Reading for the Holiday!

I seem to have read about one book for every day we are going to Naples, as a way of preparing myself and returning to  more Italian mindset...

A view of Vesuvias, across Naples

I read Norman Lewis's "Naples 44" which I enjoyed very much at first, until the sheer fuckwittedness of the military miindset and the British and US behaviour in connexion with the Neapolitans, began to depress me.   The description of the Vesusvius eruption was interesting, not one of the more drastic ones, mercifully.   Accounts of how people were starving unaccountably surprised me.  I don't know why.  Obviously they wouldn't have anything to eat.  It must have been a while before food supplies returned (they do during the course of the book).  I wish i knew more, about how people recovered after the war.   I don't suppose those much lauded Elsa Ferrante books tell you that, otherwise they might be worth reading (yes, I know, everyone's reading them, says they are brilliant etc).

Then I began to read "Gomorrah", the journalism on which the film was based.  It was depressing, and would probably make me think it wasn't worth going there, or even frightened to go there.  It's ludicrous, I haven't been to Italy for 8 years, in my 20s I went virtually every year.  I didn't realise I hadn't been to Naples since 1978!  It was a bit of a hustle, but we coped.  I am sure that it is now a bit less ground down and impoverished, and that I am more savvy, so there really shouldn't be a hustle.  And no one has ever tried to steal my handbag from a Vespa.

I bought a book called Joanna, Queen of Naples on the Internet.  It is excellent, but I haven't got very far with it.   The medieval history of Naples is tricky, a lot of discontinuity.  I believe it was part of the Holy Roman Empire for a while (possibly Frederick II hung out there?)  Then there were the Angevins, Charles of Anjou et al (how did they get hold of it?)   Then the Aragonese had it (they couldn't get hold of any more Spain - so they conquered it?  Or was it inherited in some way?).  Eventually it became a Bourbon kingom, the Kingdom of the 2 Sicilies, which is the era I am more familiar with.   Perhaps once I've read the Joannna book I'll be more au fait with the situation.

I also bought a short novel by Alexandre Dumas about Queen Joanna - which I have not yet started.

Then there was Route AD66 - an interesting book about tourism in the Roman Empire.  That was very interesting, but I decided to stop reading it after it left Athens.   The book retraces Tony Peroettet's tour around the favourite Roman tourist itinerary with his girlfriend and intersperses nuggets of information gleaned from classical writers.  A lot of this is familiar stuff, but quite enjoyable, not sure how reliable a lot of it is.   I was a bit mystified by the author, although he presents us with a lot of erudition, he says some remarkable things about the Roman's cotton tunics - the Romans had cotton, imported from India and China, but it was hardly an every day fabric, although I suppose those rich enough to take the Grand Tour could probably afford it.  He also described someone choking on polenta in a Greek inn - unlikely given that maize didn't arrive until the 16th C, there were a couple of other questionable references, which made me think that perhaps he was not exactly steeped in the Classical world, but had simply done a hack job on the source materials.   Still, it was amusing enough.

Tim Parks "Italian Rails" is not strictly about Naples, but it was an excellent way to remind me of the Italian mindset and the important words furbo (cunning) and pignolo (a jobs worth).  It wasn't as funny as some of his other books, but very recognisable.   His conversations on trains, and attempts to avoid them are very true to life.

The first book in this set that I read was Bepe Sevignini's "La Bella Figura" which was a very kindly view of Italians.  It explained them in a better way, and made me understand that perhaps they really were better, more Christian people than, say, Brits.,  It was a good way to read about them, from the inside, rather than the outsider view (however well established Parks is he still knows he's an outsider).

Oh, that's only 7 books, I expect I can count the Lonely Planet Guide, the Eyewitness Guide and other materials, to say nothing of all the websites.

Jeremy Corbyn - in the flesh! And in the garden!

Here is the East Cliff at Ramsgate, the area around the bandstand, opposite Wellington Crescent, where Jeremy Corbyn spoke on Saturday 3rd September.  I had long standing other commitments to cooking that day, but I had to leave the house to take N to A&E and decided to make a detour on the way back to see if I could see anything.  I was thrilled as I dawdled along Wellington Crescent, to see so many people there.  It made me feel rather emotional to think that so many local people had come to hear him.   He was actually speaking as I passed, so I heard a few positive sounding phrases.   I was sorry I hadn't been able to be part of the fun.  I was amused to hear later that UKIP had insisted that there were only 1000 and they had all been bussed in by trade unions.  Even the BBC had said that there were 3,000 people there.  No sign of the coaches could be found.   It contrasts famously with Nasty Nigel's "mass rally" at Cliftonville in 2015.  He spoke from the UKIP battle bus - Jez spoke from the back of a fire engine.   UKIP claimed 300 were present at NN's rally, but a careful count of the audience photo showed approx 79 people.     However, that's enough sectarian nonsense.

