Found in Translation

Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and Readers' Day, May 2013.

Being on the 8am train to London on a Saturday was a bit of a shock to the system yesterday, not helped by the fact I'd been out at a Norfolk and Norwich Festival Event the night before. However it turned out to be a great day and one that I really hope I can repeat in 2014!

I posted just under a month ago about the IFFP 2013 and the book I was reading - and I'm pleased to say that the author did manage to wrap the book up in the last 150 pages.  I won't say it happened in a totally satisfying way but it was very appropriate for the rest of the book, and yes we did have some great chats about the book at our meeting and on the train yesterday.  We also talked a lot more about it after hearing from the author and the translator and were very proud of ourselves that we had spotted what he was trying to do!

The second book I had to read was The Detour by Gerbrand Bakker (translated from the Dutch by David Colmer) and back in April I was looking forward to reading it as light relief from Traveller of the Century.  It really drove home the maxim of not judging a book by its cover. It might have been short with a large font and lots of small chunks but it, for me was also so unrealistic and stylised that it ranks with some of the least enjoyable books I've read.  If there was a 'deeper meaning' to be found it was so deep that I couldn't find it and made the books feel very shallow.

Before the Readers' Day I also managed to read Bundu by Chris Barnard (translated from the Afrikaans by Michiel Heyns) which was enjoyable but although sharing similar themes with Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie came nowhere near the latter's brilliance.

The Readers' Day was held at the Free Word Centre in Farringdon and gave us the chance to hear from translators, authors, judges, bloggers and readers.  I hoped to be able to make lots of notes and to tweet form the day but I found myself so engrossed that all I have are odd notes and phrases that have stuck in my mind.

We heard from the authors and translators of the six books on the IFFP shortlist and this really altered my thoughts on some of the books I'd read and cemented other opinions!  What really came across was the authors' views on their translators.  We've heard a lot from translators at our reading group but not really met many of the authors who've been translated. We've thought about and researched the original work but yesterday it was interesting to hear from the authors and how generous they can be to their translators.  Andres Neuman for instance sees a work that has been translated as being only 49% his...

After an incredible lunch we took part in a focus group thinking about the IFFP, book groups, translated fiction, book buying and anything else that came up. This was followed by 2 short talks - one from a blogger who spent a year trying to read a book (translated into English) from each of the 196 UN recognised countries - ayearofreadingtheworld.com  and one from the English branch of PEN talking about the importance of reading books from other languages.
After this there were some fun creative writing exercises.

The last session of the day was great fun - a translation duel.  No violence or swords involved just the mighty pen! Two translators had been given the same passage to translate independently and then these were put side by side and compared.  Not even the title of the chapter was the same!
The first few lines were then discussed with a third person (also a translator) as he got them to explain their choices, decisions and thought patterns.  It has been many years since I did any (minor) translating but this session reaffirmed how hard it was and how there weren't really any right answers of how to do it - just personal preferences!

At the very end of the day the winner of the IFFP as chosen by us readers was announced and a book that has been translated from Croatian was declared the winner - Trieste by Dasa Drndic, translator Ellen Elias-Bursac.  My copy is still on reserve from the library but the notes I made yesterday lead me to believe that although hard going this is going to be a fascinating read.

I was left with a few thoughts from the day that are going to be hard to shake and will influence my reading:

In English we are spoiled by being able to read in our own tongue so many books form so many places but we have to also read books translated into English to get a real feel for the world.

Only 4.5% of the books we find in the UK are in translation and of these women are woefully under-represented.  We realised that this is something we've unconsciously noticed at our Reading Group as we were actually struggling to remember more than 2 books by women that we've read in the 3+ years we've been meeting.

As readers we are all translators - what we actually take in from a book is our version of the text and can't be what the original author had in mind as he/she wrote.

Pens must be bisexual - it shouldn't matter if a man writes a female and vice versa just as it shouldn't matter if a female translates a man. The quality of the writing and content should make any scenario work and if it doesn't then this is the problem not the gender of the author/translator.

I'd really like to thank The Booktrust, The Reading Agency, English Pen, BCLT, The Free Word Centre, the authors, judges, translators and speakers (plus anyone else I've forgotten) for making the shadowing process and the Readers' Day such a great experience.  I hope we can take part again next year and I'm really looking forward to finding out which book the judges pick as the winner!

Theatrical Interlude 11 (2013)

 The Tempest, The Globe, London. May 2013

The Season of Plenty presented by the Globe is really spoiling us this year, as well as seeing 6 plays at the London theatre I am also hoping to catch another  two as plays tour around the country.

Yesterday's trip was to see The Tempest and the weather forecast wasn't hopeful that we'd avoid our own bad weather...

I saw a version of The Tempest back in September 2011 where I found it a mixed play.  This version blew me away.

