Kaznowski Quartet concert
21 January 2008
For only the second time in the eight years we have lived in Eversholt, on Sunday there was a concert in our village church. The excellent local Kaznowski Quartet (Jan Kaznowski, Caroline Waters, Martin Gough and David Knight) gave us a mixed programme ('From Bach to the Beatles') based around the 'Petite Suite' by Debussy. We heard great arrangements for string quartet by Carlo Martelli and Bill Thorp of works by Dvorak, Grieg, Mozart and Bach interspersed with the four Debussy movements together with 'Penny Lane' and 'The Folks Who Live on the Hill'. It was a lovely afternoon and it was great to see the church absolutely packed.
Labels: Concerts, Music
‘May Contain Nuts’ by John O'Farrell
21 January 2008
The literary career of John O'Farrell seems to be following a course plotted by Nick Hornby. Having found success with a heartfelt and very funny memoir ('Things Can Only Get Better'), O'Farrell's first novel ('The Best A Man Can Get') was extremely enjoyable and cleverer than it initially appeared. He followed this with a similar second novel ('This is Your Life') and a couple of collections of his newspaper columns. Now, just as Nick Hornby did in 'How to be Good', John O'Farrell has written a novel where the first person narrator is female. 'May Contain Nuts' is the cutting edge tale of rich families in Chelsea desperate to get their children into a good school. He has lots of fun at the expense of four-wheel-drives, private tutors etc but I found it a bit predictable and I wasn't really convinced by O'Farrell as a woman.
Labels: Books
'Leading the Cheers' by Justin Cartwright
17 January 2008
Having enjoyed reading 'The Promise of Happiness' by Justin Cartwright (reviewed here a couple of weeks ago) I was looking forward to trying his earlier novel (and winner of the Whitbread Novel Award) 'Leading the Cheers'. It's quite a different book, however, and I'm afraid it didn't engage me as much as 'The Promise of Happiness'. In 'Leading the Cheers' a middle-aged returns from London to his high school reunion in Michigan where he discovers that his clear recollections of his childhood are not as accurate as he thought. The search for the truth about misremembered events is complicated by the unreliable memories of each of the protagonists - one of whom is now too busy remembering his previous life as a member of a Native American tribe. I liked the idea that "life is like one of those old masters which reveal something more interesting underneath when they are cleaned or x-rayed." Although the book is very well written, because it is in the first person and I didn't find the narrator sympathetic or even particularly likeable I found it hard to get into it. Set against the backdrop of the Clinton/Dole presidential election there are repeated references to the controversial euthanasia proponent Jack Kevorkian, serial killers and Ralph Waldo Emerson - but I couldn't really see the connections that I think were being suggested. Having said all that, once I got going it was an interesting read with some nice plot twists - but overall I felt like I was floating disinterestedly through the book - much like its narrator!
Labels: Books
'10.0' by Berrogüetto
10 January 2008
I've been enjoying '10.0' - the CD by Galician folk/pop group Berrogüetto. Accordion and fiddle makes their tunes sound like Celtic or Scandinavian folk while harsh Spanish consonants give the songs a little extra bite. Some tracks have a more Eastern European feel and there is also a hint of Gypsy jazz (a la Hot Club de France). This mix reminded me of the Canadian folk group from Vancouver, The Bills (reviewed here in May 2006). Despite the complexity Berrogüetto is easy listening - joyous music.
Labels: Albums, Music
‘The Snow Queen’ By Neil Duffield
4 January 2008
Last night we were at The Stables in Wavendon to see their Christmas show for children ‘The Snow Queen’, adapted by Neil Duffield from the story by Hans Christian Andersen. This was the second annual collaboration between The Stables and the Watermill Theatre in Newbury. It was a high quality production with clever use of set, costume and live music. There was a great sense of pace (particularly in the second half) and some genuinely scary moments. Nice to see straight drama for children among the plethora of pantomimes.
Labels: Theatre
'The Night Watch' by Sarah Waters
4 January 2008
I raced through the 480 pages of Sarah Waters' novel 'The Night Watch' during the Christmas break. It's a gripping romantic thriller set in wartime London which follows the fortunes of four characters whose lives cross in a variety of ways. But 'The Night Watch' varies from most tales of London in the Blitz in two ways. Firstly, if you've encountered Waters' earlier novels 'Tipping the Velvet' and 'Fingersmith', it won't surprise you that the majority of the relationships described here are all-female. Secondly, the narrative of 'The Night Watch' happens in reverse: the book is divided into three sections, the first of which is set in 1947, the second in 1944 and the final pages in 1941. This gives the novel a peculiar fascination as you gradually unravel how the characters arrived at where you first find them. I'm not giving anything away (as it happens at the start of the book!) by telling you that all four main characters survive the war but no-one gets a particularly happy ending. I found it a thrilling puzzle of a book, albeit with a very bleak, sad outlook.
