📚 🚶October's On My Reading Radar
What else have I been enjoying? And what's coming up?
Dear walking book clubbers,
October has been jam-packed with exciting cultural happenings, and I’m very happy to share them with you here in this month’s On My Reading Radar - a chance to enthuse about things beyond our monthly book club pick.
I’m taking next week off, but will be back in your inbox on 4th November with my intro to the wonderful Christabel Bielenberg memoir - details at the bottom of this email.
Books
This is really not usually my kind of thing but I have absolutely loved reading The Siege by Ben Macintyre, which is about the siege of the Iranian embassy in London in 1980. It feels quite Slow Horses, and funnily enough is being adapted for screen by the same team. Macintyre is very good at bringing out the characters and showing how so much of the situation unfolded thanks to the personalities in the room. I also think it would make a terrific play, if anyone feels like adapting it…
Also not something I’d pick up but I was commissioned to review the quite horrible but excellent new Virago classic, The Fate of Mary Rose by Caroline Blackwood, for the Spectator. If you can get over the absolute horror of the set-up (a 6-year-old girl has been raped and murdered in the woods), it is an enthralling psychological thriller. You can read my review HERE.
I’ve also been enjoying getting to know Clare Chambers’s books, Small Pleasures and Shy Creatures, as I’ll be interviewing her about the latter at a Richmond Libraries event on 5th November. You can book a ticket HERE - please do come and say hello if you’re free! I’m also interviewing Tracy Chevalier at The Owl in Kentish Town on the 7th November, but that is already sold out (thanks to her pull not mine, I hasten to add!).
Kids’ Books
Did you see my little Instagram video (above) about what a treat it can be to read a children’s book, if you have a spare couple of hours? Well, as you can see, I REALLY loved reading Holes by Louis Sachar, and now my nine-year-old daughter has read it too so we have our own kind of private walking book club about it on the way to school. HIGHLY RECOMMEND for a smart new(ish) book about American boys digging holes in a detention camp, while it slowly dawns on them they’re actually digging for treasure. And there’s a brilliant historical thread which links in. It has also led to a new appreciation of onions in our family. (You have to read it to find out why!)
Five Children and It has mercifully come to an end for bedtime reading, and now we are embarking on Swallows and Amazons, inspired by our trip to the Lake District for half-term this week. I am really enjoying it, but oh my goodness there is A LOT of technical stuff about boats in it. I keep getting confused about the halyard and the painter and the cleats etc, and I’m sure the children are too. But still, the magic of camping on an island on your own, and all the detail about things like frying pans and milk cans etc is absolute heaven. No, I will definitely not be letting my children follow suit when we are away!
Theatre
Did anyone else catch the South Korean opera version of Lear at the Barbican? (Details HERE.) It was extraordinary! So exciting to see such a creative reimagining of one of my fave plays.
I also went to see Look Back in Anger at the Almeida, which was less good than I’d hoped, unfortunately. It’s a play I’d always wanted to see but somehow I wasn’t quite won over by the performances. Sorry, as I hate giving negative reviews. It was a 3/5 for me, but perhaps you’ll think differently - you can book HERE.
I have booked to go and see the Buddha of Suburbia coming up at the Barbican (HERE), an adaptation of such a brilliant book, and I’m also tempted to book for the adaptation of The Lonely Londoners (a walking book club classic!) that’s coming on at the Kiln theatre in the New Year, HERE.
On screen
Slow Horses continues at home … we are now into season 4 and I still LOVE it. Thank you for all the emails saying how much you love it too!
We have also been really enjoying watching the old Andrew Davies adaptation of Pride & Prejudice with the kids, and also we watched the Sense and Sensibility film starring Kate Winslet. (This was partly inspired by listening to Elizabeth Day’s excellent interview with her on How to Fail, HERE.) Heaven on all fronts. Also very funny as Alfie got very excited by all the dogs in S&S and then began growling at the horses!
In Other News …
It was wonderful to see some of your friendly faces and also to meet some lovely new walkers on the Diamond Street Hatton Garden walk with the Goldsmiths’ Centre, which managed to be really fun in spite of torrential rain. Thanks for coming!
Our very own walker Emma Brankin’s book of short stories is on the longlist for the prestigious Edge Hill Prize (details HERE). She kindly invited us all to her launch for it last summer, so we definitely need to raise another glass to her and her book Attention Seekers.