From the shipwreck at the beginning to the reconciliation at the end  felt I was an interloper on the island watching the story unfold.  Roger Allam as Prospero was a joy to watch - he played the magician as a kindly father who was trying to right wrongs rather than a cruel enslaver of the spirits on the island.

Unlike in other productions Miranda and Ferdinand were stronger characters than expected - with the lines Shakespeare wrote they are never going to set the world on fire but they showed some spirit and humour.

The scenes with Stephano, Trinculo and Caliban stole the show (especially Caliban) and I think that due to judicious cutting their scenes were just the right length, always funny and never over stretched.

Ariel and the other sprites were otherworldly and used the whole theatre to create their effects, making particular use of the original lines to do this.

The slight flat point for me were the scenes with the King and his followers, although boasting a few of my favourite actors from the Globe their scenes were, for me, underplayed and I almost missed some of the important plot points.

The nature of the play really allowed for audience participation and in jokes - Caliban in particular managed this yesterday as he was amazed by helicopters and interacted wonderfully with the person in a wheelchair at the stage edges being particular highlights!

This version seemed a lot less episodic and much more coherent than the version I saw in 2011 and once more Mr Norfolkbookworm and I came away from the theatre saying that this was the best play we'd seen there! I am pleased to have seen Roger Allam on stage at The Globe after missing him as Falstaff in Henry IV a few years ago.

The weather did smile on us too, and the rain didn't start to fall until the 'curtain' calls!

Theatrical Interlude 10 (2013)

 Mamma Mia! Winter Garden Theater, New York. May 2013.

The Norfolbookworm and her mum went international last week as we treated ourselves to a few days in New York.

The weather was amazing and in 3 1/2 days we walked about 20 miles and saw loads of the famous sights.  Walking across the Brooklyn Bridge towards Manhattan under a glorious blue sky, sailing in front of the Statue of Liberty aboard the Staten Island Ferry, the views from the top of the Empire State Building and the Rockerfeller Center were all highlights.

I did indulge in a bit of a busman's holiday with a visit to the New York Public Library - a truly amazing building and home to the original Winnie the Pooh and friends:

We had a list of things we really wanted to do while in The Big Apple and seeing a something on Broadway was pretty high on that list.  On our first full day we arrived at the famous TKTS booth in Time Square and queued for discount tickets for a show that evening.

The booth opens at 3pm for the evening discounts and even though we were there before 3.30 the queue was huge - happily there were also lots of shows and tickets available.  We'd decided that we wanted to see something fun and lively, set ourselves a price limit and joined the queue.  Barely anytime later we were at the counter and came away clutching tickets for the orchestra stalls at the Winter Garden Theater to see Mamma Mia! at 8pm.

One of my earliest musical memories is ABBA's Super Trouper plus as Mr Norfolkbookworm and I got married in Greece the year the film version of the show was released I've always felt an affinity to the show but never managed to get around to seeing it in London.

We weren't disappointed at all - from walking into the theatre and being given a *free* playbill (programme) until the final curtain we had a ball. The energy of the performers, the set, costumes, music and acting made it a magical evening.

There were a few negatives - audiences in New York seem to be worse behaved than in London, people were talking quite loudly throughout, especially in dialogue/quiet song moments. The walls to the theatre seemed quite thin and unlike in London it wasn't just drums you heard in the auditorium - it was all traffic and people chatting just outside. You could even smell their cigarettes...

However all in all we had a great time, and as we joined in during the last number (participation encouraged, not crashing the stage!) we can now say that we too have sung and danced on Broadway!

Theatrical Interlude 9 (2013)

The Mousetrap, Theatre Royal, Norwich. April 2013.

This play has been on my 'would like to see' list for quite a while but because it shows no sign of closing in London it keeps slipping down this list. When the 60th Anniversary tour announced it was coming to Norwich it seemed like the perfect opportunity, especially as Mr Norfolkbookworm will come with me to the Theatre Royal.

As all audience members are sworn to secrecy regarding this play it isn't the easiest play to review.  It wasn't helped by my reaction to it.

The set was beautiful, all the action takes place in the sitting room of a large house that has just been turned into a guest house, there are various entrances to this space and it evoked the late 1940s wonderfully.

The actors were all very good as well.

However I'm not sure if this was a straight comedic play or a farce.  I do know that all the way through I was expecting the cast to break into song and or dance routines - a la Blakeney Players.  To be honest I think that would have improved my enjoyment.

The script was beyond stilted and I guessed 'who dunnit' before the interval. I didn't even find it very funny. Perhaps this is the point?

I like Agatha Christie as a rule - one of the few crime writers I do like - but to be honest how this has survived 60 years is beyond me.

Lost in translation

First thoughts about the 2013 IFFP

For the past three years I've belonged to (and help run) a book group that reads books that have been translated into English.  We've read our way around the world and all manner of genres and met a lot of interesting writers and translators.

This year we are shadowing the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and have been sent two books to read and discuss in advance of a reader's day in London which some of us will be attending.