Labels: Books
'A Christmas Carol - Ikrismas Kherol' adapted and directed by Mark Dornford-May
4 January 2008
Between Christmas and New Year we headed into London to the Young Vic theatre to see Mark Dornford-May's adaptation of Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol' performed by his company of young black performers from Khayelitsha, South Africa. It was a great spectacle with a cast of 30, some great acting, wonderful singing, lovely stagecraft and amazing dancing. Shifting the story to a South African township worked effectively to highlight how little we have progressed in the last 150 years in terms of 'ignorance' and 'want'. I liked the parallel between the mine of Northern England where the conditions he encountered inspired Dickens to write 'A Christmas Carol' and the South African diamond mine scenes at the start of the play. I thought the back-projected film in the 'Christmas past' section was a little over-used and, at times, the hustle and bustle of the action obscured some of the dialogue. But it was an enjoyable and inspiring production and I was bowled over by the fantastic choreography (by Lungelo Ngamlana).
Labels: Musicals, Theatre
'The Promise of Happiness' by Justin Cartwright
3 January 2008
I hadn't heard of Justin Cartwright until I was given a copy of his novel 'The Promise of Happiness' though he has quite a few books and several literary prizes and nominations to his name. I really enjoyed 'The Promise of Happiness' - a study of modern family life which bears comparison to 'The Corrections' by Jonathan Franzen. As with 'The Corrections' the story unfolds, in turn, through the eyes of two elderly parents and their three grown-up children as they move towards a family gathering. In Cartwright's book the narrative leads to a reunion in Cornwall after the elder daughter is released from an American prison. The alternating narrative viewpoints maintain the momentum and manage to elicit your simultaneous sympathy for several opposing points of view. Recommended.
Labels: Books
'The Golden Compass'
3 January 2008
I am a big fan of Philip Pullman's 'His Dark Materials' novels and was thrilled by the wonderful National Theatre adaptation a few years ago so I was both eagerly anticipating the film version and worrying that it might not live up to my expectations. I enjoyed 'The Golden Compass': excellent casting (Nicole Kidman perfect as Mrs Coulter and there aren't many films where you get Ian McKellen, Christopher Lee, Derek Jacobi and Tom Courtenay for your money), amazing special effects (particularly the daemons) and, after a slightly slow start, a thrilling sense of adventure. But I was disappointed when the film ended before the climax of the first book. 'Northern Lights' has an absolutely stunning finish - devastatingly tragic and amazingly exciting - which leaves you desperate for the second novel. In the National Theatre production the first of the two plays finished at this point leaving audience jaws dropping. In contrast the film disappointingly petered out. Having said that, until then it was well done and I am looking forward to the sequel.
Labels: Film
'Gould's Book of Fish' by Richard Flanagan
2 January 2008
David Lack introduced me to 'Gould's Book of Fish - a novel in twelve fish' by Richard Flanagan. It's an incredibly clever book. William Buelow Gould was a real convict transported to Van Dieman's Land in 1828. Flanagan fictionalises Gould's story, giving us a gritty realist picture of an early Tasmanian prison colony - a horrible, brutal place - 'Papillon' relocated off the coast of Australia. But despite the detailed realism nothing is quite what it seems. Firstly the book is set within a framing device in which a modern-day Tasmanian forger discovers and becomes obsessed by Gould's memoirs (written in the margins of his book of fish paintings) but then loses the book and decides to re-write it from memory. So what we are reading is his half-remembered version of what Gould might have written - giving Flanagan license to take the story very gradually, subtly and incrementally into increasingly surreal territory. (This re-telling by a fictional author within a novel reminded me of Philip Roth's 'American Pastoral'.) All of which was very impressive but I'm afraid it didn't really engage me - I found the grotesque characters, violent events and oppressive conditions fairly hard-going and didn't really sympathise with anyone. I reluctantly struggled through most of the book only to encounter a great 'Usual Suspects' twist at the very end which almost made me want to go back and read the whole thing again - almost but not quite. For a much more engaging (and very funny) account of early Tasmanian history I would recommend Mathew Kneale's wonderful novel 'English Passengers'.
Labels: Books
