'Pigs in Heaven' by Barbara Kingsolver

2 April

Having loved Barbara Kingsolver's 1988 novel 'The Bean Trees' (reviewed here in June 2025), I was thrilled to discover that she had written a sequel. ‘Pigs in Heaven’ (published in 1993) shows us what has happened to Taylor and her adopted daughter Turtle three years after we left them settled in Tuscon. They are soon unsettled again and back in the car on an extended road trip as Barbara Kingsolver sensitively explores the implications of Turtle’s Cherokee heritage. She brilliantly constructs a seemingly impossible situation, managing to make the reader simultaneously sympathetic to characters with directly opposing points of view (like Andrea Levy in 'Small Island' (reviewed here in June 2019) or Jonathan Franzen in ‘The Corrections’ (reviewed here in February 2015)). But Barbara Kingsolver’s cast of quirky Dickensian characters are all charmingly likeable and you always feel they are going to find a heart-warming solution. 'Pigs in Heaven' is beautifully written and cleverly plotted. It explores the painful realities of working class life while creating a life-affirming story.

Vienna

2 April 2026

We had a lovely time in Vienna last week, visiting the Schonbrunn Palace - the summer residence of the Hapsburgs - where we walked through the room where the six year old Mozart first performed for the Empress. We enjoyed the Gustav Klimt collection at the Belvedere Palace and walked through the Prater amusement park to see the famous Ferris wheel. We went to the Musikverein to see a great concert by The Orchestral Association of the Society of Friends of Music - Vienna's oldest amateur orchestra (founded in 1859 - 11 years before the Musikverein opened). We also visited the stunning Kunsthistoriches Museum and the Albertina - a lovely art gallery within a beautiful Hapsburg palace. We had a day trip to Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, where the Old Town is very pretty, with pastel coloured buildings and open squares. We also went by train to the small town of Melk (population 2,000), set on the banks of the Danube in Lower Austria, which is dominated by the dramatic, imposing and enormous Benedictine Monastery, Sift Melk, which sits on a rock, high above the town. Back in Vienna we managed to get cheap standing tickets for the Vienna State Opera where we saw 'The Bartered Bride'. We were in the ground floor standing area at the back of the stalls with a surprisingly good view. It was great to see the inside of the opera house and to see the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. You can see a few of my holiday photos here. 

'Songs of Stolen Children' by Daughters of Donbas

20 March 2026

Daughters of Donbas is a music and human rights project highlighting the stories of children who have been abducted from occupied regions in eastern Ukraine and taken to Russia. Led by the Ukrainian-Canadian singer Marichka, the Daughters of Donas debut album 'Songs of Stolen Children' is a beautiful, engaging and varied collection influenced by Ukrainian folk traditions, indie pop, jazz and tango. Haunting acapella female vocal harmonies are accompanied by a string quartet and traditional Ukrainian instruments including bandura and okaryna. The vocal harmonies reminded me of a range of other Eastern European folk-influenced music, including the Warsaw Village Band (reviewed here in September 2008) and the Eva Quartet from Bulgaria (reviewed here in February 2014). You can listen to the opening track of the Daughters of Donbas album at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrWmPhH3VWk  

