Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?

From the back of the book: In 1985 Jeanette Winterson's first novel, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, was published. It was Jeanette's version of the story of a terraced house in Accrington, an adopted child, and the thwarted giantess Mrs Winterson. It was a cover story, a painful past written over and repainted. It was a story of survival.

This book is that story's the silent twin. It is full of hurt and humour and a fierce love of life. It is about the pursuit of happiness, about lessons in love, the search for a mother and a journey into madness and out again. It is generous, honest and true.

I first came across Jeanette Winterson at university. Her novels are far from conventional but are fantastic to read and great fun to study. I was lucky enough to meet her one time and she was so friendly and phenomenally bright and so when a friend of mine sent through a copy of her autobiography, Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?, I was really enthusiastic to find out what made the person she is today.

She has been openly gay since she was 16. Quite a brave thing to announce when you have been brought up as a Pentecostal Christian. In fact, Winterson had plans from a young age of being a Pentecostal Christian missionary - news to me! This book is largely, but not solely, about her childhood. It's a refreshingly honest piece of writing and you come out feeling that you have really got to know Jeanette Winterson. Saying that, she does not give you everything -and that's important. She has retained certain things for herself and the book benefits from it. It's not an outpouring of years of bottled-up pain; it's an expression, an exploration and an insight into her life and mind - and what a mind that is.

It's also important to say that this is not a misery memoir - I'm not a massive fan of those. I don't look down on them, but I find no enjoyment from them. Winterson has experienced pain certainly, but she's not without hope. It's positive even at the book's darkest points and she lets you laugh - a lot. You read about someone who is affectionate, funny, passionate, thoughtful and someone who, self-confessedly and realistically, flawed.

I really enjoyed this! 9/10

'Laugh-out-loud funny...proudly, and sometimes painfully, honest. It is also, arguably, the finest and most hopeful memoir to emerge in many years and, as such, it really should not be missed' John Burnside, The Times

'Brave and beautiful, a testament to the forces of intelligence, heart and imagination' Spectator

Waterloo Bridge Book Market

A frequent feature in my life since I was very little right up until this weekend has been the second-hand book stall on London's Southbank, under Waterloo Bridge. Anyone vaguely interested in reading will always feel a little leap of excitement when the rows and rows of books come into view. There are plenty of bargains to be had and a really eclectic range of titles, from classic novels to chick lit, from modern prize-winners to comics. There's poetry, children's books, illustrations, maps and plenty of non-fiction there too. If you're a Top Gear fan, you won't be disappointed... apparently Jeremy Clarkson recycles well...

Sheltered under Waterloo Bridge, you always feel (despite it always being packed with people) like you've stumbled across something secret. The prices are reasonable too and it takes great will power to walk away empty-handed. I even picked up some of my university course titles here.

Once you've had a browse around (and give yourself some time as there's a lot of books...) you can walk into the BFI bar/cafe and have a drink or some food. It's a nice setting, not cheap admittedly but not wildly excessive either - standard London prices. If you're really making a day out of it, you can even go on to the BFI itself and see a classic film in its old-fashioned movie setting. The whole area has got to me one of my all-time favourites and am always dragging people along!

Can sequels ever really work?

This week it was announced that William Boyd will succeed Sebastian Faulks in writing the next Bond book and will be published by Fleming’s original publisher, Jonathan Cape. But, the question I’m asking myself is: can there ever really be a successful sequel?

Sequels come about in lots of different ways – written by the author themselves, written by another writer (like Boyd) years later, film sequels, prequels, spin-offs – but it’s rare that I ever enjoy them as much as the original. One of the more famous sequels was Death Comes to Pemberley by PD James, who developed characters from Austen’s classic, Pride and Prejudice. I’ve heard that people have enjoyed it, certainly PD James is a phenomenal talent, but surely it can only be disappointing? Mr and Mrs Darcy are together now – why would we want to see them either move on in an unrealistically blissful manner or everything gets pulled from under their feet again so that we await another reconciliation.

There’s also the question, of course, of whether a writer has the right to do a sequel for a famous classic written by someone else. Susan Hill may, perhaps, be the best possible modern-day writer to tackle Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier but did Mrs. De Winter detract from the original novel’s conclusion?

Some have called Michael Cunningham’s The Hours a sequel but it’s slightly different. It is not a furthering of the story, more a new interpretation of the original Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. I really enjoyed this book but can understand people’s complaints that this, perhaps, might be a story better left untouched. Saying that, at least, I suppose Cunningham provides Woolf with a voice in his book… even if he, himself, is still in control of it…

That’s not to say these books don’t make any money or have any success – thinking of Death comes to Pemberley again, and Wide Sargasso Sea, to name just a couple. Then there are the great franchises of Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Twilight and Hunger Games etc – the list goes on and there are plenty of sequels in the pipeline too. Most recently Bret Easton Ellis has hinted that he may write a sequel to American Psycho.

