'Death at the Sign of the Rook' by Kate Atkinson
17 October 2024
It's been five years since Kate Atkinson's last Jackson Brodie novel ('Big Sky', reviewed here in July 2019) and I had forgotten how brilliantly entertaining these light-touch crime stories are. 'Death at the Sign of the Rook', the sixth novel in the Jackson Brodie series (which I've just finished reading as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Jason Isaacs) is a mischievously metatextual homage to the classic country house murder mystery. Kate Atkinson effectively inserts Jackson Brodie into an Agatha Christie plot, complete with a dowager marchioness, a local vicar and a butler. Brodie finds himself a participant in a murder mystery game being staged in the present day in a stately home - but it feels like he has stepped back in time to the age of a very different kind of detective. It's an incredibly enjoyable comic novel in which even the most clichéd characters are carefully and believably drawn. And Kate Atkinson's usual technique of alternating points of view to build a plot which none of the participants fully understand proves particularly entertaining and effective. Although there are references to the earlier books in the series 'Death at the Sign of the Rook' is a self-contained story which would be enjoyable whether or not you have read the other Jackson Brodie novels.
Labels: Books
'Tom Lake' by Ann Patchett
17 October 2024
I’ve never seen Thornton Wilder’s play ‘Our Town’ but I was aware of its ubiquitous status among repertory and community theatre groups across the USA. Ann Patchett’s latest novel ‘Tom Lake’ focuses on a production of ‘Our Town’ in which the actors seem increasingly confused with their characters. I was looking forward to ‘Tom Lake’, having enjoyed Patchett’s earlier books 'Bel Canto' (reviewed here in December 2023), 'State of Wonder' (reviewed here in January 2024) and ‘Run’ (reviewed here in June 2024). Not content with its allusions to ‘Our Town’, ‘Tom Lake’ features three sisters marooned with their parents, during the Covid-19 pandemic, in the family cherry orchard - creating a number of Chekhovian references. Ann Patchett uses lockdown as the excuse for a clever narrative structure in which Lara is finally telling her grown-up daughters the full story of her brief acting career and her relationship with a man who would go on to become a famous movie star. All of this happened before Lara married the girls’ father but, as in any family, the children have probably been told some of the story at an age when they didn’t fully understand or remember it. Their enforced family time during lockdown finally provides the opportunity to unpick the details of their mother’s youth - or as much as she decides to reveal to them. It’s a beautifully written and meticulously constructed novel, with its revelations carefully timed.
Labels: Books
Tuscany
17 October 2024
We had a wonderful holiday in Tuscany last week, visiting Florence, San Gimignano, Volterra, Siena and Lucca. In Florence we visited the Uffizi Gallery and the Bargello Museum, immersing ourselves in works from Giotto to the Renaissance giants Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael. Bizarrely, by contrast, in Volterra we came across an excellent exhibition of works by Banksy ('Realismo Capitalista'), at the Centro Studi Espositivo, which was really interesting. We loved the Tuscan hill towns of San Gimignano and Volterra - imposing small walled cities, with high buildings lining both sides of the paved pedestrianised roads within the city walls. San Gimignano is known as the Medieval Manhattan for its amazing skyline of high towers. The main square in Siena - Piazza del Campo - is a stunning sight: the setting for the annual Palio di Siena horse race is a huge, sloping expanse of paved tiles in diagonal slices fanning out from the Palazzo Publicco (city hall) towards a crescent of high balconied buildings. And in Lucca we walked right around the city walls - really a large fortified grassy mound rather than a wall, with a broad tarmac road along the top, encased by pretty avenues of plane trees. It was a lovely sunny autumnal day with the leaves drifting down onto the walls and lots of people walking or cycling around the perimeter of the old town.
Labels: Exhibitions, Holidays
'Empire' podcast: 'America: The Empire of Liberty'
3 October 2024
After a bit of a break, I've recently returned to listening to the excellent Empire podcast hosted by Anita Anand and William Dalrymple (originally reviewed here in January 2023). In particular, I've been listening to the series about America, which started with episode 148 (May 2024). The episodes on the Founding Fathers, George Washington, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin et al. and the American Revolution were very engaging, connecting me back to the excellent 2008 TV miniseries 'John Adams' starring Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney.
But it's the exploration of the Native American populations that covered the continent prior to the arrival of the Europeans in the 1500s that have been truly fascinating. Before European contact, Native American cultures in North America were highly diverse. I hadn't realised their degree of urbanisation. Around the year 1000 CE, Cahokia in present-day Illinois was a central city with a population of over 10,000 people. Part of a larger civilisation that included many satellite cities, Cahokia's central plaza was the size of 30 football fields, surrounded by large flat-topped pyramids used for religious and political purposes. Similar large-scale urban centres existed throughout North America, challenging the traditional narrative of Native Americans living solely in small scattered settlements. Francis Spufford's novel ‘Cahokia Jazz’ (reviewed here in February 2024) constructs a parallel universe in which the city of Cahokia is still going strong in the 1920s, dominated by a First Nations people who are led by a hereditary monarchy and have embraced a version of European Catholicism. In reality many of these Native American cities were abandoned by the 1500s, with populations living in more spread-out communities.
