A year of living dangerously

Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe

 

In 1665 the plague swept through London, claiming over 97,000 lives. Daniel Defoe was just five at the time of the plague, but he later called on his own memories, as well as his writing experience, to create this vivid chronicle of the epidemic and its victims. ‘A Journal’ (1722) follows Defoe’s fictional narrator as he traces the devastating progress of the plague through the streets of London. Here we see a city transformed: some of its streets suspiciously empty, some – with crosses on their doors – overwhelmingly full of the sounds and smells of human suffering. And every living citizen he meets has a horrifying story that demands to be heard.

 

A frighteningly topical read as it turns out. It’s a striking collection of tales which does feel horribly relevant to today’s pandemic-impacted world. Grim in places and heart-warming in parts, perhaps the most resonant aspect is the frequent reluctance of people to follow the rules, no matter how important or sensible they are.

Worth a read but perhaps not just as your locale enters Tier 3.

Episode 21: From the Civil Service to Sheffield Hallam, avoiding us and them and moving out of the covid crisis to address the civic challenge for our universities

War of the world

V2 by Robert Harris

 

Rudi Graf used to dream of sending a rocket to the moon. Instead, he has helped create the world’s most sophisticated weapon: the V2 ballistic missile, capable of delivering a one-ton warhead at three times the speed of sound.

In a desperate gamble to avoid defeat in the winter of 1944, Hitler orders ten thousand to be built. Haunted and disillusioned, Graf – who understands the volatile, deadly machine better than anyone – is tasked with firing these lethal ‘vengeance weapons’ at London.

Kay Caton-Walsh is an officer in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, and a survivor of a V2 strike. As the rockets devastate London, she joins a unit of WAAFs on a mission to newly liberated Belgium. Armed with little more than a slide rule and a few equations, Kay and her colleagues will attempt to locate and destroy the launch sites.

But at this stage in the war it’s hard to know who, if anyone, you can trust. As the death toll soars, Graf and Kay fight their grim, invisible war – until one final explosion of violence causes their destinies to collide.

Another terrific tale from Robert Harris which captures the full grim horror of the final phase of World War II from both sides. The awful background of the V2 programme development and its delivery are presented in detail in tandem with the stories of the women who tried to work out mathematically how to help bring the rockets down. It offers a different angle on the V2 story which was new to me and was also occasionally a reminder of elements of Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbowwhich I read and really didn’t enjoy a long time ago.

It’s thoroughly gripping as you’d expect from Harris and a real rocket-fuelled page turner. Highly recommended.

Tales from near the river bank

Tales of Muffled Oars by Magnus Mills

 

 

‘England is a naturally peaceful country,’ said Macaulay. ‘The sporadic outbreaks of violence, conspiracy, jealousy and greed are mere interludes in a long and peaceful history. Peace, however, leaves no evidence behind. There are no scarred battlefields, no sunken ships and no ruined castles to show where peace has been. Oh, we may find a few surviving documents lying in the archives that record the time and place when peace was declared, but there remains no trace of the peace itself. Peace can be elusive; it has a tendency to slip away at the slightest disturbance, but peace is always somewhere in the background, waiting to reappear.’ Macaulay paused and glanced around him. ‘Shall I continue?’ he asked. ‘Please do,’ said Swift. ‘We’re all ears.’

In summary, Macaulay, Swift and Hogarth talk history in a pub but miss out the nasty bits. It causes some problems for the locals. No-one really questions what they are doing there.

Yes, it’s a classic and perplexing Magnus Mills yarn, perfectly poised and skilfully written. Drily amusing and utterly deadpan it is unmistakable Mills. A delight as ever.

 

Going postal

The Post Office Girl by Stefan Zweig

Christine toils in a provincial post office in Austria just after World War One, a country gripped by unemployment. Out of the blue, a telegram arrives from her rich American aunt inviting Christine to a resort in the Swiss Alps. Immediately she is swept up into a world of inconceivable wealth and unleashed desire. She feels herself utterly transformed: nothing is impossible. But then, abruptly, her aunt cuts her loose and Christine is forced to return to the Post office where nothing will ever be the same.

It really is a striking novel which apparently was written when Zweig was driven into exile by the Nazis and was later discovered among his papers after his suicide in 1942.

As the blurb has it we are in Cinderella meets Bonnie and Clyde territory here, rags to riches and back again, demonstrating the huge range of economic inequality at the time. It remains a genuinely humane, moving and poignant tale though.

Short stories ‘n that

Here We F**king Go by Chris McQueer

Here We F**king Go (HWFG) is the much-anticipated follow up to Chris McQueer’s hilarious, award-winning debut short story collection Hings. In HWFG…

Your fave Sammy gets a job and Angie goes to Craig Tara.
Plans are made to kick the f*ck out of Kim Jong-Un.
You’ll find answers to the big questions in life:

What happens when we die?
What does Brexit actually mean?
Why are moths terrifying?
What are ghosts like to live with?

It’s just a load more short stories ‘n that.

 

There is an entertaining set of stories in here, the titles of which give you a real flavour of the offer. The pieces include: Big Angie Goes to Craig Tara, Brexit, Santa, Extreme Polls, Sammy Gets a Job, The Biggest Riddy, The Deep, Sammy the Crime Scene Cleaner, Afterlife, Under Surveillance, Snails, Interview with the Shoe Guy, Sammy’s First Acid Trip, Leathered. Most of them are smart and funny and some extremely so. There’s a real playfulness and insight into contemporary life here which I like and some stand out stories, the most notable of which is the plan for the fight with Kim Jong-Un, really are excellent. Worth a go