Juxtabook

The Traveller's Guide to Classical Philosophy by John Gaskin

 

 

The Traveller's Guide to Classical Philosophy by John Gaskin is one of my favourite discoveries in the last twelve months. Those of us who benefited from and '70s or '80s comprehensive school education avoided Latin. Many of my contemporaries may thank their lucky stars for this but, for me, lacking this entry level means to a classical education is a source of regret. You're not more than five minutes into an undergraduate English degree before you realise that our literary canon is under-pinned by thought developed from western Christianity and from the classical world. First year undergrad courses in philosophy (my subsidiary subject) hardly scratched the surface. My lack of knowledge on the latter has been a source of irritation since then.

I know from my sales of Latin and Greek books that there are many autodidacts out there, but most them are going back in their retirement to subjects begun at school in the '40s and '50s. In a busy life the motivation to start from scratch is sadly lacking. And here's where the wonderful The Traveller's Guide to Classical Philosophy comes in. Firstly it is based on lectures: hard stuff based on the spoken word originally is always easier for a tired brain to take in, and often much more entertaining. Secondly it is big on historical and literary context which for a literary critic coming to philosophy in some trepidation is excellent. And lastly, and this may seem trivial, it is short being a beautifully brief tour at 192pp. This, you see, is exactly what I am after.

It has a great first chapter, "A Scheme of Things Entire", being a detailed chronology bigger on explanation than dates, that I keep dipping back into for context. I'm now thoroughly enjoying Part II: The Ideal of Homer and the Ideas of the Philosophers which is clear, well paced and enlivened with drawings. Other elegant features include a proper index (I'm amazed how often indexes are missed out these days) and a gazetteer making it literally a traveller's companion. A review copy that is definitely a keeper.

Offer: free P+P on UK orders of this book until the end of January. The book is £8.99. Just send me a message to order.

We also have a couple of thousand out of print and hard to find philosophy books in stock. You can browse the philosophy shelves here.

Literary Landscapes: Charting the Real-Life Settings of the World's Favourite Fiction

 

Literary Landscapes: Charting the Topography of Classic Literature edited by John Sutherland is not the first to chart this kind literary geography but it is certainly one of the most wide-ranging. Dozens of novels are explored here, with settings across the world. As well as the obvious Brontës in Haworth, Dickens' London, John Steinbeck's Cannery Row, Harper Lee's Alabama, or even A. A. Milnes' '100 Aker Wood' here we also find essays on Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain (set in the Swiss Alps), Sigrid Undset's Kristin Lavrandsatter set in the Gudbrand Valley, Norway, Orphan Pamuk's Snow set in Kars, Turkey, Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart set in Onitsha, Nigeria, and Tim Winton's Cloudstreet set in Perth, Australia. If you look the evocation of place then this not just a place to catch-up with old favourites but to find new ones too.

 

 

The format is by movement and era: Romanticism, Modernism, etc. This gives the book both a thematic as well as a chronological structure. The vast number of essays mean that each treatment is fairly short, but there is no sense of hurry amongst the essays themselves. I assume the range and organisation are down to Sutherland and both features are a strength of the book.

Also standout are the visual production values. It is lavishly illustrated with contemporary photographs (in colour for the more modern books), author photographs, stills from films, maps, and images of books covers. As a book dealer I particularly like the page of evocative mid-twentieth century William Faulkner covers and the full page given over to the anniversary edition cover of La Colmena (The Hive) by Camilo José Cela.

Each essay is bordered by wide margins finely filled with more detail on the authors and their books. Beautifully presented and meaning the essay writers don't have to waste time on background before the exposition on the place in the novel. I like this feature and it is especially useful as for those authors you are less familiar with (and there will be quite a few).

The obvious essay for me to focus on is Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights, set as it is fairly close to where I am typing and an area I know well. The essay is excellent: it immediately brings together the weather and landscape, not simply the oft mentioned cruelty of the landscape which is really the landscape combined with its weather. We certainly get a lot of weather round here (in the never that extreme rather British way). I remember an American book blogger who visited here commenting that until she'd ventured up on the moors behind Haworth she had no idea wind could come from so many directions at once. The moors do take your breath away. Sutherland (for this is one of the literary critic's own essays) then finds a rather lovely sunny quote by contrast that has me reaching for Wuthering Heights again to re-live some its texture. The skies aren't always grey over Haworth.

 

The essay is finished off beautifully with a double page spread of a painting by L.S. Lowry, The Witherns near Haworth; this Lancashire painter is an unexpected choice but the blue-grey-khaki palette of Lowry fits the essay's themes extremely well.

