Bookylicious Contents Editorial 3 Reading Recommendations 4–5 Scarygirl? More like Scaredygirl! 6–7 by Marie Anne Cope In the footsteps of... Thomas Hardy 8–11 by Paul Jeorrett Review. Boys in the Trees: a Memoir 12–13 by Allan Howells The Book Diaries 14–15 by Gwyneth Marshman Contact details and links 16 2 Editorial Welcome to the first edition of Bookylicious! The idea for this zine came out of a community radio show we are both involved in: Calon Talks Books. We thought it might be fun to write up all of our book recommendations in one place — and then the remit grew as we thought of more and more articles we could include alongside the book lists. So this edition is our first bash at putting something “out there”. We have no real idea how it will take off or where it will go, but as the show is dedicated to exploring the world of books and reading, this zine will remain true to that spirit — we may reach heights we never even dreamed of while sitting in that hot little studio, scrabbling for the next Richard Thompson track to add to the playlist. Please read, enjoy, and share with your friends. Gwyneth Marshman Paul Jeorrett 3 Reading recommendations In each issue of Bookylicious, we will bring you the books we’ve recommended/discussed on Calon Talks Books in the last few months, from local authors to new writers to old classics. We hope these updates will provide you with enough reading material to fill several lazy weekends! October to December 2015 Oliver Twist Charles Dickens Satin Island Tom McCarthy The Dragon of Allerton Oak Jude Lennon The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Washington Irving The Taxidermist’s Daughter Kate Mosse Après les Vendanges Colin S. Story NeuroTribes Steve Silberman A Brief History of Seven Killings Marlon James Coastlines Patrick Barkham Beatlebone Kevin Barry Faust Goethe Village Christmas Laurie Lee A Vindication of the Rights of Woman Mary Wollstonecraft Riding Rockets Mike Mullane Countdown Frank Borman The Way of the Explorer Edgar Mitchell Alice in Waterland Mark Davies 4 Alice in Wonderland Lewis Carroll King of All Balloons Mark Davies Les Liaisons Dangereuses Choderlos de Laclos The Last Campaign of Marianne Tambour David Ebsworth The Song-Sayer’s Lament David Ebsworth Bonds Marie Anne Cope Broken Bonds Marie Anne Cope Bonds Rebound Marie Anne Cope The Jacobite’s Apprentice David Ebsworth Boys in the Trees: A Memoir Carly Simon To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee Dracula Bram Stoker Unfaithful Music and Disappearing Ink Elvis Costello Dune Frank Herbert Kolymsky Heights Lionel Davidson And if you’re intrigued as to what music we played on the shows to accompany these books, just tune in to our Spotify playlist and browse through our very eclectic choices. We usually select tracks that relate to the topics under discussion, but occasionally we like to throw in something wild, weird and unexpected just to mix things up. Enjoy! 5 Scarygirl? More like Scaredygirl! Marie Anne Cope Marie Anne Cope is the author of Bonds, Broken Bonds and Tales From A Scarygirl. The following article comes from her blog Scary Ramblings, and provides an insight into the mind of an author - specifically the fear that comes from sharing one's work for the first time. What is fear? According to the Oxford English Dictionary, it is “a feeling of apprehension, distress or alarm caused by impending danger or pain.” Wikipedia gives us a variation, describing fear as “an emotion induced by a perceived threat”, and goes on to say “fear is the ability to recognise danger, leading to an urge to confront it or flee from it”. In essence, fear is a basic survival instinct. It protects us by alerting us to danger and then preparing the body to respond to this danger. Yet how often do we actually find ourselves in a life-or- death situation, where the fight-or-flight response is critical? For most of us, never. Instead, we find ourselves hanging back, dawdling... in a word, procrastinating. I welcome you to my dilemma. As I sit here now, my heart is racing, my breathing is quickening and my blood pressure is elevated. My body is preparing itself for physical action – to fight or to run. But why? A sabre-toothed tiger doesn’t have me trapped in a cave, Freddie Krueger isn’t plaguing my dreams and Michael Myers certainly isn’t my brother (I don’t think!). Yet I am afraid and my body responds in the same way, regardless