I've been reading the first of the two "Traveller of the Century" by Andres Neuman (translated from the Spanish by Nick Caistor and Lorenza Garcia) for over two weeks now and this is very unusual for me as I generally either race through a book or give up on it.

The book is nearly 600 pages long but that isn't the reason for my slowness, in fact I am at a loss to explain how I am reading it.  The story is very slow and ponderous, to be honest after 460 pages not an awful lot has happened, but there is just enough plot to keep me interested. I like the translation strand of the tale, many of the same questions we've grappled with as a group are discussed but I really could do without the sex scenes. I'm not a prude but these seem both badly written and gratuitous.

I want to know how Neuman can resolve so many threads in 150 pages without changing the style. I fear that I am going to feel unsatisfied but the skill shown so far is keeping me hopeful.

I think there are going to be some good discussions around this book both at our next meeting and at the reader's day.  I am glad that our second book is a bit shorter however...

Theatrical Interlude 8 (2013)

Macbeth, Trafalgar Studios, London. April 2013

Where to start with this one?

It should have been so good, in fact early reviews and talk were what encouraged Rebecca and I to squeeze this in to our schedules. I wonder if it was this buzz/hype that has left us feeling so ambivalent about this one?

The chance to see the Scottish Play with a predominantly Scottish cast from a director whose work we've previously liked - on paper is sounded perfect.  If only it had lived up to it all for us.

Before we went I knew that it was going to be a bloody performance and it certainly lived up to that.  I wouldn't be surprised to know that there was a nationwide shortage of Kensington Gore by the time the play closes! However it wasn't just blood as a bodily fluid that was represented on stage.  I'm pretty sure that the original stage directions didn't include Macbeth throwing up on stage...

I'm struggling to find many positive things to say here. The production was dark - as in I couldn't see the actors a lot of the time.  It was shouty - I'm sure that there are other ways to express emotions rather than raising the voice. It was incomprehensible at times - characters wore masks and then didn't enunciate. It was violent - so violent and gory that by the end it had lost all impact and was like a cartoon.

For me the biggest problem was the Scottish accents - rather than adding to the play they also seemed affected and overblown (despite that being the natural accent for several of the cast). All I could hear throughout the play was the exaggerated, comedic accents of Hamish and Dougal as voiced by Graeme Garden and Barry Crier.

All in all this wasn't an afternoon I enjoyed and at all. It felt all style and no substance and I couldn't connect with any of the characters at all. I'm sure that actors were very good but as I either couldn't hear them clearly because of the masks or because they were shouting I'll have to take other people's opinions on that!

I'm just hoping that I enjoy the version of Macbeth that the Globe are staging later on in the year...it is one of the classic Shakepeare plays after all!

Theatrical Interlude 7 (2013)

Wicked, Apollo Victoria, London. April 2013.

My love of theatre is spreading again - this time my companion was my aunt. In fact this was her long postponed Christmas treat - bad weather and ice thwarted our planned trip in January.

I've seen Wicked before but I often listen to the soundtrack and was pleased to be going again. This time we had seats in the stalls, only a few back from the stage.  I was a little worried that we'd be too close (and a little too much to the side) but in the end I think that we were in almost perfect seats.

I've sat in the stalls at a large scale musical before but never so close and it was a real treat to see just how much performers in a big theatre do still act - being able to see the facial expressions really added to the experience.

It has been quite a while since I've been to a large musical and I'd forgotten just what a feel good spectacle they can be, I was swept away from curtain up and 3 hours haven't passed so fast in ages.

Our day wasn't just the theatre however as we also became ladies that lunch with a two course meal (and champagne) at the nearby Grosvenor Hotel.  Our food here was delicious, the setting stunning and the service attentive and unobtrusive.  If you are ever looking for a reasonably priced but fancy meal in London I heartily recommend the Brasserie here.

The sun shone all day and we had a very nice walk around Belgravia beforehand - although it was a disappointment at the time I am now very pleased we had to reschedule as this was a perfect spring day.

Book review including Cakes and Ale...?

Shakespeare's Local by Pete Brown

On the main road leading from London Bridge, a spit and a cough from The Globe Theatre, is a pub whose origins can be traced back to the time of Chaucer. In fact it stands near enough next door to the Tabard Pun, from where Chaucer's pilgrims departed in the Canterbury Tales.

In this book by beer writer Pete Brown the fascinating 600 years of the building's history is peeled back slowly and carefully. The reader learns about the history of the area, the history of beer and of the Inn itself.

As some one who likes this sort of personal history, and Pete Brown's style, I liked this book immensely. Unusually for me I did find it a book to dip in and out chapter by chapter as it was quite dense but I still read it over the course of 2 weeks rather than it laying discarded for months!

On my first trip to the Southwark area in a while I did search the building out, and while I only had time for a lemonade this time I will be back to have a more detailed look and to poke around into some of the remaining galleries.

