October, October by Katya Balen

  

October, October

by Katya Balen

Illustrated by Angela Harding

published by Bloomsbury Children’s Books 2020, this edition 2021

October, October was bought for me because my birthday, like the main character, is in October. Unlike my parents, hers chose to name her after the month, and they called her October, October, so good they named her twice. I’m not sure if it’s a good idea naming a child after the month they were born in and repeating the name every time could get irritating, but is just an aside. It may be listed as a children’s book, but I found it perfectly readable, the story grabs you and you have to know what happens next, does the owlet get rescued, is her Father OK after he fell from the tree and does she speak to her Mother. These and so many more questions are raised and answered in this book whilst October learns that her Mother is a city girl and her Father is a country boy and that they both find living in their partners worlds too difficult, but it doesn’t mean that they don’t love each other or their child.

The Yellow Duster Sisters by Susan Kennaway

  

The Yellow Duster Sisters (A wartime childhood)

by Susan Kennaway

first published in 2011

From what I was taught at school, the Second World War started with six months of a phoney war. The war had been declared and then nothing much seemed to happen, for six months, however somewhere along the line it was decided that non-essential personnel should be evacuated from the large towns and cities which might get bombed. Schools were transplanted from cities to towns and villages where it was thought that they would be safe. All the pupils and teachers, were taken in by local people. Some children were moved further afield, to Canada, Australia and, in the case of the two sisters in the book, to Africa. Moving this far came with it’s dangers, at least one ship was sunk, on the way there and not everyone got a warm welcome. This book was written, after the death of her elder sister so that their experiences, as refugees during the second world war, would not be forgotten. The stories of all the refugees is part of the history of the war, and as such should not be overlooked. This book is part of filling out that history, it would be interesting to hear the story from the view point of a teacher, moved from a city, to the back of beyond trying to carry on teaching pupils who probably want to go home to find out how their parents, friends and neighbours are and if their home is still standing.

It is an interesting story, I felt sorry for the two girls, sent away from home to be cared for by their Mother’s elder sister who was working as a governess. It was as if they were inconvenient, and remained so when they eventually got home to a world that was so different from the one they had left behind.

Our Spoons Came From Woolworths by Barbara Comyns

  

Our Spoons Came From Woolworths

by Barbara Comyns

First published in Britain by Eyre & Spottiswode 1950

Published in Paperback by Virago Press Ltd. 1983

The edition I read, Virago Press 2013

Introduction by Maggie O’Farrell 2013

Maggie O’Farrell picked up a copy of the book, probably the 1983 edition, in a second hand book shop in Lyme Regis and thought it the best 50p she had ever spent.

Barbara Comyns, born in 1909 was so like the main character Sophia, that her daughter complained that she had been killed off in the book. It shows life in 1930’s bohemian London, which may have been jolly fun for those with plenty of money, but wasn’t so good for those who were living from one art sale to the next.

Sophia tells the story in the first person, as it is, as it happens, the struggles with not enough money coming in, she does her best to get modelling jobs whilst her husband tries to establish himself as a painter. When she becomes pregnant his relatives complain that she is dragging him down and she should put the child up for adoption so that she can earn more and keep her husband whilst he establishes himself as an artist.

The description of pre-NHS maternity care are horrendous as is the warning that if she turns up at the hospital without her pink card she will not be admitted, even if she is in labour.

I agree with Maggie O’Farrell, when you start reading this book it is hard to put down and finding out that so much of the story is based on the experiences of the author makes you wonder how they managed to survive that lifestyle. I suppose the answer is that a lot of them didn’t, but they don’t tend to write the history of that time.

Second Variety by Philip K. Dick

  

Second Variety

Volume two of the Collected Stories by Philip K. Dick

published 1987

Philip Kindred Dick was born on 16^th December 1928 and died 2^nd March 1982, before the collected stories was published. His twin sister died shortly after their birth and their tombstone was inscribed with both their names. He died, at the age of 53, due to complications after a stroke and his Father had his ashes buried with his sister.

He started publishing si-fi short stories in magazines in 1953, at the age of 23. Volume 2 of his collected stories contains ones written between 1952 and 1955. They are dystopian and, although written over 70 years ago, contain some things that are currant such as fighting robots and the idea of a Planet B. Nothing good comes of these things, robots are in charge of their manufacture, they develop new and more efficient fighting robots who decide that the humans are the problem, kill them off on earth and then fight amongst themselves, leaving earth devoid of life. In another story people travel back in time to find out how to make robots so that they can use them to restore earth to a living planet. The people take the plans for the robots and their inventor accidentality dies whilst they do this, leaving them with the problem of what to do to correct their problems. They go forward to find out the effect of their actions and find earth is a green and pleasant planet, so they burn the notes they took.

The story with the planet B had earth laid waste, probably due to war, so the survivors decided they needed a new world. They thought Mars looked possible, so they sent out a survey team to check it out. They found the ruins of a city, deserted about 6,000 years before and information to show that they had headed for an alternative planet, unfortunately that one happened to be earth. So they decided they had to look outside the galaxy for a Planet B.