Contrary to the common portrayal of Native Americans as one monolithic group, there were hundreds of distinct nations across North America, each with its own customs, languages, political structures and territories. The notion of an empty continent ripe for the taking by the Europeans is now completely refuted. And the treatment of Native Americans by the United States government was often brutal and genocidal. The Indian Removal Act of 1830, which forced the relocation of tribes along the 'Trail of Tears', dispossessed Native Americans of their lands through horrific extermination campaigns including the use of poison. Chillingly, this policy of Indian removal in the 19th century influenced ethnic cleansing in other parts of the world, from Russia to German South West Africa to Nazi Germany. Russian officers in the Caucasus region in the 1840s saw the forced expulsion of Native Americans as a model for their own treatment of the Circassian people, one governor reportedly telling an American visitor that "Circassians are just like your American Indians" shortly before Russia deported 500,000 people. Even Adolf Hitler drew upon the American example when justifying the Nazi conquest of Eastern Europe, equating indigenous inhabitants with Indians and declaring that the Volga River would be their Mississippi, echoing the displacement of Native Americans from their lands.
The podcast format is very engaging, particularly the episodes with a guest historian, an expert in the relevant topic, to be quizzed by the hosts. I especially enjoyed the episode with Kathleen Duval discussing her book ‘Native Nations, a Millennium in North America’. The Empire podcast continues to be a rich source of fascinating, vibrant and relevant history, making me want to rush off and read all the books on the topic that they mention. All episodes of ‘Empire’ are available to download at: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/empire/id1639561921
Labels: Radio
Bagedai
27 September 2024
Bagedai are a band from the Chinese province of Yunnan who blend traditional Wa music with reggae, creating accessible but intriguingly different rock music featuring five powerful female singers backed by electric guitars and drums alongside traditional Chinese instruments. Their self-titled debut album manages to sound both surprising and familiar - eerie and upbeat. Listen at: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nSEgjqTSv6xIZ6KNJDhj__gojqlAeU2CE
Labels: Albums, Music
Charles Ives' 150th anniversary
20 September 2024
Having spent most of my working life in endless discussions about the value, relevance and definitions of ‘amateur’ and ‘professional’, I have long had a soft spot for the composer Charles Ives. Ives (1874-1954) was a symphonist, a prolific writer of songs and an innovative modernist whose departure from traditional tonal harmony echoed his contemporary Arnold Schoenberg. Ives’ works also managed to incorporate elements of American folk music, jazz, and marching band music. He is now regarded as the most important American composer of his generation - admired by Gustav Mahler and championed by Leonard Bernstein. But Charles Ives was most definitely an amateur composer, continuing his day job as an insurance broker while composing at the weekends - not for financial necessity but because he was very good at insurance brokering and chose to keep music as his hobby. As we approach Ives’ 150th anniversary (on 20 October) I have been reading a lot about him and listening again to his symphonies (I would recommend Gustavo Dudamel’s 2020 recording of the Complete Symphonies with the Los Angeles Philharmonic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbmjAg00BzE&list=PLEhQ5Ooc2lLrR9KGN26CYBwF0fz_fACld). And this episode of BBC Radio 3’s ‘The Listening Service’ from June 2023 provides a great introduction to ‘All American Ives’: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001n25z
Labels: Albums, Music, Radio
‘Come As You Really Are’ by Hetain Patel
13 September 2024
This week I visited ‘Come As You Really Are’, Hetain Patel's exhibition as part of the ArtAngel project ‘The Hobby Cave’, in which Creative Lives is a partner. Located in Grant's, a former department store in Croydon, this celebration of the nation's hobbies is a miraculous treasure trove of the bizarre, inspiring, heart-warming, nostalgic and peculiar. Although there's plenty of craft and art on display, the exhibition seems dominated by collections, exploring the creative act of curation, from a case containing Kit Kat branded merchandise to a full wall display of vintage plastic carrier bags to a slightly creepy small room packed with My Little Pony toys.
This is a strange and wondrous array of how people choose to spend their spare time and their creative energy. The exhibition is beautifully displayed and arranged. It makes you feel like you're following a weird treasure-hunt trail through a darkened forest or exploring Willy Wonka's abandoned chocolate factory. Indeed, there's one glass case full of pebbles painted to resemble classic chocolate bars.