As for whether or not this was Shakespeare's Local - you'll have to read the book to find out!

Theatrical Interlude 6 (2013)

Proof, Chocolate Menier Theatre, London. April 2013.

It finally seemed as if spring had sprung. It was a warm(ish) day, the sun was shining and the daffodils were in bloom along the South Bank. Were Rebecca and I mad for spending so much of a lovely day on trains and then in a dark theatre seeing a play which we knew little about?

The simple answer to this was absolutely not.

We had a very nice morning pottering in the sunshine, and while we didn't manage lunch outside we did have a swift drink outsides at The George Inn, this pub is the subject of Pete Brown's book Shakespeare's Local which I read recently and will blog about soon.

As well as the play being new to us so was the theatre, but when I mentioned it to my mum she instantly said that she knew it because she could see it form the train when she comes to London. This hint was invaluable as we were wandering around the side streets of Southwark as we started our zen navigation by looking for the railway arches!

We knew that the venue was small however it was a little unnerving to get to a theatre 10 minutes before curtain-up and see practically no one around.  The theatre was accessed through a bar/restaurant and then down a few steps into the auditorium.  Due to the size I don't think that there can be a bad seat in the house and for this play the stage was dressed as the back porch of a run down house which was revealed to be in Chicago and while small was used to far more purpose than some of the larger ones in the West End.

The play itself was a four-hander, a mathematician father, his two daughters and a former student.  It was about many things - metal illness, death of a parent, family relationships, love, maths and proof being the topics I saw.  I feel that every person who sees this play takes something different from it, depending on personal circumstances. Being married to someone who works in a science based department at a university I found a lot of the throw away lines about faculty departments funnier than the people next to me for instance.
The scenes between the family members felt very realistic and unlike some domestic dramas I found the  ensemble piece to be true to life and neither under played nor overblown.

Proof wasn't a long play but I found it to have quite a punch, and I am really glad that I saw it.  I wish more plays like this happened in the provinces.  If we are honest the draw of this play was the actors. If we hadn't and admired Jamie Parker in other plays we'd probably never have tried an unknown play, in an unknown theatre and that really would have been our loss.
This was worth the seat price and the train fare, it has given me a lot to think about - like the best books, plays and films should.

To infinity and beyond - or Low Earth Orbit

Spacewalker by Jerry Ross

I was lucky enough to obtain a copy of this through NetGalley just before a recent trip to the Space Coast in Florida.

I am a great fan of astronaut memoirs, while I can appreciate the beauty and engineering of space craft it is the human stories that really interest me. I've read many of the Mercury/Gemini/Apollo memoirs and I am on the look out for translation of Russian memoirs and Space Shuttle era books too.

A few months ago NetGalley offered Reaching for the Stars by the first Mexican Astronaut but due to the style of the book (Hernandez appears to have written it in English although this isn't his first language or translated it himself) I had to give up - it didn't flow at all and I wasn't captivated by the story enough to persevere with it.

Spacewalker by Ross on the other hand was a treat from cover to cover. He manages a nice blend of technical details, family details and impressions of space to make the book readable and enjoyable.  He had to work hard to get where he did and isn't afraid to talk about the failures in his own life and in the space program overall.
In total Ross took flew on 7 missions, including the very first mission to construct the International Space Station. He was an expert spacewalker and was the only astronaut to be involved with the entire lifespan of the Space Shuttle.

What was even luckier was that while we were in Florida Jerry Ross was at the Kennedy Space Center giving talks on 3 days and so I got to hear him in person and to tell him  how much I liked his book.

It might be that the Space Shuttle program doesn't seem to be as captivating as the early missions but with memoirs like this around this could easily change.

Theatrical Interlude 5 (2013)

A Life of Galileo (RSC), Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, March 2013.

I saw this play a few weeks ago now on an over night trip to Stratford. I'd hoped to see something by Shakespeare in his birth place but unfortunately the dates didn't work out this time.

In the end it didn't matter as I loved every minute of this play. The theatre itself reminded me of an indoor (and if I am honest more comfortable Globe) and the staging very much of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime.

However as time has now passed since I saw this (Mr Bookworm and I went to the States to indulge in our other interest - space travel) all I can think of to say about A Life of Galileo is that if it transfers or tours I urge you all to go and see it.

At times it isn't easy watching - Galileo (in this version) was very lucky that his daughter was a forgiving person or he could have been in a whole heap worse trouble. It is however intelligent, fun and very thought provoking and I am sorry that I didn't have the time to write a proper review while it was fresher in my mind.

From a lot of books I've read about theatre it seems that you are either a Beckett or a Brecht person. I've now seen one of each and at present I feel I am more drawn to Brecht, but that could just have been thanks to the new translation...I shall have to try more of both to come to an informed decision!

