📚 🚶Mari's walk
A Budapest patisserie walk + news from The Persephone Festival
Dear walking book clubbers,
I write this on the train home from The Persephone Festival, which took place on Friday – Sunday in Bath and was wonderful. There was the most incredible atmosphere, as 1,000 people came from all over the world to celebrate 25 years of this vital publisher and discuss many of their 150 books. I was very happy to hold two Emily’s Walking Book Clubs – for Saplings, and Someone at a Distance – swapping in Bath’s Royal Victoria Park for our usual London stomping grounds, and it was a delight to meet many new walkers there. (Hello, if you are one of them!)
I also had a great time discussing some favourite Persephone Books with novelist Tracy Chevalier and biographer Anne Sebba. Here we are in the ‘green room’ (at the back of the bookshop) before strolling up to the Assembly Rooms for our talk. Persephone will have audio recordings of this and most of the festival events on their website very soon, for the next thirty days. I’ll share the link once it’s up! It was such a joy to help organise this festival, and great to see some of you there, thanks so much if you are one of the lovely people who came along and said hi.
On Our Reading Radar & giveaway
Before we come on to Mari’s extraordinary patisserie walk through Budapest (perfect to get you in the mood for July’s Antal Szerb book) a reminder that THIS FRIDAY at 1.30-2pm, we have this month’s On Our Reading Radar live discussion thread – this is a chance to share what we’ve been enjoying reading and watching over the past month, as well as anything on the theme of SOLITUDE (inspired by our April book, Out Stealing Horses). Please do join the chat, here on substack at 1.30pm - you’ll get an email just beforehand. Drop me a line if you’ve got any questions about how to connect.
** As a bonus, I’m giving away a copy of my favourite book about solitude to one lucky book clubber. To be in with a chance to win it, all you need to do is leave a comment on Friday’s discussion thread. Keen to know what the book is???? Well you’ll have to wait and see!**
Do check out our previous On Our Reading Radar threads on all sorts of great topics, such as London, living abroad, and even this one on the Second World War featuring special guest Persephone Books’ Fran! They’re full of great recommendations if you’re after more inspiration for what to read (or watch) next…
Mari’s walk
Mari has been part of Emily’s walking book club since October 2023 - a keen participant in On Our Reading Radar discussion threads and our Regent’s Park walks. It was while chatting to her recently at the end of one of these walks, that I asked her about great Hungarian classics and she mentioned Antal Szerb’s Journey by Moonlight, jogging my memory of this brilliant book and prompting me to choose it for July. Thank you Mari for that, for this wonderful walk and for everything else you bring to the group.
Budapest is the place where I was born. It is a small but beautifully formed city whose sights, smells and flavours still feel like home, although I've not lived there since the age of 12, many years ago now. Because of its size it is eminently walkable and I horrify the locals by not using the extensive public transport network and roaming the central areas on foot.
Budapest is an amalgamation of two townships on either side of the river Danube.
Buda is the old town on the hill, a castle district of small, colourful houses and romantic side streets. There are some newer additions such as the famous Fisherman’s Bastion (1851) which affords amazing views of the Parliament building across the river and the church reconstructed to an original C13 plan in the late 1800s, in time for the millenary celebrations. And there’s the tall Hotel Hilton, whose glass side windows reflect the Bastion as well as the hoards of tourists taking arty photographs beneath it.
Pest, the lively commercial centre, came into its own from the mid 1800s - its Adam Clark designed Chain Bridge, and the Western Railway Terminus planned by the Eiffel company are well known landmarks.
When Emily accepted my suggestion of a ‘Budapest Patisserie Stroll’, I thought it would be easy to describe a walk which meanders past my favourite interests: Art Nouveau buildings and cakes. Budapest is heaven for Art Nouveau enthusiasts and as for the patisserie: more robust than the over refined offerings of Paris and so much cheaper than those in Vienna. Words fail me. As I set about marking a map with places I love to look or eat at, it soon became clear that, should it be possible to connect them on a walk, no-one could complete such a marathon of a cake-fest without rendering themselves incapable of moving - even if they were still able to look a Dobos or Eszterházy torte or a krémes in the eye at the end of it.
