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When we went to Wales at Easter we stayed in a very small town near Snowdonia called Gwytherin. You reach it over winding narrow roads and when you get there the sense of isolation is reinforced by the lack of television and mobile phone signal (unusual in the UK in my experience). ( Photo of valley )Amongst the information provided in our room was the story of a local saint called Winifred. As with many saint stories, Winifred was a good 7th century girl who decided to be a virgin and dedicate herself to God. But Winifred’s story gets more exciting. One day, a prince tried to press himself upon Winifred, and when she ran away from him, the prince cut off Winifred’s head in revenge. Miraculously, the girl's head reattached itself to her body, and a spring arose on the spot. Winifred then moved to Gwytherin and became abbess of a group of nuns. But her body lies over the border in Shrewsbury after it was nicked in the 12th century by some English monks. I thought this was a first class saint story, so when I found out that the tale of Winifred’s body being moved from Gwytherin to Shrewsbury was the subject of Ellis Peters’ first Cadfael novel, A morbid taste for bones, I knew I had to read it. I’m sure I have previously tried a Cadfael novel and found it bit boring. However, I didn’t have that problem with A morbid taste for bones, which imagines that the negotiations over moving Winifred's body were enlivened by murder. It was a neat little mystery with an interesting backstory, though some of the monks appeared more like caricatures than rounded people. I admit I liked Cadfael though, perhaps because I enjoy the image of a man who has seen the world retiring to become a monk so he can spend his days gardening in between prayers. Tags: books, historical, mystery, peters
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I took Friday off work and went to Bristol to attend Diana Wynne Jones conference. I was looking forward to meeting - most for the first time - a pile of DWJ list friends and other internet acquaintances, and to talking about Diana Wynne Jones books for three days. All of this was marvellous. It was a joy to meet so many interesting people and talk about our favourite books for hours. What I didn't expect was to enjoy the papers as much as I did - I had suspected they would be either too literary or little interest to me but was very wrong. It was great fun to listen to fascinating thoughts about one of my favourite authors, especially as I didn't have to do anything with the information for work afterwards! There were too many good papers to discuss individual ones (especially as I want to go eat dinner in the forseeable future...) but there was lots of insight shared into many DWJ novels, particularly the Howl books and Archer's Goon. This didn't stop me wishing there had been more discussion on Deep secret and Homeward bounders, though! Other highlights included Sharyn November sharing stories of how she inspired Charmain's piles of laundry in House of many ways, Sharyn pimping one of my other favourite authors, Megan Whalen Turner and a video clip of Diana reading out an excerpt from her novel that will be released next year. We also enjoyed the 1980s BBC version of Archer's goon - it definitely had its weaknesses but I thought it was a pretty good adaptation overall. In what I thought was a suitable tribute to Deep secret, the campus was quite confusing and there were many dead ends, misleading maps and back stairs to navigate. There was also a strange preoccupation with fire safety, with a veritable proliferation of fire doors and stern notices on our bathroom doors to keep them shut AT ALL TIMES so as to stop the fire alarms going off. However, we found out why there was this fear was because ( Fire kills students! )On that note I am off to look for the blogs of people I met on the weekend, and to check they made it through the journey home without spontaneously combusting. ETA: Many thanks to the wonderful organisers, ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) steepholm, fjm and lady_schrapnell!
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I bought Margaret Mahy’s new fantasy novel The magician of Hoad while in Australia in February, but only read it recently. The delay was not because I didn’t want to read it but because it was satisfying to think I had a new Margaret Mahy book up my sleeve. The Magician of Hoad felt quite long compared to her other books, and had a decidedly dream-like quality about it in parts, so my thoughts about it are a bit tangled. It is the sort of book that makes me wish I'd made notes throughout or at least soon afterwards! The main character in The magician of Hoad is, not surprisingly, a magician. In this case it's a small boy called Heriot, who over the course of a decade goes from being a child isolated in his country house to one of the most powerful men in the kingdom. There is a fairy-tale feel to Heriot's story as much of the book feels like it is travelling along pre-destined routes, with element such as three princes, an urchin boy with a secret and star-crossed lovers. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing but it did require more patience because the plot didn’t pull me along. Heriot was a slightly vague main character for much of the book but still managed to not bore me, perhaps because of the air of mystery over his power. There were hints of a world and history much larger than shown in the book – I wouldn’t be surprised if this was a world Mahy used again elsewhere. The idea of the city being alive in some way, and the youngest prince and the magician being at the centre of it, reminded me of some of Mahy’s short stories. One of things I think Mahy does well is the creation of a vivid image that feels both real and magical, and there were many such images and moments in this book. I loved these parts but overall am not sure the whole book was pulled together tightly enough to make it one of my favourite Mahy's. I suspect there are different readings one could take away from the book, though, so it probably merits a re-read at some point. It looks like this book going to be released at the end of this year in the UK & USA. I’ll be interested to read what other people think about it! Tags: books, fantasy, mahy, young adult
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Seeing as it's Bike Week here in the UK it seems appropriate to share a quote from Flora Thompson's Candleford Green (I finished it soon after posting the review last weekend). Laura describes the initially bicycles were the domain of sporting young men, but soon other people started riding, including - much to the disapproval of many - women. Their protestations were unavailing. One woman after another appeared riding a glittering new bicycle. In long skirts, it is true, but with most of their petticoats left in the bedroom behind them. Even those women who as yet did not cycle gained something in freedom of movement, for the two or three bulky petticoats formerly worn were replaced by neat serge knickers - heavy and cumbersome knickers, compared with those of today, with many buttons and stiff buttonholes and cambric linings to be sewn in on Saturday nights, but a great improvement on the petticoats. And oh! the joy of the new means of progression. To cleave the air as though on wings, defying time and space by putting what had been a day's journey on foot behind one in a couple of hours! Of passing garrulous acquaintances who had formerly held one in one-sided conversation by the roadside for an hour, with a light ting, ting of the bell and a casual wave of recognition. ETA: I forgot to say, again for UK residents, many workplaces run Cycle to work" scheme where you can get tax free bikes. And if they don't, there's info on the website to set it up. I saved heaps on my lovely bike through buying it over 18 months at work. You can get lots of extras like helmets too but, sadly, no serge knickers.
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