Norfolkbookworm at the gallery

Ansel Adams from the Mountains to the Sea, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. March 2013

When I'm not reading or at the theatre photography is another time consuming hobby that I pursue, one that I was introduced to by dad.

I think I had a camera from about the age of 5 - I remember a very early trip to London Zoo with my dad and a camera, one that had a screw on flashbulb. I know I also had at least one 110mm camera and that I wasn't a teenager by the time I had my first SLR - an Olympus OM10.

Since the advent on digital I've been through a few cameras but Canon DSLRs and their lenses really inspired me.  I'm not great at indoor photography or portraits but I love taking landscape and nature shots and for years Ansel Adams has been a great inspiration.

The exhibition at Greenwich was wonderful when dad and I visited in early March.
It was housed in a light and airy room (unlike the rest of the over heated museum) that has wonderful white walls making the images really stand out.
The exhibition was reasonable empty as we wandered round and so we could stop and really stare at images that caught our eye. We could also wander round in any order we wanted and backtrack at any point.

While a lot of my favourite images weren't included (they don't have any link to water) I discovered dozens of new images that I hadn't seen before and fell in love with dozens of them. We were surprised at how small the originals were and how ingenious his methods for making the huge images!

There was a film show in one corner of the exhibition with footage from interviews with Adams and a couple of things he said really resonated.

There is a lot of talk about how 'real' photos are today with all of the technology out there to alter them, yet Adams himself spent up to a day working on a negative to get just the print he wanted.  The dates of his pictures are just when the shutter was pressed - the prints can be from anytime as he manipulated them in the dark room.

He also talked about photography and editing as being like music. A composer writes the score but it is up to the conductor and musicians how it sounds. Thus a dozen people can stand in one spot and take the same view but each of us will produce something different.

I've always been a little unsure about editing my photos in programs such as photoshop because I thought it was cheating - now I can see it as creating art from a basic start.  I still won't be doing things like substituting one sky for another and changing the basic image that much, but I won't feel guilty about enhancing the colours, converting to black and white and cropping.

One day I dream of taking just one picture half as good as Adams but this exhibition has inspired me and has not depressed me.  I'm now looking forwards to a planned trip to California, Yosemite and the Sierra with my camera.  And hoping that the schedule will allow a long visit to the Ansel Adams Gallery. I'm already saving hard!

The one disappointing thing about the exhibition was the gift shop. Both dad and I had fallen in love with a couple of images, including one of the huge feature pictures, but they weren't available to buy.  I am still debating whether to buy the exhibition catalogue as this may be the only way to get a copy of these images.

Theatrical Interlude 4 (2013)

The Ladykillers,Theatre Royal, Norwich. March 2013

I was introduced to the Ealing Comedies by Mr Norfolkbookworm not long after we started going out together. There is something timeless about a lot of the films and they are real comfort films that stand rewatching.  

The Ladykillers took London by storm when it opened in late 2011 and went on to be nominated for many awards in the 2012 season. It wasn't one that hugely appealed at the time - I'm always wary of adaptations of well loved films/books as I've written before.  A friend, whose opinions I trust, also wasn't blown away by it when she saw it and so it passed me by.

However curiosity (and priority booking/discounts) got the better of me, when it was announced that the touring version would come to Norwich I booked the hubby and I seats.

I'm glad we saw it, the acting was very good and I think that the set is the best I've ever seen in Norwich - it was so intricate and clever. It has been a while since I last saw the film but the story felt fresh and yet at the same time also managed to feel like a 1950s Ealing comedy - no mean feat.

Ultimately it was a nice evening. Mr Norfolkbookworm isn't a great theatre person or a fan of London  so seeing a play together is always a treat but (and didn't you just know this was coming!) for me the play just lacked a little something. 

I laughed and I was amused but I wasn't swept away at any point. 

I do wonder if the pacing had anything to do with it - perhaps making the play 10 minutes shorter and doing away with an interval would have made an entertaining play into a great one?

I'm glad we saw it but I'm glad we didn't pay top whack for the seats and travel to London for the experience.

Theatrical Interlude 3 (2013)

Privates on Parade, Noel Coward Theatre, London. February 2013

Simon Russell Beale is one of my favourite actors and when the chance came up to see him in Privates on Parade before the limited season comes to an end I was a very happy Norfolkbookworm.

Rebecca and I knew very little about the story beforehand and once more this worked in our favour.

The play is set in Malaya at the end of the British Empire and follows an entertainment unit on tour.  Women are in short supply and so a lot of the 'acts' are done in drag and the humour and poignancy comes through as it becomes clear that most of the company are actually gay and those that aren't are accepting.

When not watching the company rehearse and perform we learn more about the behind the scenes actions of the unit commanders and it is here that the plot turns darker and more serious.

The play was wonderful from curtain up to curtain down the often hilarious first half was always balanced by the slight foreboding that things couldn't last and this balance of laughs and seriousness really worked for me.  I did go from crying with laughter to welling up in sadness at the sounding of the Last Post.