So far I can heartily recommend, but I do have a few quibbles. The essays are very uneven - not surprising perhaps when there are so many - although the Brontë one is one of the best and I love the one on Anne of Green Gables. In addition, some of the sub-editing choices are poor - Wuthering Heights is on the Yorkshire Moors apparently. That phrase, particularly with a capital M, usually refers to the North York Moors. (See this for an example, and this). This is a National Park and Haworth is not in it nor particularly even near it, Yorkshire being a huge county. Obviously Yorkshire moors could be used to described any upland Yorkshire area. This rogue capital letter is small point but an irritating one (why didn't they look at an OS map and call it Haworth Moor?) There are other little quibbles like this on the books / places I know well so there must be others on those I don't.

The most significant problem though is the lack of attribution of the essays. It is possible to eventually find out who wrote what only by turning to the the back where there is an A-Z of contributors, where you have to read through each one till you find who wrote the essay you're interested in. This hassle could have been solved by the use of the old-fashioned by-line.

Having moaned about the difficulty of discovering the contributors, they are generally of a high quality though, which probably means you've never heard of them, as they are mostly academics like Sutherland. They include people like Daniel Hahn (Oxford Companion to Children's Literature), Julie Curtis (Professor of Russian Literature at Wolfson College, Oxford), Andrew Watts (Senior Lecturer in French Studies, University of Birmingham, The Cambridge Companion to Balzac), etc., as well as more general writers such as the ubiquitous Robert Macfarlane.

Overall all, I enjoyed this beautiful book. It is a worthy successor to last years' Literary Wonderlands: A Journey through the Greatest Fictional Worlds Ever Created from the same publisher, and an excellent addition to what you might call the book-list genre.

 

 

Literary Landscapes: Charting the Real-Life Settings of the World’s Favourite Fiction

General Editor: John Sutherland

Published 25 October 2018 – Price: £25 hardback, full-colour illustration.

You could buy this from your local book shop or by using the Amazon link in the text, or directly from me (who is also assessed for Uk tax!). I can offer free UK postage on pre-orders until the 24th October. Just contact me to order.

You could win a copy too: Follow @modernbooks and tweet your own favourite #LiteraryLandscape for a chance to win a copy of Literary Landscapes.

Blog tours can be a bit samey but there is so much to read and discuss in this book that this one might well be worth following.

 

House Keeping Notes

I've been having a long overdue play with the content and layout of this blog. I've gone back to having two side bars to enable more links and more books to be displayed. I've also been checking links removing dead ones an d updating others whilst adding lost more. It is a work in progress and not quite finished but I hope it will be more readable and more useful to you.

A few things to draw your attention to: there are new indie booksellers listed in the Independent Booksellers links, there are new links for UK book fairs, and the Book Care and Repair links are definitely worth a look. I've yet to check the literary societies and I want to add more books to the right side bar. I may add some of my own stock over there.

I read all the time but often don't have time to review so I have moved the Books on the Bedside Table further up on the left - hopefully that is easier to see and may flag up books you never get to see reviewed.

I have very mixed feelings about my current read:

 

but it needs little introduction.

 

If you have suggests for links - your favourite independent book shop for example? Then please add them to the comments and I'll see what I can do.

40% Off Books Bank Holiday Sale

For Monday 27th August only we're having a 40% off sale. Scroll down for your discount code and further details and then browse our site.

 

 

40% off books in stock* - today only

Use the code 2018aug40 at the checkout for a 40% discount on our book prices on Monday 27th August only. There is no minimum purchase and no limit to how often you can use the code on the day so browse our site and enjoy!

Please feel free to pass the discount code onto friends or to your students.

 

 

Books shown:

Rosamond Lehmann: An Appreciation

The Wool-Pack by Cynthia Harnett

and below Rápúnzell [the classic Ladybird Rapunzel in Gaelic]

 

 

 

Book catalogues you might enjoy:

Authors A-Z
Fiction
English local history by county
Children's Literature
Poetry and Criticism
Novels and Criticism
Classics
Language Studies
History
Philosophy
Movements and Themes in Literature
French Literature
Art and Photography
Architecture

Angela Carter

One of the pleasures of being a book dealer is feeling the resurgence of interest in one particular writer or genre. Over the last year it has been Angela Carter. Not that Carter has been particularly neglected since her death but now is the point, a couple of decades on, when writers can start to drop off the public's radar. I have noticed however that Carter sells well at fairs, and I'm often asked for particular works. One gentleman told me he worshipped at the feet of Angela Carter! She was also the author about whom I sold most books at the last fair I attended.

