literary life A look at what’s new in the book world. Books editor: Angela Wintle

n 2005, the Rev Peter Owen Jones was inducted as vicar for the combined benefice of , I and in , three wonderfully

romantic, small parishes in the Roseveare Matt Photo: shade of the South Downs. No better apostle could ever have appeared. The dashing Owen Jones, with a colourful past in advertising, Australia, travelling, Indian asceticism and Chinese Buddhism (not to mention running a mobile disco), set about vivifying Christianity in practical terms by pilgrimage. The Downs were on his doorstep. In 2017, BBC Four commissioned him to spend a year walking the South Downs Way for a documentary called South Downs: ’s Mountains Green, in which the irrepressible cleric rambled gustily over hill and dale, recording natural history and talking to everyone. His new book is another pilgrimage, a solitary road trip from Cornwall to Cumbria, stopping to climb hills along the way. Head in the clouds In 12 days, travelling without Sussex vicar Peter Owen Jones reveals the personal any modern electronic media, awakening and perspective to be gained from scaling camping cheaply and ignoring the weather, he equalled the England’s mighty hills. Louise Dumas is inspired summit of Mount Everest by scaling a combination of smaller peaks in the English countryside. Above: Peter Owen Jones’ determination tainted by life insurance and details, and sparkling with Owen Jones to scour himself clean of a “life sugar”, and strip back to raw memorable phrases. There are taking a well- truth and emotional honesty conflicts: Owen Jones’ desire to earned rest through physical endurance, strip away the protective layers practical exploration and of life sits uneasily with his exposure to the elements, is a ambition to see beauty and truth very appealing idea, one recently in the everyday, just as the 12 described by Olivia Laing in selected musical compositions he her Ouse quest, To The River. chooses to accompany each day Like Laing, Owen Jones uses cannot possibly be heard without geography as a prop for personal the benefit of recordings. Everest nostalgia, lateral reference and But perhaps this is taking England by Peter immediate impressions. a preacher too literally and Owen Jones is The book is divided into an ignoring the wonderful wood published by AA apostolic 12 chapters, each for a quirky tree or two. It’s an Publishing at illustrated by atmospheric inspiring book. Where are your £12.99. photographs and directional thick socks and walking boots? u

In last month’s review of Regency Square: Its History and Its Stories it was incorrectly stated that Brighton’s Russell Square had become a car park, Bedford Square had lost out to the Holiday Inn, and Max Miller and the Duke of Albany had links with Regency Square. These errors do not feature in the book.

76  Sussex Life: June 2019 My life in books Must-Reads Ian Williams Our choice of the best new Sussex books

THE WILD CTHULHU FLOW ERS OF CASEBOOKS: THE HIGH SHERLOCK WEALD by Chris Clennett HOLMES AND Ian Williams is a physician, comics (Kew Publishing, £15) THE SUSSEX artist and writer, based in Hove. He SEA-DEVILS Recent press reports founded and co-edits the website by James Lovegrove spotlight alarming GraphicMedicine.org, and his weekly (Titan Books, £12.99) global declines in animal comic strip, Sick Notes, about the trials Sir Arthur Conan Doyle populations, but flora is and tribulations of working in the NHS, became so fed up with suffering, too. A quarter ran in The Guardian for two years. His the success of Sherlock Holmes that he killed of the world’s plant species face possible extinction. latest graphic novel, The Lady Doctor, is off the great detective. But more than a century All the more reason to value the floral diversity of out now (Myriad, £14.99). later, Holmes is still finding clues and confronting our region. villains, thanks to other authors. One of the most The High Weald is home to 677 native and The book I loved as a child prolific is James Lovegrove, who has featured naturalised plants, including ferns and grasses. Its I clearly remember my mother reading Holmes in five previous novels. For his latest undulations and rocky outcrops made it tougher Clive King’s Stig of the Dump to me and outing, he is in sunny Sussex rather than Baker to farm than the softer, richer clays of its sister my brother. I especially liked the bit where Street. Holmes has retired to a small downland landscape, the Low Weald, enabling the survival Stig and Barney protect a fox which has farm, but as the faithful Watson relates, remains of a range of plant-supporting habitats, from the sought sanctuary from a pack of hunting as active as ever. This time he has to contend remarkable ghyll woodlands around Hastings to the hounds in Stig’s cave. Stig sends the with Sussex sea devils – strange amphibious heaths of Ashdown Forest. alpha hound packing by biting its ear. creatures from a seabed city which come ashore This is a toe-in-the- water style introductory guide, every few centuries to capture young women. the 98 pages of text interspersed with photographs, The book that inspired me as a teenager The novel is action-packed, and the mysterious a real help to beginners desperate to identify plants Primo Levi’s The Wrench, although I’m sea devils are Holmes’ strangest adversaries yet. while out walking, or wanting to recognise different not sure it inspired me in the right way. Conan Doyle could not help writing well even landscape types. Hardcore enthusiasts, however, will It’s about an itinerant rigger (an engineer when hating Holmes. Despite his energetic prose, want The Flora of Sussex, published by the Sussex who erects oil derricks and the like) who’s Lovegrove fails to match the magic of the originals. Botanical Recording Society last year. constantly on the move and loves and Adam Trimingham Jack Watkins leaves. He’s a restless libertine and loner. I have finally – in my early 50s – had a child and got married. Enough said.

W EST SUSSEX: THE The book I’ve never finished YEAR-ROUND FOLLOW There are many, but let’s say The WALKS by Paul Grzegorzek Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor by David Weller (Killer Reads, £8.99) Dostoevsky. It remains unfinished for all (Countryside Books, This debut novel, the reasons Viv Groskop outlines in her £8.95) the first featuring marvellous book, The Anna Karenina Fix. If you have confined Brighton PC Gareth I did manage to get through Crime and your country walking to Bell, is marketed as a Punishment, however. the warmer months, then thriller rather than a David Weller is hoping detective story, and it’s The book that moved me most to change your habits, arguing there is much immediately clear that The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, pleasure to be gained ‘off season’. this is no ordinary police procedural whodunnit. an author who can be very funny, but The 20 circular walks included in this collection Both Bell and the reader know who the not here. A bit of me died reading this are suitable for any time of the year, but he has criminals are (with one notable exception gutting portrayal of abject poverty and divided the routes into seasons to show each at in the form of a to-be-discovered traitorous human exploitation, but it also made me its very best, whether it be a woodland cloaked colleague), but the difficulty is getting them realise how fortunate I was to have been in the golden colours of autumn, the crisp views behind bars. And the question is, how much born into a loving, solvent, middle-class of a winter landscape, a fragrant carpet of will Bell risk to achieve that end? The answer is family in the middle of the 20th century. bluebells or the lush tapestry of wildflowers in a surprising amount, perhaps, given that Things have not changed as much as we a summer meadow. the Brighton-based author was previously a would have hoped. There are hikes over Harting Down, the Trundle police officer in the city, working on undercover and the South Downs Way; through the majestic drug operations. The book I’m reading now woodland of Northpark Copse and Eartham Despite insider knowledge occasionally Philippa Perry’s The Book You Wish Your Wood; and beside the peaceful waters of the weighing too heavily, the novel remains fast Parents Had Read (and Your Children Weir Wood Reservoir, the River Ouse and the paced – as a thriller should – and will appeal to Will be Glad That You Did). We have a Wey & Arun Canal. crime fans who prefer action and machismo to two year old and this is helping. The title What are you waiting for? mystery and psychology. is very apt. Angela Wintle Anne Hill Contact:[email protected] / 01903 703730

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