A Spitfire, Some Grapes and a Folly

Today I decided to take my camera and walk a route I frequently run. It took me at least ten times longer to walk one stretch of path than it normally takes me to run it, owing to periods of 'stopping and staring' as well as stopping to take photos.

As I was strolling along contentedly, I suddenly heard an engine. An aircraft engine. Not just any old engine though - this was a Merlin engine. A Merlin has a completely distinctive sound. A Merlin means that something special is in the vicinity. So I rushed out from the hedges to where I could get a clear view and saw - a spitfire! It streaked across the sky in the distance while I struggled to get near it with the medium zoom on my camera, all the while thinking 'please come this way!' (as if you can somehow send a telepathic message to an aeroplane).

Telepathy or no, it shot across the valley right in front of me, made a wide turn and came roaring back, before doing a roll which caught the sun on it's wings, and then disappearing out of sight. The sound of that fabulous engine faded away and I was left peering at the screen on the back on my camera, trying to see if I'd managed to get a single reasonable shot. The pictures I got certainly aren't great technically, but they will remind me of the moment when an ordinary Sunday walk turned into something exciting.

I would've been just as thrilled to see a spitfire even if I'd left my camera at home. If I had been running as I usually would have been at that time on a Sunday, I would have stopped to watch it. Some things are just worth taking time to enjoy - even without a camera!

Feeling very cheerful, ok to be truthful feeling rather 'hyped up' and restraining the urge to jump about and yell in a rather childish manner, I continued on my walk. After taking several of the sorts of pictures I'd set out to take (such as the one shown left of the local Folly) I walked back along a road I must have run along hundreds of times. At the edge of this unexciting country lane came the second surprise of my walk.

I've often noticed the shrubs growing up and over the stone wall which runs alongside the lane. Today I noticed the fruit. Grapes? Really? Yes, grapes! It really is the case that less than half a mile from my house is a vine, with ripening grapes growing just above the pavement.

I would have said that photography has made me look at things more closely, but perhaps that isn't always the case... Note to self: 'Could do better'! It just goes to show that you may come back with some photos you didn't expect the next time you set off for a walk with your camera!

I nearly didn't do this morning's walk at all. Just one decision made differently, and I would have missed so much more than a few photographs.

Book Review: Choosing to SEE

There are some books I talk about because it's my job. There are some I talk about because they are wonderful books. This is one of the latter. (Though in fact it is also one of the former!)

In Choosing to SEE Mary Beth Chapman talks very frankly and openly about her life's path, and the ways in which things didn't go to plan, despite the way everything looked on the outside. Her family has had to walk through a Grand Canyon sized valley of the shadow of death. Yet this book is not depressing. Sad, yes, but often joyous too. Sometimes I laughed and cried reading the same page. I found the chapter covering the meeting with their first adopted daughter deeply moving, and the love which is shown there clearly binds the family together during the dark days following Maria's death.

Their faith is inspirational - not least because Mary Beth is very honest about asking the hard questions which many of us run up against. Hers is not a 'champagne lifestyle' faith, but one which has been shaped by hard work and hard knocks. All in all I can't recommend this book highly enough. It's the best biography I've read in ages and ages.

Read it. You won't regret it.

More information, including sample chapters and an author video can be found here.

Price: £7.99
ISBN: 9780800719920
Published by: Revell (Distributed by Lion Hudson)
Available through any good bookshop or online

Book Review: They Almost Always Come Home

When Libby's husband Greg doesn't return from a canoe trip to the Canadian wilderness, the authorities initially suspect that an unhappy husband has made his escape. Greg and Libby have been growing increasingly distant since the death of their daughter. An event for which Libby blames Greg.

His plans for his latest trip were not for fishing though, although he couldn't bring himself to tell his wife of his real plans. When he doesn't come home, Libby sets out to look for him, together with her best friend and her father-in-law. Along the way, she discovers all sorts of things about herself, her friends, her husband and her fragmented faith.

I sometimes find that I run out of steam (or interest) with Christian fiction stories, but this one kept me gripped all the way through. And as a photographer I really connected with Greg's dream! I did find the sudden shift to Greg's perspective such a long way in was a bit jarring, but at the same time it was good to 'hear' his viewpoint too.

Well-written and suspenseful (in a low-key sort of way), this is an involving story. I was reluctant to put it down. Recommended.

Price: £8.99
ISBN: 9781426702389
Published by: Abingdon Press (Distributed by Alban Books)
Available through any good bookshop or online

Is There a Letter You Wish You'd Written?

Today I paid a visit to my local library. I've not been for so long - working for a publisher means I'm rarely short of reading matter - that when I presented my card in order to borrow a book it was no longer recognised. However, I digress.

After browsing the shelves and selecting my book I noticed a table on which was a pile of local interest newspapers and magazines, and a slender book called 'The Letter I Wish I'd Written'. As I had some time, I sat down to read the opening letter in the book, and then read the second (which you can find on-line here: 'I wasn't really much of a dad..." It's well worth reading). And the third. And most of the others. They were fascinating, and thought provoking.

These letters were all written by people over 60, as if they were their younger selves. They started me wondering. Is there a letter I wish I'd written before it was too late? Am I in a situation now where I may think later on 'I wish I'd written a letter'? Are you? If so, maybe it's time to do some writing.

'Sensitively revised' or unnecessarily messed about with?

I've been collecting children's books from the 40s & 50s for years and am a big fan of storytelling for children both old and new. So when I hear that a good story written in the '40s, '50s or 60s is being re-published I think 'Hurrah'!