On Chesil Beach

From the back of the book: It is June 1962. In a hotel on the Dorset coast, overlooking Chesil Beach, Edward and Florence, who got married that morning, are sitting down to dinner in their room. Neither is entirely able to suppress their anxieties about the wedding night to come...

On Chesil Beach is another masterwork from Ian McEwan - a story about how the entire course of a life can be changed by a gesture not made or a word not spoken.

On Chesil Beach is a novella by the Booker Prize-winning author, Ian McEwan. As the blurb says, it centres around one key evening in the lives of a just-married couple on the first night of their honeymoon. It’s a simple idea but McEwan always manages to craft believable depth in his plots and characters that you never feel you’ve read a two-dimensional short story.

It isn’t a happy story but it’s an honest one. I don’t know about any of you but when I read about a character who is feeling something upsetting, whether it’s fear, hate, embarrassment, disgust, lonely… whatever it may be… there’s always the possibility for some form of happiness or relief if that is a feeling that I can personally relates to. That was really badly explained… but to make it clearer. In this novella’s case, embarrassment, fear and a sense of these feelings being both unspoken and unspeakable are all things that I can relate to. Maybe not in this specific situation, sure, but whether it’s at work or at home, all those feelings come into play at some point and so when you read a character suffering the same emotions, there is a sense of relief that ‘you’re not the only one’. McEwan writes so honestly that you can’t help but find that appealing, whatever the plot’s outcome might be.

In such a short book, McEwan doesn’t sacrifice depth or power – you well and truly get sucked in. I personally read this over 2 days but yet it still had a profound effect on me. It’s not a new release, so you probably have already read it, but if you haven’t then I’d recommend it, especially if you’re someone who dreads starting a 900 page brick of a novel… like me… except Potter, of course – got to forgive Rowling for that…

The Financial Times: 'Superb... The protagonists have everything to lose, and their faltering journey towards a point of no return is conjured into life by McEwan with irresistible subtlety, tact and force' 

7/10

Harry Potter Travel Posters

A brilliant friend of mine (@lucymaymaxwell) tweeted me while I was away about this fantastic art project done by blogger Caroline Hadilaksono. She describes herself as 'practicing the alchemy of story-telling through design, illustration, & words' and I've got to say, her stuff is great. As a massive Potter fan, I was subsumed in geeky pleasure when my friend sent me through the link for her recent take on the Harry Potter world and couldn't not blog about it.

I won't tell you everything about it on here as you should really go and have a look at her poster designs yourselves and read what she has to say about them. Obviously, though, for you to go and have a look I have to say something... the premise is essentially 'the wizarding world as a travel destination'. Seriously brilliant. Check out http://www.hadilaksono.com/harry-potter-travel-posters

The Amateur Marriage

From the back of the book: Michael and Pauline seemed like the perfect couple – young, good looking, made for each other. The moment she walked into his mother’s grocery store in Baltimore, he was smitten, and in the heat of World War II ferour, they marry in haste. From the sound of the cash register in the old grocery to the counterculture jargon of the sixties, from the miniskirts to the multi-layers of later years, Anne Tyler captures the nuances of everyday life with telling precision and sly humour.

It’s been a while but it seems I’ve found a new author. Don’t you love it when that happens? The best parallel I can make is Richard Yates who, as you know all to well, is one of my favourite writers. The Amateur Marriage by Anne Tyler explores the same unsatisfying reality of everyday life of Yates’ novels and the amazing knack that we have of ignoring underlying frustrations and unhappiness in favour of family cohesion and, we think, ‘happiness’. I have been told that Anne Tyler’s subjects and plots are not quite so narrow as Yates but her writing still reads with the same fluidity and, with the risk of sounding corny, beauty.

The novel really gets under your skin. I found myself welling up multiple times at seemingly insubstantial events and constantly seeking for a character to blame every time something ‘went wrong’. By the end, I came to the realisation that everyone and no one is to blame and how strikingly the novel is a reflection of life, whether the individual events are relevant or not.

I’ve made the whole book sound incredibly serious and yes, there are profound narrative threads running through it, but it’s a more enjoyable read than that – and there’s definite humour, as in every family. The blurb puts it best: “Anne Tyler captures the nuances of everyday life with telling precision and sly humour”. You can simply read it for its writing, for its characters and be as subjective or objective as you like. There is something and someone in this book for everyone.

9/10

ReadHead on vacation!

I was off on holiday this week for a much needed break but I can assure you that it has meant plenty of reading. Have just posted a brand new book review and there will be more to follow. RH x