Comfort Reading

One of the books I have most enjoyed is " A Gentleman in Moscow" by Amor Towles. In many ways it could be considered an ideal book for our times. It tells the story of Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov who is placed under house arrest inside the Metropole Hotel in Moscow by the Bolsheviks, chiefly because he is an aristocrat. He remains in the hotel for many years, and is told if he should venture out he will be shot.

I realise that doesn't sound promising, but what follows is a charming story with believable characters and leaving them behind was a real wrench as I reluctantly came to the end of the book.

I was reminded of this novel because in recent days it has been mentioned several times by well known people as one of their favourite choices. Yesterday it was Antonio Pappano the music director of the Royal Opera House. I attended an insight morning at the Royal Opera House, during which Antonio led the orchestra in a rehearsal session, it was an enlightening morning and I thought he was very empathetic towards the musicians.

This is a comment from Sue Owen, one of our committee members. She is experiencing some technical problems at the moment so I have copied and pasted her comments. Many thanks Sue

Cold Comfort Farm 

I was interested to read the comments about Cold Comfort Farm as having finished Emma it was that very book l took off the shelf. As I read the first couple of chapters  began to wonder why I remembered it as such a funny and entertaining read but as soon as Flora arrived at the farm it took off and fulfilled its promise.  Great fun! 

Sitting next to it on the shelf was 'Love in a Cold Climate ' by Nancy Mitford. I might try that next.

In a comment earlier this month I mentioned Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons, I was encouraged to see that one of the writers in the Daily Telegraph also mentioned the novel as one which she re -read every year.

Some years ago I organised a book group, it lasted for ten years which I thought was quite an achievement as all the members were working at the time. One of the most important tasks was deciding which book to choose for our monthly meeting. This was done as democratically as possible with each of us making a suggestion and then voting. We would do this every few months so we knew which books we would be reading in advance.

Cold Comfort Farm was enjoyed by all, but quite often a choice would cause much differing of opinions, which would also make for an entertaining evening as we put our points across with much earnestness.

If it's War and Peace or perhaps Dicken's Our Mutual Friend you have a mammoth task ahead of you. Thank-you for your post, keep them coming.

In the Telegraph today it appears that the content of ministers' bookshelves as they are interviewed at home is creating much interest.

Of course, as the resident philistine of our committee I did manage to get some books in before all this mayhem, but I haven’t had time to finish colouring them in yet....

I am reading Tombland by C J Sansom the latest in the series of novels about the lawyer Matthew Shardlake. Set in Tudor times the books are about the life of Matthew Shardlake as he becomes involved in the politics of the period and with royalty. The historical detail is excellent. In a previous book Shardlake watches the Mary Rose go down. In this book the historical emphasis is on the unrest as Lords of the Manor begin enclosing common land for their sheep. I remember learning about this in history lessons at school. It must certainly have made an impression as my school days are many years ago!

I've been reading White Heat by Dominic Sandbrook, a history of Britain in the Swinging Sixties. I wanted to read it as it has always seemed to me that the sixties passed me by. I was too busy taking exams and training to be a teacher to follow politics or even hippy trends. The Beatles did not pass me by however and Dominic writes well on their developing popularity, success and reasons why they broke up as a group.