Then I read the dreaded words 'sensitively and carefully revised' and my heart sinks. This time it is Enid Blyton's The Famous Five series books which are being afflicted with this treatment, supposed to 'make them timeless and appealing to a generation of new readers... lifelong fans will be captivated'. (Hachette Children's Book 'Hachette Gazette'.) I hope they are right, but I think that 'lifelong fans' and 'new readers' are two very different groups when it comes to 'classic' books.

The main reason I don't believe revising old books works is that a book is written of its period. So a book set in the 40s or 50s is immersed in the feel of that time, not just the money and the types of vehicles used and so on. The way the characters act and interact and the 'tone' of their voices is all affected by the era in which their story is set. Therefore I believe it is almost impossible to update the 'old book' without having to materially affect the entire feel of the story too.

The charm of many well-loved classic books is precisely this period feel. It's the sense of place and time of a book. Which is more than simply its setting.

I fell over this business of 'updating' when I was still at school. At the time I was reading a series of books, and one of them had been 'updated'. I was well into the story when suddenly the characters were talking about modern money in a way which jarred substantially with the rest of the series. Furthermore, I discovered that a section of the book had been removed altogether for the 'new edition'! I remember feeling cheated, and going to hunt down a 'proper' copy which contained the whole story in a way which flowed.

The trouble with 'sensitive revisions' is that they often aren't. Changes are not merely minor alterations to the occasional word which might have changed its meaning over time, but often stretch to altering characters' names, place names, phrases and remarks. Nowadays I especially dislike books being updated in order to accommodate 'political correctness', one of the worst reasons I can think of to mess about with a book written and set in a different political and social era.

It's interesting that some well loved period books are now being re-issued in their original editions - even books which had previously been 'updated'.

For example a number of Monica Edwards' books have been re-issued, with the stories in their original unabridged and unadapted form, complete with the original illustrations, and with introductory information in a separate section, including a publishing history of the book. The covers are the original illustrations from the first edition hardbacks. These have become collector's editions in their own right. (See http://www.ggbp.co.uk/ for more information.) The main reason people buy them though, is because they love the stories, and they want to read them as they were originally published.

So I hope that this latest round of revisions are being done for good reasons. Not because children are considered too stupid to work out that things were different in different times. It would be good to pick up one of the new 'Famous Five' editions and be able to enjoy reading it without once thinking 'why on earth did they make that change?'. Perhaps I'll have a go. The test will be whether the stories remain the primary focus and are as enjoyable as the original editions.

So, do you prefer original versions? Or do you believe there's a place for updating well-loved stories?

Other Peoples' Gardens

My little courtyard space is filled with geraniums, lavender and clematis. They are mostly blue and white flowers, yet in the middle of these is a single pink rose plant. When I moved in and the garden was a sea of mud and rubbish, that valiant little plant was still stubbornly carrying a pink bloom and I could never bring myself to remove it.

This year it is covered in flowers, and it seems to me that many plants appear to be especially beautiful and prolific this year. In addition to those in my own tiny space, I have been enjoying lots of flowers belonging to other people in gardens both grand and small.

The pleasure thus afforded put me in mind of one of my favourite garden poems, 'My Neighbor's Roses', by Abraham L Gruber (1807-82). It is a short poem, only three verses, but it's the middle one I want to quote here, because it is undoubtedly true:

'They bloom for me and are for me as fair
As for the man who gives them all his care.
Thus I am rich, because a good man grew
A rose-clad vine for all his neighbor's view.'

My thanks to all those gardeners whose roses, and other flowers, I am daily enjoying.

Book Review: The Magic Thief: Found

A series of books which gets better with each volume, The Magic Thief trilogy is a rare gem. I enjoyed both of Sarah Prineas' previous The Magic Thief books, so when I noticed Found on a shelf in the fantastic Woodstock Bookshop (well worth a visit - see comments & link below) I picked it up at once.

It's been a while since I sat down and read with total absorption for hours, but this book made me do just that.

We've got to know Connwaer the gutterboy-turned-wizard well through the previous two books, as well as Nevery, Ro, Benet and a string of other characters. Conn has a talent for magic, and an equal talent for getting into trouble.

At the beginning of Found, Conn is on the run from prison, but this is a small concern compared to the threat approaching his home city of Wellmet in the form of a predatory magic known as Arhionvar.

Without his 'locus magicalicus', a powerful wizard's stone, Conn's link to his own friendly magic is weakened, but he has been given a book containing a finding spell. With Nevery's help he casts the spell, but the finding of his new locus magicalicus proves far more difficult and time-consuming than expected - even with help from a surprising and frightening (not to mention supposedly extinct) ally - and while he searches, the threat to Wellmet increases. A threat which will soon demand great risks and greater sacrifice...

A wonderful book with an unexpected and moving ending. And the dragons are superb! Although this trilogy is now complete, I really hope that Sarah Prineas writes more about Connwaer (and Pip) in the future.

Price: £9.99
ISBN: 9781849161916
Published by: Quercus
Available through any good bookshop or online


Mini 'shop review':

The Woodstock Bookshop is well worth a visit for anyone who enjoys good independent bookshops. A little shop, it nonetheless has a great selection of books across a wide genre of subjects. Despite a pressure of space lots of books are face out - hence my seeing Found and buying it as a result. I'd actually gone in to buy a book on gardens. There are some tiny single copy display shelves utilising otherwise 'dead' wall spaces. It also has a couple of seats - adult & child sized so that you can relax and browse properly!
See www.woodstockbookshop.co.uk for more details.