Later I was at the BBQ, an LP fundraiser, and someone said "Jeremy Corbyn's here!" and he was, in the kitchen.  So I retreated to the garden, and soon he came out to join us, and we and some others began a chat about gardens and allotments.  I can now reveal the following fab facts.
He has a 30 ft garden which is mostly paved because the soil is largely builders' rubble, however he grows vintes and olive trees, because they thrive on lime.  At his allotment he has grown a lot of beans and spinach which he freezes.  It is difficult to grow some things, because they need daily watering.  He has problems when he goes to the AGM because they always want to vote him onto the Allotment Committee.  Mark told him about our old allotment, and Jane H's niece commented that she goes running up there.  He told us that allotments couldn't be developed by councils if there was demand for them, so clearly we need to create demand to stop local ones disappearing.  Someone said Ramsgate houses had huge gardens, but I said that a lot didn't because they were built as holiday lodgings.  Someone else said that gardens were often full of buildings, and the conversation shifted and Jane H wisely nabbed him to talk to him seriously about mental health...

So, there we have Jeremy Corbyn, a nice beardie man, standing in a summer garden chatting about growing veg.  I didn't even dream of trying to talk politics with him.  Is he ready to lead the country?  Why not?  I swear we've had worse people.   Intellectually/socially he's probably roughly equivalent to David Cameron, able to mix affably with people and have normal conversations, although rather lacking in DC's PR skills.  I also noticed that in conversation he didn't try and draw other people out, this is fairly typical of men in general, so I won't hold it against him too much.    He does have courage and integrity and these are rather more important in a leader.,  I doubt whether Churchill was much of a one to draw out people in conversation either, it's not an essential skill, although I suspect it would help if one was trying to get to know one's Shadow Cabinet better.

The Book Group read #1

I have been in a Book Group for 12 years yet I don't think I have ever blogged about it.  There are about 4 of us who have been in it almost since the beginning (I was not there at the beginning).  We have lost members to bad eyesight, boredom with the books, boredom with one of the other members incessant chat, a refusal to read the books.  Occasionally people have turned up once and never come again, and we had a flounce out of a long-term member.

We have a policy of reading intelligent books that take us out of our comfort zone (actually, I am very seldom taken out of my comfort zone, but I usually enjoy the books).  We have a policy of having no easy books. We occasionally read non-fiction, but most of our choices on the whole are pretty safe and reliable.   If I find them challenging it's sure as dammit the rest of the group will hate them.   There are several former teachers in the group, a retired librarian, retired social worker, a former radiographer and my friend J who worked in the media.  I am the youngest by about 7 years I think. The oldest is 93.  We are all women (the founder and sole male, Barry) moved back to Lewes 11 years ago!

July/August 2016 Book

River of Smoke by Amitahv Ghosh

We read Sea of Poppies in 2010, but no one could remember it, except me, because I absolutely loved it and thought it was brilliant and wished to write something that clever but knew that I couldn't.   Recently the third book in the trilogy came out, and I suddenly realised we hadn't read the second one yet.

It is a long book and it is, like its predecessor written from several points of view.  The main character is an opium smuggler called Barry Mohdi - it is set chiefly in 1830s Canton and the main characters are Parsee, Muslim, English, French, Chinese etc.   Canton was clearly a fantastic place.  The story tells of the events surrounding a clampdown on Opium sales in China and the characters are becalmed in Canton, trying to sell their illicit cargoes.  There is also a search for an illusory form of paeony (or was it azalea?).  So many different strands, and the whole society is brought alive.   Characters such as Neel are carried over from the previous book, but I had forgotten about him until halfway through.

Modhi is a deeply sympathetic character, rather like Robert Maxwell.  The book is curiously relevant, because it echoes the present economic times, with merchants who are illiberally fixated on Free Trade at all costs, regardless of what this will do to the economy.  The British sold the Chinese opium, because they had no other commodities the Chinese wished to buy.  They did not wish to have a one-sided trade where they bought tea and silks and porcelain, and all their money went into China in return for perishable goods.   Just like the Roman Empire, and just like now.  The modern obsession with Free Trade in a globalised market place went echoing through the book.

My favourite aspect of the book were the camp and clever letters written by the young artist Chinnery to his friend "my fair Puggelina".  Ghosht manages to transform her nickname into every imaginable silly camp foreign title and never repeat himself once.  It was a delight, and it lightened the tone of what would have been some very depressing events that could have turned the whole book into a gloom-fest.  Clever!

The other glory of the book was the fact that one was getting "history lite" in the most stimulating possible way.  I understand far more about that period and the run up to the Opium Wars than I ever have before.  A five star read if ever there was one.