It's an exhibition you could return to many times: there are so many tiny hidden delights in each corner. But it's a very idiosyncratic, slightly unnerving experience, like walking through somebody else's dream. Hetain Patel is remarkably respectful, and clearly enthralled by, the pieces contributed by people from across the UK, never ridiculing or mocking and presenting every endeavour with equal prominence. It was great to see so many people wandering around the free exhibition. Everyone we spoke to thought it was wonderful: it was all smiles and gasps of excitement. ‘Come As You Really Are’ is a unique and amazing experience, hard to do justice to in words. Bizarre, impressive, life-affirming and joyous. The exhibition is in Croydon until 20 October and you can book free tickets at: https://artangel.org.uk/project/come-as-you-really-are/
Labels: Exhibitions, VisualArt
'Hello Dolly' by Jerry Herman and Michael Stewart
13 September 2024
Last Saturday we were at the London Palladium to see ‘Hello Dolly’ starring Imelda Staunton. Jerry Herman’s 1964 musical is one I'm not at all familiar with: I had not previously seen it, nor the 1969 film with Barbara Streisand. And I think the only song I knew was the title track. It's a really enjoyable old-fashioned screwball comedy musical, genuinely funny and a great showpiece with a brilliant headlining role for the eponymous matchmaker. Based on Thornton Wilder's 1938 farce ‘The Merchant of Yonkers’ (later revised by Wilder as ‘The Matchmaker’, it tells the story of a New York widow Dolly Levi who mischievously engineers unions between unsuspecting eligible suitors while beginning to look for a later-in-life profitable union for herself. This production, directed by Dominic Cooke, who also directed Imelda Staunton in the great National Theatre production of Follies, reviewed here in November 2017), is a joyous celebration of song and dance on the big Palladium stage. Rae Smith’s set, featuring a moving sidewalk along which the characters process, as well as full-size trolleybuses and trains, is lots of fun. There is a large cast and brilliant choreography by Bill Deamer. Andy Nyman is great as the grumpy businessman at the heart of the matchmaking intrigue, and Jenna Russell, Tyrone Huntley and Harry Hepple also impress with Emily Langham stealing most of her scenes with her comically miserable sobbing. But this is Imelda Staunton's show and she is magnificent. Her rapturous reception and genuine standing ovation showed a true warmth from the packed audience for the musical leading lady who can't put a foot wrong.
Labels: Musicals, Theatre
'Sunrise Orchestral Suite' by Ida Moberg
6 September 2024
This week I've been very much enjoying listening to the music of Ida Moberg, a Finnish composer (1859-1947), who was a direct contemporary of Jean Sibelius (1865-1957), but was a new discovery for me. Like many female composers of the period her music remains largely unknown and underappreciated. Moberg studied composition at the Orchestra School of the Helsinki Philharmonic Society where her teachers included Sibelius. She became particularly interested in understanding music through movement. I've been listening to her 'Sunrise Orchestral Suite', a beautiful four-movement piece which builds from the gentle strings of the sunrise, through the activity of the day, to the evening and finishing in stillness. You can listen to the lovely 'Sunrise Orchestral Suite' at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-8xrak2p_E&list=OLAK5uy_nuS5_Y-zZpC_WQmLnBO01zuhvY-hj-6k8&index=5
Labels: Albums, Music
Edinburgh Festivals 2024
29 August 2024
Our visit to the Edinburgh Festivals last week was the 30th anniversary of our first trip there in 1994. We haven't been every year but I think we've now done the festivals at least 20 times. As always, our 2024 visit was brilliant and exhausting: we saw 22 shows in four and a half days in a total of 17 different venues. In the Edinburgh International Festival we were at the Usher Hall to see the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra (who we last saw in Edinburgh in 2016, reviewed here in September 2016) conducted by Thierry Fischer, playing the Alpine Symphony by Richard Strauss. This was the first time I've seen a performance of the symphony since I played it with the Northampton Symphony Orchestra in 2019 (reviewed here in June 2019). We also went to the opening night of 'Assembly Hall' at the Festival Theatre - an intriguing mixture of drama and dance performed by the Kidd Pivot company, directed and choreographed by Crystal Pite and written by Jonathon Young. 'Assembly Hall' shows a group of medieval battle re-enactors gathering for their Annual General Meeting in a crumbling community hall. As the group start to argue about whether to disband or continue, the argument morphs into a vicious battle, complete with swords and armour. It's a peculiar, beautiful, funny and puzzling piece of theatre, with the dancers syncing exaggerated movement to the recorded dialogue to indicate which character is speaking. Crystal Pite uses the dancers to create some stunning tableaux and mesmerising effects but we found it difficult to completely follow what was going on. We really enjoyed another chance to see the philosopher Julian Baggini at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, this time speaking about his new book 'How the World Eats: A Global Food Philosophy'. In the Edinburgh Festival Fringe our favourite shows included 'Nation' written and performed by Sam Ward - a clever and disturbing tale about a town gripped by fear and hatred, which reminded us of the unsettling theatre made by Tim Crouch (such as 'The Author', reviewed here in September 2010). We also loved 'Same Team' by Robbie Gordon and Jack Nurse at the Traverse Theatre - a funny, moving and inspiring play about a women's football team from Scotland playing in the Homeless World Cup which was told by five actors in a style reminiscent of John Godber's plays for the Hull Truck Theatre company (such as 'Teechers', reviewed here in September 2010). And once again I am grateful to Kelly for her brilliant Fringe recommendations which included the wonderful 'Sawdust Symphony' a bizarre but strangely beautiful circus piece from Germany that was essentially live woodwork - the sort of thing you could only see at the Edinburgh Fringe. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uThKVDvZqCY
Labels: Books, Concerts, Dance, Drama, Festivals, Music, Theatre