Thanks to those of you who pointed out that our previous pick The Children’s Bach was on Radio 4’s A Good Read - you can listen HERE. I tuned in and then was amazed to find that they were also discussing Brian by Jeremy Cooper (Irvine Welsh’s pick), which Michael recommended in the comments to this last post! We are obviously on the same page!
And finally, at Bookbanks, we had our first writing workshops hosted by Damien from Indie Novella. They were a huge success at both Newington Green and Wymondham, and we hope to have more, along with author readings and librarian visits in future months. (One guest did say to me afterwards: “What have you got for us next, Emily?” which was rather wonderful.) We’ve also just trained the next cohort of 17 volunteers from the book world, ready to staff our new sites in Hammersmith and Fulham and Norwich which open in November. Some of you have already been incredibly generous with your support of Bookbanks - you have really helped to make this happen, thank you so much. If you would like to give to enable us to bring more books to more food banks as we grow, you can do so HERE. Every bit makes a difference.
Over to you…
Many thanks to everyone who commented with recommendations on last month’s post, HERE.
Some of you kindly emailed me tips too; here are a few:
Celia says: “In terms of something I've enjoyed lately, I highly recommend the film His Three Daughters, which debuted on Netflix last week. It's a pitch-perfect drama about three estranged sisters (played exquisitely by Carrie Coon, Elisabeth Olsen and Natasha Lyonne), who come together in a cramped New York apartment to care for their ailing father. By turns funny, raw, perceptive, and moving, it does a brilliant job of conveying the pressure cooker dynamics of a fractured family struggling to deal with the imminent death of their beloved father, while simultaneously trying to mend their broken relationships with each other."
Kathy says: “I've just finished The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery. It's about an unusual concierge in a Parisian apartment block and how she relates to those around her. I found it quite different and really engaging. I've also just read The Handmaid's Tale!! I'm sure I started it ages ago, but didn't finish. Fantastic. I'm also watching the tv series (but not late at night....) I totally echo your addiction to Slow Horses. I think Gary Oldman is genius and love the other actors too. (Does he ad-lib, I wonder, or are there just brilliant script writers?) I've binge-watched the whole lot twice and could do so again. I love the one-liners (missed some on the first viewing). It also forced me to rewatch Darkest Hour, GO's finest moment in my view. Have you tried Ted Lasso? It's on Apple TV and several of my neighbours recommended it. It's quite different and worth sticking with. “
Any tips of your own to share? We’d all love them! So either drop me a line or leave a comment below, thanks!
November
The Past is Myself by Christabel Bielenberg
In 1934, a young English woman, Christabel Burton, married a German man, Peter Bielenberg, and adopted German citizenship, thinking that Hitler was a bad joke: ”I can assure you,” said Peter, “the Germans won’t be so stupid as to fall for that clown.” What follows is a compelling portrait of daily life in Nazi Germany for an Englishwoman who despised Hitler, while knowing that dissent meant death. She raises children, shelters from devastating Allied bombings, and pleads with the Gestapo to release her husband after he’s caught in a plot to bring down Hitler. This is a fascinating and unique perspective on life in Nazi Germany, which also raises important questions about what goes unsaid.
Intrigued? Read THIS by Amanda Theunissen in the wonderful Slightly Foxed.
In Regent’s Park: Friday 15th November, 11-12.45pm, setting off from Daunt Books, 84 Marylebone High Street, W1U 4QW, £8-15 **Please note the earlier time this month!!**
On Hampstead Heath: Sunday 17th November, 11.30-1pm, setting off from Daunt Books Hampstead, 51 South End Road, NW3 2QB, £8-15
On Zoom: Monday 18th November, 8-9pm, £1-15
Buy The Past is Myself from Daunt Books HERE and receive 10% off using the code WBC at checkout, or just tell them you’re in Emily’s Walking Book Club if you’re buying it in the shop.
You can buy the beautiful Slightly Foxed hardback edition HERE with 10% off using the code EMILY24.
Happy reading,
Emily
I think a lot of our members would like the two-part adaptation of The Forsyte Saga playing at the Park Theatre in Finsbury Park until 7 December: https://parktheatre.co.uk/event/the-forsyte-saga-parts-1-and-2/ My review can be found here: https://www.londontheatre.co.uk/reviews/the-forsyte-saga-parts-1-and-2-review-park-theatre It would make for such a good walking theatre club discussion!
Hi Emily, as ever thank you for the newsletter and recommendations. My daughter and I are in London next month and have been casting around for a theatre production. Have now booked The Buddha of Suburbia, managed to get tickets a couple of nights before it closes. Thank you!