The recent biography (and a good recent biography obviously always helps a writer's reputation) The Invention of Angela Carter: A Biography by Edmund Gordon won or was shortlisted for a number of different awards and comes in and out of stock very quickly. I have some first editions of it in stock at the moment including this one.

 

 

The interest in her though is as much academic as popular. There is a new Angela Carter Society with a very academic board, and the hopes of an Angela Carter conference with a request for proposals for hosting. There are a number of useful twitter feeds for those wanting to keep up-to-date with all things Carter including this one and this one. Recent books include Decadent Daughters and Monstrous Mothers: Angela Carter and European Gothic by Rebecca Munford which would also be of interest to those researching Ann Radcliffe, Edgar Allan Poe, the Marquis de Sade and Baudelaire; and Inside The Bloody Chamber: On Angela Carter, the Gothic and other Weird Tales by Christopher Frayling.

More of Carter's own work, other than her widely available novels, has been produced in accessible well-edited collections including Shaking A Leg: Collected Journalism and Writings edited by Jenny Uglow. And I have found copies of her radio plays sell so well I have difficulty keeping them in stock.

As if to prove my point on the boom in Carter interest, I've noticed whilst composing this post that there is a TV programme, Angela Carter: Of Wolves & Women, on BBC2 at 9pm on Saturday.

It is very much the Gothic/fairy tale element that seems to be fuelling the interest, rather than Carter being simply pigeon-holed as a woman writer. And this adult interest in the creative push we get from fairy tales is evident in the work of Marina Warner (I noticed Karen at Cornflower had a Marina Warner video up recently) as well as in other genres such as this fabulous (in all senses) work on fashion:

 

To browse all our Angela Carter books click here. To browse more critiques of fairy tales please click here. To browse more Marina Warner books please click here.

Bay of Ghosts by Rob Hawley

 

 

As those of you who get our regular newsletter will know my husband Rob has what they used to call a 'slim volume' out. Bay of Ghosts by Rob Hawley is the second of Bradford based Graft Poetry's new series of poetry pamphlets.

It is very hard when you are interested in landscape to write about the north of England after Ted Hughes, and it is hard to write about growing up in the north of England post Simon Armitage, and yet I am proud that Rob has found a way though this and writes about scenes from Yorkshire and Lancashire, past and present, in his own voice. Even with a wife's prejudice I can see Bay of Ghosts does not particularly innovate, but that allows theme and subject to rise above form in a very readable way. Interestingly the northern poet it reminds me most of is actually Andrew Marvell, with dialogues, and personification, and dealing with matters ecological as much as theological, historiographical as well as as metaphysical, the slight echo is there.

I've heard Tom Paulin use the phrase, 'white Gothic', and I think such intense shocks of white and light, form part of the charm of Bay of Ghosts, from the white wraiths of the past to the repeated glimmers of water and flickers of fire and candles. Snapshots appear, drawing heavily on mindfulness, but the whole reaches repeatedly back into the past and constantly pushes at ideas of the future, keeping, at the back of the reader's mind, a conceit of the ebb and flow of time beyond the fashionable idea of the 'moment'.

As to subject matter, there are poems here on Morecambe Bay and the Yorkshire Dales, on Maria and Elizabeth Bronte, on books and collecting, on teaching and reading to children, on a death his grandmother witnessed as a young married woman (the deceased is a husband named only in relation to his wife; a sort of reverse second Mrs de Winter), on trees, on John Clare, and more. Overall, it is a thoughtful and entertaining 28 pages and I am delighted Graft Poetry were keen to publish it.

Should any of that pique your interest, copies of Bay of Ghosts are available in my online shop and at book fairs. £4 plus postage. If you require a signed copy that is easily arranged.

Finally, I should add that the haunting photograph of Morecambe Bay that illustrates the cover is by the wonderful Joe Nash.

 

Where is Arkholme?

For the first time I will exhibiting at Arkholme Book Fair on 23rd June. It is a very pretty spot, easier to get to than one might think, especially if you're anywhere near the M6 in the north of England as it is about 15 minutes from junction 35 of the M6. Or, about an hour from Skipton if you're coming from this part of Yorkshire: A65 to Kirby Lonsdale and turn left on the B6254.

In the light of its relatively little known merits I thought I'd ask Mr J, with his heritage and landscape writer's hat on, to give you a taste...

