A New Bookselling Website and a Reading Round-Up

Well, it has been rather a while... and I have really missed blogging. The business has been keeping me busy and one of the reasons for this you can see here - ta daa!!... the new Clhawley.com. This is my new bookselling site thanks to Daniel at Eviam. Most indie booksellers in the world of used and out-of-print books have online shops powered by an American company that used to be independent but is now owned by A... well you can guess who. I have one of those sites too, but I have been looking for something brighter and speedier and easier to use for sometime. My new site is by an independent British developer which, as I am sure you'll agree, is rather more in keeping with being an indie bookseller in the first place! It seems to be running very nicely so far, but if you notice any niggles please let me know.

Whilst working I have of course been reading so by way of a catch-up here are a few thoughts on some of my recent favourites:

The Etymologicon by Mark Forsyth is subtitled 'A Circular Stroll Through the Hidden Connections of the English Language' and that is exactly what it is.  We potter along with Forsyth teasing out the meanings, origins and associations old and new for each word before progressing to another word, like a word-association game with a PhD. Part linguistic treasure chest and part history book it is a delight from start to finish, not that you ever do really finish. I keep picking it up and going round again. I know quite a bit about words, in part because of my academic background, in part because my father collects them like other people collect stamps (actually he collects stamps too), but there was plenty new to me here. Having waded through Paradise Lost as an under-grad I closed my eyes and my mind, I think, to the linguistic richness, and the section on new words by Milton was the one that amazed me the most. How did I miss all that!

I am delighted to see from Icon's catalogue that plopped through my door last week that Mark is doing it all again in the The Horologicon: A Day's Jaunt Through the Lost Words of the English Language . As many of you no doubt know you can follow Mark via his blog and on twitter.

I have been reading some really good crime fiction recently. Favourites include the Inspector Banks series by Peter Robinson. Some of the titles have been filmed recently for the ITV series with Stephen Tomkinson , which I enjoyed, but I wish I had found the books first as they are so much better. They are set round here (Yorkshire Dales) and I am very much enjoying the local flavour.

My favourite crime fiction read so far this year though is The Stepmother by Simon Tolkien. Strangely out-of-print I thought this was an utterly engrossing book on both plot and character levels. An MP's second wife is accused of conspiring to murder his first wife setting her husband and his son against each other at the trial. Part conventional detective story, and part coming of age novel, I think The Stepmother captures the difficult relationships perfectly. Tolkien is a lawyer and much of the novel is courtroom based giving it a 'Witness for the Prosecution' layer, but it is so much more than that. I will be hunting down Simon Tolkien's other books. And, yes, he is of that family.

Edited to add: Simon Tolkien is the grandson of J. R. R. Tolkien, and the eldest son of Christopher Tolkien. I've discovered that the reason that The Stepmother appears to be out of print is that it has been renamed Final Witness and it is very much still available in that edition. There are two subsequent books too and you can read more on the author's own website here.

Last up for this little round-up is Promised Land: A Northern Love Story by Anthony Clavane. This is a wonderful book that I can see myself reading and re-reading. It is about football, but that is not the half of it and you should not let the football put you off. Promised Land is a tripart history telling, in lovely old-fashioned narrative style, the story of the arrival and rise and then dispersal of the Jewish community in Leeds; the arrival and rise of Leeds as a large commercial centre and newly minted city and its subsequent fall into depression with the other industrial towns of the north of England, and then its further yo yo economic fortunes; and the arrival and rise (and fall), (and rise), (and fall...) of Leeds United FC.

The author is a former history teacher turned sports reporter so he is well qualified on all counts. He is also a Leeds fan, which if you support any other club can prove to be irritating when he lauds the club known to the rest of us as 'Dirty Leeds'. In that sense the non-football-fan will enjoy the read more! It is however a pretty balanced account, often funny as it details the peculiarities of the managers (Don Revie getting a gypsy in to pee on the corner flags to lift a curse??), and quips that the Jewish support was so large that the Rabbi had them in the morning and Revie in the afternoon, and that's before we start on Brian Clough.

Overall it is a wonderful piece of history covering families, industry, and the wider socio-economic ups and downs of Britain. Much of what happens in football - racism, financial mismanagement, social cohesion, urban planning, stadium architecture - parallels important parts of British life as a whole. I found the chapters on the late Victorian and early twentieth century especially engaging, and if you find the social history of novels of that era fascinating then there is much here for you. Important and interesting, this is definitely not a book to ignore because you don't like football.

Comments

[Harriet]

Welcome back and good luck with the new site! Is Simon Tolkein related to JR? I like the sound of this novel - must look out for it. Thanks.

[Harriet]

That should be JRR of course.

[Juxtabook]

Hi Harriet - Yes, he is of that family. I've had a few emails about the Tolkien book and after a bit of research I've added some more information in the post above. I flagged the para as edited so it should be easy to find.