'The Ministry of Time' by Kaliane Bradley

13 March 2026

‘The Ministry of Time’ by Kaliane Bradley (which I've just finished reading as an unabridged audio book narrated by Katie Leung and George Weightman) is a very clever and engaging time travel story that contemplates what it would be like in practical reality to have travelled from a different time. It is set in London in the near future, when time travel has become a possibility. The Ministry has decided to experiment cautiously by bringing individuals from history through a time portal to the present day, carefully choosing people known from historical records to be about to die, so as to avoid any consequences for the timeline from their removal from the past. One of those chosen, Commander Graham Gore, was a sailor on the ill-fated Franklin expedition to discover the Northwest Passage in 1845 - the story of which was familiar to me from the 2018 TV series, 'The Terror', which told the remarkable story of the two ships Erebus and Terror trapped in the ice in the Arctic for several years. The bulk of Kaliane Bradley's book explores how Commander Gore and his fellow 'ex-pats' from different moments in history would cope assimilating into 21st century Britain with the help of their Bridges - individuals from the Ministry assigned to look after them and induct them into modern life. It's a fascinating and beautifully written description of what it might really be like to be placed out of time. Graham Gore's Bridge is the unnamed narrator, a young British Cambodian woman whose job is to introduce the 19th century sailor to modern technology and sensibilities. It's a beautifully drawn, funny and moving odd-couple romance, which kept my attention throughout. But I always felt there must be something more to the plot, expecting further twists resulting from the availability of time travel. And when these twists did arrive they were very effective, genuinely surprising me. But they came very late in the narrative, with the final chapters feeling like a sudden avalanche of exposition that was quite hard to take in. Nevertheless the Ministry of Time is a fascinating and unusual science fiction story exploring serious and adult themes with the time travellers acting as an analogy for immigration, integration and colonialism. It's a brilliant first novel by Bradley and I look forward to seeing what she writes next. 

Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert

3 March 2026

Our Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert at Spinney Theatre last Saturday featured four pieces by American composers, all written in the 1930s and 1940s, celebrating The Jazz Age and The Golden Age of Hollywood. We opened the concert with Aaron Copland's 'Quiet City' - a remarkable piece for string orchestra with solo parts for trumpet and cor anglais, brilliantly played by NSO members Terry Mayo and Harriet Brown. William Grant Still's 'Symphony No 1: Afro American' was the first symphony by an African American composer to be performed by a major orchestra ion the USA (in 1931). It's a lovely work which pairs up-beat jazz with achingly emotional blues-inspired melodies. I particularly loved the gorgeous slow opening of the final movement with its powerful descending bass line in the tuba. The composer Ferde Grofé is now best remembered as the orchestrator of 'Rhapsody in Blue' by George Gershwin and for his popular 'Grand Canyon Suite'. I hadn't previously encountered his suite '6 Pictures of Hollywood' and enjoyed discovering this comic peak backstage at the making of an imaginary 1930s film musical. Our finale was 'Porgy and Bess: A Symphonic Picture' - Robert Russell Bennett's medley of the classic songs from George Gershwin's folk opera. It's a great arrangement which revels in the wealth of Gershwin's melodies (including 'Summertime', 'Bess, You is My Woman Now', 'I Got Plenty of Nuttin' and 'It Ain't Necessarily So') and toys with the listener - three times sounding as if it has come to a conclusion, only to segue into yet another famous tune. For our celebration of American Voices the NSO was swelled by three harps, four saxophones, banjo and an impressive array of percussion. Our Conductor John Gibbons wonderfully slotted the many jigsaw pieces together on the day: in the concert I think all four pieces were the best we had performed them. But this concert belonged to Terry and Harriet - not only playing their beautiful solo parts in 'Quiet City' but appearing to dominate the rest of the programme too. Both the 'Afro-American Symphony' and 'Porgy and Bess' open with cor anglais solos (followed by a trumpet solo in the Gerswhin) and these and the Grofé feel like showpieces for the trumpets. This really was a fun concert and the cheer from the audience at the end of 'Porgy and Bess' felt well-deserved. 

