Last Train from Liguria

Hickey, C. W. (2010). Last Train from Liguria. London: Atlantic Books.


When one goes to a concert or a dance there is often an encore. The DANSA performance in the Institute Hall on Friday night had an encore. Dr Anne really enjoyed her Spring read this year so sent for an additional read. This read fitted in perfectly with the previous ones - 1930s in the lead up to the WW2 but with an Italian context. Dr Anne found this book bitty drifting between, Dublin, London, Italy and didn't quite hold her attention as the previous reads. The ends were all tied up but some things were left to Dr Anne's imagination. Is that good? Dr Anne awards 6/10.

Meanwhile the apple blossom pretty impressive 

Rain, rain go away, come again another day

Rain, rain go away, come again another day.

There is so much to do in the garden if only the sun came and stayed.

'Plough your own rut.'

The weather has been pretty wet and cold these last couple of weeks.  Sitting by the radiator has been very inviting.  The spring reads have been page turners.

Boyd, W. (1987). The New Confessions. London: Penguin Books.

This was quite a different read from the last two of Mr Boyd - Waiting for Sunrise and The Ordinary Thunderstorms. 

Friends of Dr Anne have just phoned to say that their house will go on the market in the next month.  They are moving to the Borders to be near their family.  There are grandchildren, children, health issues, age issues.  

The news links well with this story of John James Todd who moves around around Britain, Europe and on to America loving and living without much planning.  The book had its stirring moments:  the relationship with his father and brother was Victorian with Oonagh who looked after his early needs the one to lust after; WW1 experiences were vivid and explicit;  an obsession with Jean Jacques Rousseau; a successful career and a periods of poverty. When living and loving went sour one had to plough one's own rut...

Dr Anne awards 7/10.  It was a page turner which Dr Anne has been devouring these last few days but it doesn't match Waiting for Sunrise or the The Ordinary Thunderstorms.

Pilates

Dr Anne and Wendy Pilates met on Friday to draw up a fitness plan for the spring.  

Dr Anne loves when Wendy Pilates comes and they exercise together.  Dr Anne is not so good to practising between the sessions.  Between now and the end of June Dr Anne is going to increase her strength and balance fitness. Old age doesn't come itself so preventive measures must be made.   

Waiting for Sunrise

Boyd, W. (2012).Waiting for Sunrise. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.

There has been snow and rain this week making a visit to the garden impossible.  Dr Anne has been spring cleaning but needs to rest between activities with cups of coffee and Easter eggs. 

Waiting for Sunrise was an ideal way to spend these restful hours.  Dr Anne read A Good Man in Africa while on a visit to Africa many years ago. She read Stars and Bars on a trip to the USA.  Greygranite loaned the Ordinary Thunderstorms in 2010.  Waiting for Sunrise didn't quite rise to the level of Ordinary Thunderstorms with its variety of ongoing scenarios but... it was a great read.  Set in Vienna, London and Geneva all places visited by Dr Anne the context was great, the storyline was captivating, an actor playing an investigator offered all sorts of disguise and intrigue, strong women  - Hettie Bull, the selfish lover, Blanche Blondel the actress and love of his life, Florence Duchesne, the secret agent, Anna Faulkner, the mother who drowned herself to preserve her son, and three men from the ministry...

The read was worth a 8/10.

An African Love Story on a Snowy April Day

This book was a wonderful read on a snowy April day.  The garden was devastated by the fall of snow overnight.  The daffodils are flat.  Some of the blossom is off the pear tree.  The net of the fruit cage was lying desperately low when Dr Anne went up.  She shook it and the snow landed on her head and down her back.  

Sheldrick, D. (2012). An African Love Story. London: Penguin.

Dr Anne bought this book to accompany Frances Osborne's 'The Bolter' after seeing Daphne Sheldrick on the Book Programme.  

Dr Anne has no particular affinity with animals.  She had a cat called Toodles brought home as a kitten from Mrs Clark, the Station Hotel.  Dr Anne's mum was not happy saying animals were not for houses and should be kept in the barn or the byre.  At first Dr Anne's mum tried to give the cat to other people but she gave in eventually and Toodles stayed at East Neuk for 15 years.  Dr Anne remembers Toodles affectionately.  His favourite place was Dr Anne's dolls' bed next to the open fire.  He loved a nice bit of liver from Petrie the Butcher.  When Dr Anne went to Canada Toodles missed her and he sensed when she was due home. That day, he sat at the end of the pavement waiting for her to arrive back.  

This book was about elephants, rhinos, antelopes, warthogs etc etc orphaned and reared by Daphne and her family.  They slept in her bed, they stole off her table, they messed up her garden, they went out for walks together, they kissed her, they cuddled her.  It is a story about someone whose first love is the elephant then the rhino, quite a fascinating read but certainly not how Dr Anne would have wanted to do with her life.

This book also tells of the history of Kenya through the 20th century.  A wonderful read awarded  9/10.

The Sense of an Ending

Barnes, J. (2012). The Sense of an Ending. London: Vintage.

For Dr Anne Saturday was the beginning of her Easter Holidays for real.  She had danced her with her soul for what seemed like months, she had organised three fundraisers for the Institute Hall making over £1000 and managed an acclaimed Slammin' @ the Bothy with the support of eight schools, two nationally reknowned poets, a local poet and some friends.  She had gone to support the Portsoy Young Players in the afternoon and she was tired if not a little weary.  While she is presently reading Sheldrick's 'An African Love Story' she wanted a page turner to help her go into another world.  She picked up one her chosen spring reads  - The Sense on an Ending. This was recommended in last month's Saga Magazine but in this month's magazine recommended three times in an article about Bookshops across Britain.

Part One was read before she went for supper @ Dod's.  This put her back to her heady days of the late sixties and perhaps seventies, and she tried to remembered where her own her head and heart was then.  10/10.

Sunday arrived and of course the rain which has been missing for weeks and the wind would prevent her from going to the planned garden schedule.  She decided on Part Two of the book.  Huddled against the radiator it was read and absorbed.  Yes we will have regrets on things we have said or done.  Yes we might wish to have changed our actions. Yes, we might not 'get it' even 40 years on.

Dr Anne awards 9/10.  She never gives a 10.