Above, therefore, is a map of several strolls.
Start from St Stephens Basilica, sample the strudels in October 6 utca (1) and maybe make a little detour to Gelarto Rosa (2) for an ice cream in the shape of a rose. Head for the river bank across the square (Szabadság tér) past the war memorials and the statue of Ronald Reagan (!) towards Kossuth Lajos square and the Parliament building. Alternatively, you could find the amazing Art nouveau Postal Savings Bank (8) building to the right of the square in Hold utca. Another short walk could start from near the Parliament, taking in the Szamos cafe (3) in the square for a slice of Eszterházy torte, moving along the embankment past the line of bronze shoes (4) commemorating the many Jews shot into the icy waters during December ’44 and January ’45. The Chain Bridge will be in sight and facing it on the Pest side is the magnificent Gresham Palace Hotel (5). Pop in for a look at the Art Nouveau lobby and the amazing black and white tiled ladies’ loo. If you still have the stamina, amble over the bridge and make your way up to the castle by funicular or on foot. Or this could be the start of another adventure. Whichever it is, the tiny Ruszwurm cafe (6) for ‘krémes’ (our quite superior version of a mille feuille) is a must. Lastly, the Cafe Gerbaud (7) is right by the underground terminal on Vörosmarty tér, and oozes late C19 charm. Walk through for the ambience mainly, the cakes are better elsewhere. It could form part of any of the walks...
You can find the exact location of all these places on Google. Enjoy!
And how about your walk?
I would love to hear about your walking life. When you have a chance, please reply to this email with a snap or two of a walk that is meaningful to you (please check you have permission to share if anyone else is in your photo; landscape format rather than portrait tends to sit best), along with a couple of lines about the walk and why it’s special for you.
May
The Children’s Bach by Helen Garner
This exquisitely polished, slim, spare novel is about the Fox family - Dexter, Athena and their two children - fracturing on collision with Dexter’s ex Elizabeth, and her entourage (teenage sister, boyfriend of sorts, plus his daughter). Australian writer, Helen Garner, is especially skilful at capturing the complicated dynamics between her characters, and their shifting misconceptions of one another.
Why did I choose it? First published in 1984, The Children’s Bach has just been republished in the UK and US, along with two of Garner’s other books, Monkey Grip and This House of Grief; it’s the perfect moment to discover this too-long overlooked Australian author. I’ve had an eye on her work for a few years now, and when a kind publicist sent me this beautiful new trio, I was blown away by The Children’s Bach and keen to help bring Garner to a wider audience. It seems I’m not the only fan - these three books are getting rave reviews, and publishers are scrambling to print enough copies, which so rarely happens with so-called ‘backlisted’ books.
Intrigued? Have a read of THIS New Yorker review by Ben Lerner. N.B. I can’t believe either that this is happening or that I will be away for it, but Helen Garner herself is talking at Daunt Books Marylebone on 28th May!! DO GO and please tell me all about it - tickets HERE.
In Regent’s Park: Friday 17th May, 12-1.45pm, setting off from Daunt Books, 84 Marylebone High Street, W1U 4QW, £8-15
On Hampstead Heath: Sunday 19th May, 11.30-1pm, setting off from Daunt Books Hampstead, 51 South End Road, NW3 2QB, £8-15
On Zoom: Monday 20th May, 8-9pm, £1-15
On Our Reading Radar: Friday 24th May, 1.30-2pm: Australia Join this month’s discussion thread to share your cultural highlights from the month, as well as your recommendations on the theme of AUSTRALIA - What other great Australian novels and films should we know about?
Buy The Children’s Bach from Daunt Books HERE and receive 10% off using the code WBC at checkout, or just tell them you’re in the group if you’re buying it in the shop.
If you’d like to book on to all three of our Summer 2024 walking book clubs, you can do so here:
Find out the full line up here:
Happy reading,
Emily