Book lovers considering visiting Arkholme Book Fair might ask themselves (if they have never been before) just where this little known village is, and what are the nearby highlights. After all, after a few hours perusing hundreds of wonderful books, what better than to explore the locale?

Arkholme is in Lunesdale, the Lune Valley, between the cobbled yards of Kirkby Lonsdale (a few miles upstream) and the historic port of Lancaster (downstream). Arkholme itself is a little gem. Its main street lies away from the busy traffic on the B6254 Carnforth to Kirkby Lonsdale road, and so the village is an oasis of calm and serenity. Barns, farm houses and cottages sit cheek by jowl with Victorian mansions and modern homes in as pleasing a mixture of styles as you could want, and the whole ensemble culminates in Arkholme's neat little parish church with a Norman motte – a large earthwork designed to repel invaders – standing in the church yard. The main street then spills out onto the fields of the Lune flood plain to a spot where, in former years, the river was forded and the road continued on to Melling and beyond. It's a charming place, and no mistake.

 

 

Hornby, a mile or two away, has another ancient earthwork – Castle Stede. This is an example of a Norman motte and bailey castle, with a great mound piled up to guard what once would have been a wooden palisade with a tower to guard the river crossing at Loyn Bridge. Nowadays the site is crowned with a rather incongruous World War II pill-box, but in the Middle Ages it formed part of a system of such forts across Lancashire and beyond. The village of Hornby possesses Hornby Castle which saw action in the English Civil War, but it was extensively remodelled in the Victorian period to give it the romantic aspect it enjoys today.

 

 

Upstream at Kirkby Lonsdale visitors gaze from the parapet of Devil's Bridge to the triangular cut-waters below where the Lune babbles beneath three mighty arches. This is the last gasp of the Westmorland Lune; only a few yards downstream, past the rocks where summer visitors bask, the river enters Lancashire and becomes a broad and majestic presence in the landscape as it meanders through a scene of pastoral beauty, a typically English patchwork of fields with hawthorn hedges separating pastures, lanes and copses.

A mile or two away are the little hamlets of Over Burrow and Nether Burrow. Here, two millennia ago, stood the Roman settlement of Calacum, now no more than tell-tale marks on the ground. For centuries historians and antiquarians had no knowledge of this busy Roman station. Indeed, all that remained was the lore of the local people which insisted that on this spot stood “a city”. No doubt many a sophisticated urban intellectual laughed at the fairy stories of these backward Lancastrian farming folk. Until someone tested the theory with spade and trowel that is!

So Arkholme is set in a fascinating area, full of beauty and history. As you drive to the Book Fair, don't ignore its lovely setting. Lunesdale is a charming spot, well worth a visit. Perhaps make a weekend of it!

 

 

Arkholme Book Fair is on 23rd June, 10am-4pm and you may download a complimentary ticket here. The full address is Arkholme Village Hall, Arkholme, Carnforth, Lancashire LA6 1AT.

Photo credits (copyright for the photos remains with the photographers): the first two, showing Arkholme church and then Hornby Castle, are by Matthew Emmott. Matthew blogs on castles, towers and fortified houses in Westmorland and Cumberland and you can visit here.

The last photograph is by my fellow bookseller and PBFA member Brigid Irwin of The Book House. Brigid organises the Arkholme Book Fair on behalf of us all and you can browse previous years' photos on her website here.

One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus

 

 

If you've just spent half term with a teenager dripping about and are determined to have some good reading matter lined up for them for the summer then you could so much worse than this, reviewed by a tame 14 year old I know:

One of Us Is Lying, by Karen M. McManus, is the sort of book you can never put down. It focuses on a group of teenagers, who witness the unexpected death of one on of their classmates, Simon, while in detention with him. Suddenly, the four students find themselves suspects in a murder investigation. They all had a motive and a chance to commit the crime, but as more characters become involved, it becomes clear that some people may have wanted Simon dead more than others.

One of Us Is Lying is fast paced and full of plot twists, the characters are unique with contrasting personalities and the setting of a high school makes the theme of murder seem all the more dangerous, which adds to the excitement. The story finishes with a surprising climax that will leave you amazed.

This book would be perfect to pack for a journey or to read while on holiday. I would recommend it for all teenagers, who like a page-turner. If you enjoyed it, you may also like Between the Lies, by Cathy MacPhail.

I have read this book too and agree with the reviewer: it really is a page turner and it kept this middle-aged reader as engaged as the teen. Not least because it is very reminiscent of the film The Breakfast Club, though One of Us is Lying follows the disparate group of protagonists beyond the detention until the clever reveal at the end.