'Willows' by Pekka Kuusisto, Sam Amidon and the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra

27 February 2026

Regular readers will know of my long-standing enthusiasm for all things Finnish, so I was immediately intrigued by the new album 'Willows' featuring the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra and the brilliant Finnish violinist and conductor, Pekka Kuusisto. This is, in part, a poignant reflection on grief and loss following the death of Pekka’s brother Jaakko in 2022. Ellen Reid’s 'Desiderium', a visceral howl for solo violin, is dedicated to him and is a deeply moving experience. The centrepiece of the album is Ralph Vaughan Williams’ 'The Lark Ascending'. When the Northampton Symphony Orchestra performed this delicate English work in 2013 (reviewed here in November 2013), I was struck by its aching poignancy. Kuusisto’s interpretation is fascinating: he describes his approach not as “deleting notes” but as “deleting ketchup”. By stripping away the lush romanticism often associated with the piece, he reveals its essential roots in the English folk tradition. The album also features Caroline Shaw’s 'Plan & Elevation', an orchestral version of her 2015 string quartet that maps out Washington DC’s Dumbarton Oaks estate. To close, Sam Amidon (who impressed me at the WOMAD Festival, reviewed her in August 2022) adds vocals, guitar, and banjo to six traditional American folk songs arranged by Nico Muhly. 'Willows' is a beautiful, compelling collection that blends classical and folk traditions. 

'The Rose Field' by Philip Pullman

18 February 2026

It's now more than 30 years since the publication of 'Northern Lights', Philip Pullman's first novel recounting the story of Lyra Silvertongue. We followed Lyra and her companions through the three novels of the 'His Dark Materials' trilogy, and now with 'The Rose Field' (which I've just finished reading as an unabridged audiobook, narrated by Michael Sheen), Pullman's second Lyra trilogy 'The Book of Dust' is complete. Following on directly from 'The Secret Commonwealth' (reviewed here in December 2019), 'The Rose Field' picks up Lyra's journey east across Europe in search of the Red Building and a doorway to another world. Where 'The Secret Commonwealth' felt like a Cold War spy thriller, 'The Rose Field' returns to more fantastical themes, introducing flying gryphons and other mythical creatures. I found it satisfying how many references there were back to the original three novels, bringing the story full circle. But I could have done with more recap of the events from 'The Secret Commonwealth'. There's so much in this final novel that the plot gets quite confusing at times. The characters, however, - particularly Lyra and Malcolm and their daemons, and the wonderful Abdel Ionides - are beautifully drawn, sympathetic and entertaining. And the audio book is worth listening to purely to hear how much fun Michael Sheen is having performing the dramatic events of Lyra's final chapters. If this is the last we see of Lyra, it's been an amazing 30-year journey. And I've enjoyed it all the way. 

'Hamlet' by Aneil Karia

12 February 2026

On Tuesday we were at Cineworld in Milton Keynes to see Aneil Karia's new film of 'Hamlet'. Set in contemporary London around a wealthy British Indian family, it's a clever take on Shakespeare's play - rooting it in the real world with very believable contemporary characters, but still using the Shakespearean text (albeit with much of the original play omitted and the cast thinned down to a few principal protagonists). Riz Ahmed is excellent as the Prince, a very realistic performance with him whispering his soliloquies as if genuinely speaking to himself. It's an interesting contrast with Robert Hastie's National Theatre 'Hamlet' that we saw recently (reviewed here in January 2026). Although we saw that production on screen at the cinema, it was clearly a theatrical production, and Hiran Abeysekera's Hamlet frequently broke the fourth wall to engage the audience directly. Here Riz Ahmed resists any temptation to look at the camera, very focused on his inner turmoil. And the close-up handheld camera shots show every twitch of his facial muscles revealing his thinking and agony. The rest of the cast are also very strong with Art Malik's Claudius the most Shakespearean sounding. Sheeba Chaddha as Gertrude, Timothy Spall as Polonius, Joe Alwyn as Laertes, and Morfydd Clark as Ophelia (who also takes some of the absent Horatio's lines) are all excellent. Cutting the play to focus on the main story and to compress the action into a suitable length for a film, writer Michael Lesslie has removed all the comic relief leaving this a very grim, dark version of 'Hamlet'. But it's a brutally realistic, thrilling tragedy. The scene in which Polonius is killed is viscerally shocking. This is a clever, gripping, dark, contemporary take on 'Hamlet'.