I can see why some people are a little uncomfortable about the casual racism of the play but when you realise that this is actually making a point as well as being typical for the time it becomes understandable and in a way a very clever plot device.

The audience in the theatre are addressed frequently from the stage by the cast and it took me a while to see that this wasn't a pretentious 'breaking the fourth wall' event but because we were part of the play. When the SADUSEA company were on stage we had become the Armed Forces audience they are performing to and not just the audience seeing Privates on Parade.

For a cast that were primarily not trained in musical theatre I take my hat off to them all as they sang and danced wonderfully throughout and stayed totally in character and accent as they performed. It was a real ensemble piece and while Simon Russell Beale was the draw for me the entire cast were fabulous and balanced the over the top aspects of Beale's persona wonderfully.

The language, topics discussed and full frontal nudity in this play mean it isn't for everyone (including the school party at the performance we attended!) but for me it was a great play and I am so glad that I found the time to see it - a real pick me up at the end of a drab, cold February.

and for those wondering - yes there were plenty of 'privates' on parade!

More praise has to go to the cast as the play was struck by tragedy when the original actress playing Sylvia died during at the start of the run a few weeks after being diagnosed with cancer. The rest of the performances have been dedicated to her memory.

Royal History

My top play of 2013 was The Globe's version of Richard III, I wasn't expecting this to be the case but it blew me away on both viewings.

I've also been following the story of the hunt for the real Richard III in Leicester with great interest since the story broke. The press conference earlier this month when the archaeologists announced that it really was his skeleton that had been found under a Leicester car park was the most gripping piece of broadcasting I've seen for a long time.

The subsequent programmes about the history surrounding the end of the Wars of the Roses has influenced my reading just lately.

I know that Shakespeare was a Tudor writer and so his version of events was always going to paint Richard and the Yorkists in a poor light but however engaging the play is I did wonder how accurate the play actually is.

The dig to find Richard III was funded in part by the Richard III society and the television programmes afterwards focused on this, and their quest to prove that he really was a nice guy and that none of the bad things we think about him are true at all. In someways their views and opinions are as extreme as Shakespeare's claims.

As ever I am pretty certain that the truth lies somewhere in the middle but I do wish I had a lot more time to look into this, however as every fiction comes to the rescue...

I've just finished reading Josephine Tey's Daughter of Time. The basic plot can be summarised thus: whilst bed-bound a detective decides to investigate the life and times of Richard III...

As I haven't done any of the research myself I don't know how accurate the story is but the case put forward in this book was compelling and I was totally gripped by the book. I'm probably very late to the party with this book as it was published in the 1950s but I do highly recommend it.

I've also just had an email telling me that Sharon Penman's Sunne in Splendour has just arrived at the library for me so I've another epic version of the tale to look forward too.

While it may seem strange that a Norfolkbookworm is so fascinated by a history that doesn't have a lot of links to Norfolk there is another side to the story.  I'm originally from Kent and we often took walks or cycle rides to Eastwell Lake. There is a ruined church to explore their and one of the tombs is for a Richard Plantagenet, according to legend he was an illegitimate son of Richard III.  Watch this space - it could be the next 'big dig' as more about the Wars of the Roses history is discovered!

Theatrical Interlude 2 (2013)

People, Lyttleton Theatre at the National Theatre, London. February 2013

Due to the Writing Britain exhibition and week of events I am late in writing this review and I am finding it hard to write as a result.

This was our third Alan Bennett play in 2 months and this was the full length play rather than 'shorts'. The stage and settings looked very familiar however as Hymn and Cocktail Sticks use the same stage.

The premise of the play is that Dorothy has inherited a stately home which the family can no longer afford to maintain. Her sister wants her to hand it over to the National Trust but she isn't so sure and is contemplating selling precious family heirlooms or the house itself to private buyers. At one point she also considers renting it out as a location for 'adult movies'.

I found the separate strands of the play to all be good.  The characters were all drawn a little over-large and seemed to be caricatures of real people but on a large stage with a relatively small cast this wasn't too much of a problem. There was a reasonable amount of humour in the play but I did find Bennett's usual under current of sadness/pathos missing.

For me the strands just didn't quite come together to make a cohesive play, it was more than skits but less than a fully formed piece.

Bennett also has a lot to say about the National Trust - he recognises that they obviously do an enormous amount to save important things for the nation but that in doing so they definitely sanitise history. He is very convincing - and I did come out of the play feeling a little sheepish at having become a member of the NT last year!

As ever in a Bennett play there is one refrain that sticks with me and that really resonates even after a few week's reflection: PST. People Spoil Things.

I am very pleased that I saw this play in London with the original cast, missing out on seeing The History Boys with the original cast both in London and Norwich is a huge regret, but I'm not sure that it will be remembered as one of Bennett's better plays.

