher who was at home with academic material that current course requirements no longer demand. He is also divorced, twice, and even on his best form he has to grapple with the trials and tribulations that his frayed life and career present. He needs regular sex and visits a prostitute with regularity, always the same one, and harbours suspicions that he provides her with more than just business. He also suffers from self-delusion. So when he has an affair with one of his students, he really believes that she wants him for what he is, despite his thirty years of seniority. He convinces himself that she is a willing participant. It turns sour. She reports him. There is a committee. He cooperates, perhaps, but not in the way required by mores with which he cannot identify. Conveniently, messily, he resigns. And he loses his benefits. David goes off to live with his daughter in a rural area in the Eastern Cape. **End Summary** Topics: coetzee]]> disgrace]]> novel]]> book]]> fiction]]> africa]]> south africa]]> nobel]]> alenation]]> ]]> About the Author: ]]> Philip Spires Author of Mission, an African novel set in Kenya http://www.philipspires.co.uk Michael, a missionary priest, has just killed Munyasya. It was an accident, but Mulonzya, a politician, exploits the tragedy for his own ends. Boniface, a church worker, has just lost his child. He did not make it to the hospital in time, possibly because Michael went to the Mission to retrieve a letter from Janet, a teacher, and the priest"'s neighbour. It is Munyasya who has the last laugh, however.

A review of Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0500

Flaubertâ€'s Parrot by Julian Barnes is a book I have had queuing up to read for some time. I donâ€'t know why I have never got round to reading it. Perhaps itâ€'s because of the overtly literaryâ€ tag that was attached to it when it was short-listed for the Booker Prize. I am not against literaryâ€ fiction. Far from it: indeed I aspire to write it, after a fashion. My avoidance of Flaubertâ€'s Parrot was never conscious, but was probably a result of thinking that I knew what to expect word play, experimentation with form, biography, dissection of the writerâ€'s role, relationship between art and life, in fact all the mundane things that your average novelist has for breakfast. The less than average ones, by the way, always have corn flakes. It is their convention. Having just finished the book, I can declare that I found all I expected and much, much, much more. Julian Barnes has his character, a doctor called Geoffrey Braithwaite, consider various literary ideas. One, which only really applies to writing prose fiction, is the relation between form and content. **End Summary** Topics: julian barnes]]> barnes]]> arthur]]> george]]> england]]> britain]]> united kingdom]]> uk]]> novel]]> ]]> About the Author: ]]> Philip Spires Author of Mission, an African novel set in Kenya http://www.philipspires.co.uk I was born in Wakefield, west Yorkshire in the United Kingdom and grew up in Sharlston, then a mining village. After London University I lived in Kenya. Then I taught in London before moving to Brunei and then the UAE. Since 2003, I have lived in Spain, completing a PhD and my first published novel, Mission.

A piano recital by Young-Joo Lee in Palau Altea, Altea, Spain

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0500

I claim to be a music lover and I attend a lot of concerts and recitals, so I donâ€'t try to write a review every time, except for a few notes for my journal. But sometimes the playing is so perfect, the interpretations so poignant that the experience demands a record, if only to help publicise real, perhaps exceptional talent. And so it was with Young-Joo Lee, a Korean pianist. She gave her concert to the Amigos de la Musica de la Marina Baixa on November 9 2007 in Alteaâ€'s Palau on Spainâ€'s Costa Blanca. In summary, her programme looked rather conventional. It featured Haydn, Rachmaninov, List, Ravel and Prokofiev. I envisaged a classical sonata played as a loosener, a couple of preludes, a showpiece, perhaps a little dead princess and then something from the tuneful end of Prokofiev to round things off. I am not suggesting that concert programmes offered to the Amigos de la Musica tend to be predictable. Quite the contrary, they tend to the ambitions, but then I am always sceptical of programmes that list only the composersâ€' names. Young-Joo Lee did start with a Haydn sonata, but it was much more than the predicted loosener. **End Summary** Topics: young-joo]]> lee]]> piano]]> music]]> concert]]> recital]]> music]]> classical]]> altea]]> ]]> About the Author: ]]> Philip Spires Author of Mission, an African novel set in Kenya http://www.philipspires.co.uk Michael, a missionary priest, has just killed Munyasya. It was an accident, but Mulonzya, a politician, exploits the tragedy for his own ends. Boniface, a church worker, has just lost his child. He did not make it to the hospital in time, possibly because Michael went to the Mission to retrieve a letter from Janet, a teacher, and the priest"'s neighbour. It is Munyasya who has the last laugh, however.

A Question of Upbringing by Anthony Powell

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0500

Anthony Powellâ€'s A Question of Upbringingâ€ is the first part of his mammoth twelve novel epic A Dance to the Music of Timeâ€. He writes with wit, humour and not a little sarcasm, describing a quintessential Englishness that perhaps was never representative of the society and has, arguably, disappeared. He wrote this first volume in 1951 and, though the book starts with a London scene from that era, the majority of the book deals with the charactersâ€' school and university experiences and recalls a time passed. The main character is Jenkins. I will follow the authorâ€'s lead and use surnames only for males, surnames plus titles for married, older or otherwise unavailable women, and Christian names for eligible women, whether they be of a certain class or prone to wear flowery dresses while standing next to post boxes in the street. As his friend, Stringham, discovered, even some of the surname plus title women at times can prove highly eligible. The bookâ€'s form is both simple and intriguing. It is so effective we almost miss the ingenuity of its construction. There are just four chapters, each in excess of fifty pages and each focused on one particular episode. **End Summary** Topics: anthony powell]]> powell]]> dance]]> music]]> time]]> novel]]> book]]> fiction]]> english]]> ]]> About the Author: ]]> Philip Spires Author of Mission, an African novel set in Kenya http://www.philipspires.co.uk I was born in Wakefield, west Yorkshire in the United Kingdom and grew up in Sharlston, then a mining village. After London University I lived in Kenya. Then I taught in London before moving to Brunei and then the UAE. Since 2003, I have lived in Spain, completing a PhD and my first published novel, Mission.

Europe revisited, reinterpreted - A review of A Ruby in Her Navel, a novel by Barry Unsworth

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0500

A Ruby in Her Navel is yet another superb historical novel by Barry Unsworth. By his phenomenal standards, this book might at first appear somewhat one-paced, even one-dimensional, with its action set firmly in the place and time of its main character, Thurston Beauchamp, a young man in the service of King Roger of Sicily in the twelfth century. But if A Ruby in Her Navel might lack the immediacy and complexity of Stone Virgin, it approaches the beautifully portrayed picture of medieval life presented in Morality Play. Indeed, a group of travelling players also features in this novel, as in Morality Play, but this time itâ€'s a troupe of belly dancers from Anatolia, on tour in southern Italy. The ruby and navel of the title both belong to Nasrin, the youngest, most beautiful and most provocative member of the group. But having written that they were touring Italy, a country name that in our eyes is merely mundane and perhaps innocuous, I am reminded of one of the most enduring features of Barry Unsworthâ€'s book, which is its ability to re-draw oneâ€'s understanding of who we were. **End Summary** Topics: barry]]> unsworth]]> ruby]]> navel]]> europe]]> history]]> crusade]]> norman]]> frank]]> ]]> About the Author: ]]> Philip Spires Author of Mission, an African novel set in Kenya http://www.philipspires.co.uk I was born in Wakefield, west Yorkshire in the United Kingdom and grew up in Sharlston, then a mining village. After London University I lived in Kenya. Then I taught in London before moving to Brunei and then the UAE. Since 2003, I have lived in Spain, completing a PhD and my first published novel, Mission.

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