of what it is I am afraid of. 6 For the longest time I have wanted to write; to explore the deepest recesses of my mind, where monsters roam and evil lurks. But how deep do I go? Dare I push open the rusted iron door and step through into the blackness? Dare I explore the darkest and most despicable depths of my psyche, where a certain kind of magic has taken root? You cannot see it, you cannot touch it, but I assure you it is there. The voices whisper to me in the dark of the night, calling to me, drawing me to my journals, whilst the world sleeps on, oblivious to the danger that prowls inside. What I fear is fear itself. Fear that my resolve will come crashing down. Fear that the walls I have built to protect me from the demons within might crack and crumble as I impart the secrets that I hold. Welcome to my world. How much to share with you I have yet to decide. How much I can trust you can only be proven with the passage of time. Is this why it has taken me so long to write this blog? Perhaps. I want you to know me, to know my words, but are you ready? Are you brave enough to open yourself up to the whispers of a warped and twisted mind? Will we be bonded by what has been or what is to come? Will my ramblings entice you to linger, entice you to share? Oh, would that I had a spell that I may cast, so that I may but know your mind. I must, however, content myself that you have found my words. May fear protect you when the darkness comes. Follow Marie online! Website: www.marieannecope.co.uk Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Marie-Anne-Cope-Author Twitter: @MarieAnneCope Blog: scaryramblings.blogspot.co.uk 7 In the footsteps of... Thomas Hardy Paul Jeorrett The first in a series of articles, with a strong connection between the first few authors in whose steps we might tread. Why start with Thomas Hardy? For many of you, I am sure the first thought that comes to your mind is “his novels are a bit on the bleak side!” Perhaps you even dread them, if you had to do Tess or The Mayor of Casterbridge for GCSE or A-level English Literature. For me it’s personal. From childhood, I remember my grandparents reading Hardy’s novels and poems aloud to each other in front of an open fire. Along with this came a lot of family history and tales of connections with the Hardy family in Dorset. My grandfather was born in Tolpuddle in 1899, and the Hardy family lived only a few miles away: it was a very small world. Reality is often stranger than fiction: would you believe my grandfather’s Aunt Sally was best friends with Thomas Hardy’s sister, Kate Hardy? Aunt Sally even eloped with the village blacksmith: very Hardyesque! Hardy wrote a poem, Farmer They buried him on a Sunday Dunman’s Funeral, about one of So folk might not be balked my distant ancestors: His wish, as 'twas their one day, And forty couples walked. "Bury me on a Sunday" They said to have it Sunday He said, "so as to see Was always his concern, Poor folk there; 'tis their one day His meaning being that one day To spare for burying me." He'd do us a good turn. With forethought of that Sunday We must, had it been Monday, He wrote while he was well, Have got it over soon. "On ten rum bottles one day But now we gain, being Sunday, Drink for my funeral." A jolly afternoon. 8 Farmer Dunman sounds like a nice chap, doesn’t he? Even though the poem is about a funeral, it has a positive message. With all this in my DNA, you might find it surprising that I have rarely visited Dorset and have never been to Hardy’s birthplace – but on a very wet summer’s day in 2015, that all changed. The adventure began when my wife and I took a short break in Litton Cheney and Lulworth Cove Youth Hostels. Litton Cheney is a beautiful village set in a valley that hasn’t changed much in centuries, overlooked by the long barrows and other prehistoric monuments that regularly appear in Hardy’s writing. One thing Hardy does really well is to evoke a feeling for the past and, in many ways, the unchanging nature of the human condition. At one point, waiting for a bus in the driving rain and brooding mist in the middle of rural Dorset, with only sheep for company, we felt plunged into the film set of a Hardy adaptation. Eventually we arrived at Lower Bockhampton, where the National Trust manages Hardy’s Birthplace. Immediately I was surprised at how remote and rural it felt, even though it is only a few miles from Dorchester.