Writing Britain: The Broads Effect

Writing Britain: The Broads Effect, Norwich, February 2013.

This is going to be a terribly indulgent blog post as yesterday was the official launch for a project that I've been involved with for two and a half years and I am feeling tired, proud and just a little emotional.

I moved to Norwich in September 1998 to come to uni here, UEA was my first choice of place to study and not only for the course choice.  I'd had two holidays to Norfolk in the past - one family trip involving a day on the Broads and then a school holiday where brave teachers took 6 boat loads of teenagers on a week long boating holiday! The county weaves a spell over you and I feel like Marmite you either love it or loathe it.

Unlike Marmite I love my adopted county.

In the summer of 2012 the British Library held an exhibition celebrating the links between the landscape and the literature of the British Isles.  Thanks to the Paul Hamlyn Foundation partner libraries around the country were picked to host their own smaller scale exhibitions and projects.

Norfolk is a county of many landscapes: we have The Fens, The North Norfolk Coastline, the Brecks, Thetford Forest and of course the Broads.  It was the latter that we decided to focus on as they are unique to Norfolk (and Suffolk).

Even the Broads have a wide literary heritage and at first, with my bias for children's literature, I instantly thought of both Arthur Ransome and Anna Sewell as authors to pick.  When we thought more however we decided to take a different tack and showcase some very famous people but whose links to Norfolk may be less well known...

We decided on John Betjeman (who unlike me didn't have happy childhood holidays in Norfolk) and Harold Pinter (a man who refused to consider faking Norfolk when it came to filming The Go-Between).

As well as borrowing items from the British Library and holding an exhibition we also ran a project with a group of young people. They were taken on trips around the county, into our collections, to London and to art galleries and then they all came up with new pieces of literature based on their responses to Norfolk's landscape and history.

My colleague Charlotte took on this role in the project leaving me free to learn how to curate an exhibition.

This experience has been - in the words of many talent shows - a real journey.  And a test of patience. However in the past 10 days it has all come together wonderfully and last night at the launch I was very pleased with the results.

We had new museum grade exhibition cases made as part of the project and their arrival really did mark the start of the final preparations. They arrived a week before the loan items from the BL and so we filled them with treasures from our collection - including a holiday scrap book from the 1890s:

Then on Thursday 7th February a curator from the BL arrived with a secure briefcase filled with the manuscripts we were borrowing:

Before the items arrived the stress levels had been growing but once we saw the items being unpacked all of that melted away and it felt a little like Christmas.  In this folder there were hand written notes by Harold Pinter on how he envisioned scenes from the Go-Between film as well as some annotated, typewritten script pages:

When the curator unwrapped the bound book of Betjeman correspondence, including a draft of the poem 'Norfolk'. John Betjeman wrote this poem after the death of his father and in it he is remembering the holidays they took together:

Friday was a calmer daytime but in the evening Charlotte and I had to install the exhibition, in quite a tight window as it all had to be done between 8pm and midnight.  To ease things we installed the library part first:

After a quick supper we moved out in to the Atrium of The Forum which is hosting the main part of the exhibition, as well as the results of our photography competition and some of the work created by the young people during their adventures:

the space we had to fill

working out what goes where!

just after 11pm - hanging the last panel.

After a calm weekend, including seeing The Go-Between on the big screen, thanks to a local cinema who'd got involved in the project, Monday 11th rolled round and it was launch day.

We started with a talk from one of the British Library curators. Tanya talked us through the London exhibition and how they picked the themes and items for this and then let us into a few secrets from the Library - some of which reassured us after our experiences!

Then last night was the 'gala' launch.  

The eight young people from the creative writing project were the star turn and after a little socialising and some welcoming words they all got up in front of about 100 people and read their own works. There were poems, stories and ghostly tales from some incredibly talented young people and all of us who've worked with this team were so proud.

The 8 have also documented their project and presented the library with a new scrap book to add to our collection. Who knows perhaps in 100 years time this will inspire a new project and inspire a new generations?

The winners of our photographic competition were also recognised last night as two of he judges presented them with their prizes. 

The evening finished with people having the chance to look around the exhibition and to talk to all involved in the project.

We have a week of events to run surrounding the exhibition all of which are just as exciting but documenting the project after such a great day yesterday seems important.

We have so many people to thank for the project that should I list them here I'd be in danger of sounding like a gushing actress at the OSCARs but I do have to thank my dad who did all of the design for our exhibition boards, invitations and fliers. I think you'll agree he did a great job:

I've learnt a lot about the heritage and influence of Norfolk's unique landscape over the last few months, discovered a lot of new authors that I'd probably never have read and also discovered a love of John Betjeman's poems.  

For me I think that the Broads will continue to inspire me as a photographer mostly but I now have a list of new authors as long as my arm to try and many items from our own heritage collection that I'd love to look at in more detail.

