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Getting comfort

The past couple of years have cemented the value of books in our modern society.

Sales of both print and e-books have grown hugely as we've been offered an abundance of quality writing on all sorts of subjects. Books have enabled us to escape from our current circumstances either as a diversion from the dire news stories, or as stimulation from the monotony of a lockdown.

This week I've come across a couple of conversations exploring what we choose to read and what it delivers to us.

In the Guardian recently there was an editorial about the uncanny nack of novelists to 'predict' the future. There are the often quoted HG Wells and George Orwell, of course, but in more recent times there have been a number of novelists who delivered plots centred on a pandemic just before it became a reality.

These tales arise, Margaret Atwood claims, because writers ask the right questions and investigate 'what would happen if...'

"This is one of the great things fiction can do," the article continues, "pay a particular kind of attention. It is a kind of eavesdropping, and looking under the surface of things...Though novelists are not seers, we would do well not to underestimate their grasp on what is to come."

Meanwhile on BBC Radio 4 the wonderful author and screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce (who I was delighted to interview last year) delivered a brilliant programme about the value of children's books. Called Wonderlands, he argues that comfort reading is essential reading - these stories create our 'interior happy places', they build resilience, all of which lasts far beyond our childhood.

Keep reading!
NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE WEEK
Recovery
by Gavin Francis

Though widely reviewed, this book only caught my attention when it kept being mentioned to me in lots of different quarters. I thought I'd better find out more about 'the lost art of convalescence'.

Even though we all hope we won't be going through serious illness to heed what the author's saying, there are many wise words about how to live life in this slim volume.
Health isn't merely about being free of disease, injury or illness but in our result-driven, individualistic and impatient society we have come to expect a pill for any ailment, a cure for any condition. In this book, the author presents the case for time, care and environment to ease us back to our full potential. 

Despite the huge medical advances of recent years, the author points out, the importance of recuperation has diminished. Hospitals today aren't associated with crisp white sheets, tasty nutritious food, pleasant views, and companionable unhurrifed care. Florence Nightingale first stressed the value of good nursing in renewing health, but today staff and resources are overstretched and time as a healer can seem a luxury.

The author is a GP, trained in Western medicine. He acknowledges other world views, and historical approaches to recovery from illness. It is a gentle but thought-provoking read which ultimately encourages us to stop driving our bodies quite so hard. There's permission here to curl up with a good book and take things a little more gently.

For recommended non-fiction titles, take a look here.
CHILDREN'S BOOK OF THE WEEK
Small in the City
by Sydney Smith

This is a highly acclaimed, award-winning picture book, the first that the creator Sydney Smith has both written and illustrated and in which he hopes to have created magic, he says. 

It's about a journey, a quest, both physical and emotional which causes you to puzzle as you turn the pages, wondering who it is we're searching for. The reveal makes you gasp and tingle!
The city can be a noisy, busy, scary place, particularly if you're small.

But it can also be exciting, colourful and welcoming.

There are sirens and car horns, shouts, bangs and crashes. But there are also good hiding places, warm air vents, lots of interesting people to talk to and buskers to hear play on the streets. 

Our little protagonist tells us what it is like to be small in the city, with advice and observations. But, as we turn the pages, we don't know why it is that he knows this, or why he is sharing it with us. 

Finally we come to the last pages of the book and the heart-rending revelation of the little boy's quest. 

A beautiful, moving book for the under fives, and their reading companions. You'll need to start the book all over again after swallowing the lump in your throat from the final page. 

Read about more recommended children's books here.
Browsers Bookshop Book Group

Monday 28 February 8pm
talking about...
Mayflies
by Andrew O'Hagan

A coming of age novel in Thatcher’s Britain, this has been described as a book about male friendship and male fragility. "A heartbreaking novel of an extraordinary lifelong friendship." Based on the author’s experiences: nearly all true, he says. What will we think of it?
Buy your copy of the book from Browsers in Woodbridge with the book group discount and join in the discussion. There will be details about how to attend the meeting nearer the time.
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VISIT MY WEBSITES

catherinelarner.com for details of my journalism and an archive of my published articles, past and present.
moreaboutbooks.com on books and authors with recommendations, reviews, conversations, broadcasts and events.
www.catherinelarner.com
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Copyright © 2022 Catherine Larner, All rights reserved.


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