There are 27 stories in this collection, there are five books in the series, He also wrote about 45 novels, many of which were made into films. He is considered to be one of the greatest dystopian si-fi writers of the 20^th century. There is one thing that does date it, all his characters smoke and he mentions it a lot.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon

  

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

by Mark Haddon

Published 1988

The story starts with a dead dog, it was on the lawn of the narrator, Christopher Boone’s, neighbour.

Christopher has Asperger’s Syndrome and the story is told from his perspective.

As the events progress, we find out about Christopher and his neighbour, Mrs Shears, her husband and Christopher’s Mother and Father. We find out how Christopher’s behaviour has affected the lives of the two couples living opposite each other and how this has lead to the death of Wellington, the Shears dog.

It is well written and gives an insight into the way that Christopher reacts to situations, how he can get overwhelmed by them and how he behaves when this happens and how this affects those around him. There is no resolution, but then it isn’t important, life goes on, but differently. I think the importance of the book is that it has the narrator as someone with Asperger’s Syndrome and the story is told from his point of view and through his logic, not from the view of someone observing his actions, but not understanding them or realising that sometimes he just needs space to reduce the number of thoughts dashing round his head.

The Autobiography of Kathryn Janeway by Kathryn M Janeway

  

The Autobiography of Kathryn Janeway

by Kathryn M Janeway

edited by Una McCormack

First Published 2020 by Paramount Pictures Corporation

It is odd to read the autobiography of a fictional character who wont be born for a couple of hundred years, especially, as it is an autobiography, and therefore it is written by that person, but, if you accept that person as real, then it works.

Her early childhood is happy and secure, she grows up wanting to follow in her Fathers footsteps, and join Starfleet. She works hard and gets in a year early, with the intention of becoming a Captain. Things don’t go that smoothly at the Academy, there are those who think she got her place because she is her Father’s daughter. Nothing she can do about that, except work extra hard to prove that she got there on her own merit. This doesn’t end when she graduates, there is always someone saying she got what she got because of her Father.

The book fills in what we don’t know about her before she became Captain of Voyager. I didn’t know it was her first command, though I think I knew it was a new ship, I didn’t know that her previous Captain thought that she got the post because of her late Father and not on her merit. It would have been interesting to know how he felt when the ship was reported missing, though it wouldn’t have fitted in with the narrative.

The journey through the Delta quadrant is well documented in the tv series, so it is well that she doesn’t go into too much detail, though there were a few things that I thought should have been included, but I suppose there always will be. It is what happened next that I find difficult, everyone seems to have left Voyager and lived happy lives. Though in Picard, 7 of 9 is looking for revenge after Icheb dies in her arms. Also, there is a movement towards accepting holograms, like the Doctor, as having human rights, which leads to a backlash and civil unrest. Of course, this could be accounted for in alternatives realities, there are several stories in which things go wrong, badly and then something is done that takes everyone back to before it happened and they go down another path that takes them away from the bad ending.

Whatever, it takes you into the reality of Kathryn Janeway and her life and leaves you wondering if the older Janeway, turning up to help at the end of Voyager’s journey, manages to do it without ending up dead, and if so, what did she do next, how did she get home this time, did her daughter help in that return.

Atlantic City Proof by Christopher Cook Gilmore

Atlantic City Proof

by Christopher Cook Gilmore

Copyright 1978

The book was serialised on Women’s Hour, sometime in the 1980’s, but we could never remember how it ended or what happened, apart from the fact that the engine’s on Garvey’s boats kept getting bigger and faster in an attempt to out run the coast guard. My husband found the book, so that we could find out what happened.

The book is written from Garvey’s perspective, who’s family moved into an elephant after their farm was washed away by a storm and a very high tide. His Father was always waiting for the sea to bring the farm back, but year after year, it remained under water.

Garvey loved the sea and sailing, all his endeavours are about enjoying the speed of the boats he was sailing and finding out how to make a living whilst sailing.

Then there was Minnie. Her family worked on the end of the pier, until one night the sea took away the end of the pier and her parents with it. Garvey meets Minnie whilst clam fishing and a friendship begins. It could be described as a romance, between Garvey and Minnie. It is set in Prohibition America, Garvey considered that transporting the booze from the boats in the international waters to the shore was more lucrative than digging around in the mud for clams and things moved from there to getting bigger, faster boats and riding the wave the of prohibition till it was repelled and seeing what the next big thing was after that. Minnie is an important part of the team, as it is she and her knowledge of how things work, who keeps the engines running smoothly thus enabling them to out run anyone else.

It is an easy book to read. Garvey is an easy character to feel sympathy for, he has fallen for someone who doesn’t like to make commitments. He’s in it, more for the thrill of speed than anything. He never drinks any of the booze he transports, unlike so many others connected to the network.