Reading Round-up: The Barchester Murders and Poldark

Strange reviews these as I usually only review books that I very much like - these are rather flawed but still worth your attention.

 

 

The Barchester Murders by G. M. Best published by Buried River Press. Oh, I had high hopes for this as I loved the premise. Anthony Trollope is visiting Salisbury for the first time when he is drawn into the events at Hiram's Hospital. One of the old gentlemen is murdered and everyone from the Rev Septimus Harding to his daughters Eleanor and Susan and Dr Grantley and John Bold come under suspicion. The plot is managed very cleverly, and not without difficulty as though seemly a simple closed community type mystery, like the country house, the fact that we know of the later lives of the characters through the Barchester novels does not make it easy for the writer. 

I wanted to like this book so much and though I finished it (it really did make me want to read to the end) I was frequently frustrated by clunky dialogue and an erratic and odd narratorial style. If this kind of thing is to your taste then you can also read the author's Oliver Twist Investigates and Wuthering Heights Revisited.

Poldark, or more specifically Ross Poldark: A Novel of Cornwall 1783 - 1787 by Winston Graham (and yes my copy has Aidan Turner on the front) by Winston Graham was another book I really wanted to like. I did enjoy it, and the TV series (this volume is covered in first series) seemed quite faithful, but somehow it wasn't a page turner. I don't think this was just because I had seen the series. The narration does not change pace but always proceeds at the same, pleasant leisurely style. This was a great read when my bad back was at its worst as I wouldn't have enjoyed the tension but it surprised me that the books had been so popular so quickly in the '40s. Maybe the war, like a bad back, makes you appreciate slow and steady. Especially as the Ross is adjusting to a post-war life of his own. I notice Wikipedia claims that the novels have been shortened significantly as their publishing history has evolved. This does not surprise me as there is such a lot of pootling about. I guess the originals were even slower and steadier. I have gone on to read most of the others in the series, the TV-tie in editions are all attractively produced with stars from the series on the covers, and the pace does not improve in any of them though they still make for a strangely compelling read. I've read as far as Warleggan  (the fourth book in the series), via Demelza and Jeremy Poldark and find them all enjoyable in a pedestrian kind of way though they are more of a winter read than a summer one, perhaps. 

 

 

Poldark is of course back for series 4 on Sunday.

Oxenhope in the Great War

During this four year long anniversary of the First World War, few books have appeared that present the local history perspective of that terrible conflict in quite the way Oxenhope in the Great War does. Norma Mackrell (along with Catherine Snape) has produced a work that is both exhaustive in detail and yet highly poignant in the personal stories it relates – a great achievement. This is a book that does something extraordinary. In a nutshell, it presents in accessible form an entire overview of the First World War, from the Western Front to the Dardanelles to the war at sea, and recounts the exploits of each of *Oxenhope’s men in those disparate theatres of war.

The book provides a lengthy pen portrait of each of these Oxenhope men – more than 370 of them, all with detailed family backgrounds and military records, with photographs accompanying many of them. Many of these are truly poignant – fifty-four of them died in the war, and others were horribly injured.

Read more on Mr J's blog...

*Oxenhope is a village on the moors near Haworth in Yorkshire. The edge of what you might call Brontë country.

A Special Charity Request for Christmas

It isn't often that I post non-book news on here but in the run up to Christmas I hope you'll indulge me by reading about my friend Stephen. I've known Stephen for 25 years since we were students together in the early 1990s. He's a lovely man and his current venture is typically of his thoughtfulness. He is well travelled and whilst staying in Nepal he became friends with a man called Dinanath. He has known Dinanath some years now and is determined to raise the funds to buy Dinanath and his family a house. Dinanath works as a construction worker in Dubai meaning he has to live away from his wife and children who live in poverty back in Nepal. Stephen wants to buy the family a house as not only will it provide the roof over their heads but also will help Dinanath stay in Nepal.

As Stephen's fundraising is a one-off (ie he is not an official charity) it is being presented on the Just Giving Crowdfunder pages. I just wanted, in this week when most of us manage to see our families together under one roof, to bring what he is doing to you attention. It is a difficult time of year and if you cannot give a donation then please share the page on social media. As I say I've known Stephen 25 years and can guarantee the money will be used just as he says and any extra will be used appropriately and in the spirit of the gift.

You can find the JustGiving page here.

What Stephen is actually doing is walking from Lytham to Fleetwood along the Lancashire coast next Saturday. He's a hardy chap and whatever the weather throws at him we know he'll succeed and we hope Dinanath and his family will have their home before too long.