The Magistrate, National Theatre Live (Encore), Cinema City, Norwich. January 2013.

Thank heavens for the continuation of the National Theatre Live programme.  I wasn't sure if I wanted to see this at all and so didn't bother getting tickets in London. Then the reviews and the bloggers started talking about it and I was kicking myself.

The actual 'Live' broadcast sold out, and in fact took place on a day when Norwich was blanketed in ice and I'd incapacitated myself by slipping over so I was very lucky that the daytime Encore fell on a day off.

The cinema was packed and thankfully for a comedy the audience was lively and so it was much more like being at the cinema than other broadcasts have been.

The Magistrate is a late Victorian farce. A widow has remarried but lied about her age in a fit of vanity. This has also meant that she has re-aged her son too, everyone thinks he is a forward 14 year old when he is actually 19. The family set up is already funny but when a figure from the past threatens to reveal the deception the comedy really kicks off.

I enjoyed the play, all of the actors were very,very good. They all managed to keep the balance between straight acting and comedy so this felt like a cohesive play rather than a pantomime, but all had excellent timing and the audience couldn't help but laugh along with the characters' predicaments.

Unlike some reviewers I did like the addition of the songs during the (clever) scene changes. For me the costumes, dancing and words made me think of Gilbert and Sullivan and added to the Victorian setting.

However I am still glad that I didn't rush for tickets in London - it was a fun afternoon but nothing that special.

Book of the year already?

The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls by Anton DiSclafani

Way back last November I attended a Reading Agency development day held in Peterborough. Lots of publishers got to present themselves and their forthcoming books to a group of library staff from around East Anglia.  At the same time we got to 'sell' our libraries to the publishers as venues to consider for events a promotions.

At the end of the day after chatting with lots of lovely people we all staggered home with piles of exciting books and proofs to read.

Because I spent much of October, November and December reading through the Writers' Centre Norwich Summer Reads long list helping to pick the books we'll be championing all summer my own personal reading got put on hold for a while.

Now I am fully recovered from the lurgy I am enjoying catching up on other things.  The first two books I've plucked out of the pile from November (pictured above) have both been from The Tinder Press and both were fantastic.

Amity and Sorrow reminded me a lot of both the 19th Wife by Ebershoff and Grace by Morris Gleitzman as it is all about what happens when families leave religious cults and just how far indoctrination can go. I raced through the book and think that it will be a great hit, especially with reading groups.

However much I enjoyed this one it was the second book that really blew me away...

 The Yonahlosse Riding Camp for Girls was truly fantastic, I started it at lunchtime on Sunday just had to keep reading until I finished it, poor Mr Norfolkbookworm didn't get a lot of conversation or sense out of me!

The story starts with Thea Atwell being left at the Riding Camp thinking she is there just for the summer. It is clear from the outset that she is there in disgrace but it is only slowly that flashbacks let you see the whole story unfold and reverberate through Thea's life.

As well as the story line being compelling I loved the vivid way the landscape was described.  I've visited some of the more wild central Florida areas that form Thea's home and could instantly visualise the family home.  I'm not a keen horsewoman (that is possibly the biggest understatement I've ever made on this blog) but that didn't matter at all, the love for horses shone through without swamping a reader with details.

I was surprised by several of the twists in the book and by the end I did have to surreptitiously wipe my eyes on more than one occasion. Thea was an interesting lead character for me, at times I felt sorry for the way life treated her but then some of her decisions made me less sympathetic towards her - a sign of a well rounded and 'real' character!

The one downside with this book is that it isn't published until June and so however much I recommend and rave about this one other people won't get to read it for nearly 6 months! New books from DiSclafani will certainly be books I am eagerly awaiting.

Fiction in 2013 has a lot to live up to after these two books  - and I am already bumping the 3rd Tinder Press proof to the top of the to-be-read pile!

Theatrical Interlude 1 (2013)

Acropolis Now, The Blakeney Players, Blakeney. January 2013

The first theatre outing of the year and one that didn't need a journey out of the county.

I've said before that I can never be unbiased in my reviews of these shows due to knowing at least one cast member but I think that they out did themselves this winter.

This was pure pantomime, with sketches barely linked to tell a story that was set up from the introduction of the character Hadron the clumsy boy.

We had the Gods on Mount Olympus squabbling amongst themselves - Hera channelling Sybil Fawlty was a stroke of genius - as well as interfering with the lives of the mortals in Acropolis and Troy.

Greek myths merged as the Minotaur and Labyrinth moved to Troy and then there was the Trojan (pantomime) horse. The jokes were dire - yes, the 'what's a Greek earn?' gag was in there but delivered in such a way, with such great set ups that it didn't matter. The song and dance routines were as brilliant as ever but possibly even more tenuously linked to the story than usual. 

I laughed more at this than I can remember laughing at anything since Noises Off.  Any show that manages to get four Harpies singing Tom Lehrer songs *and* a tap dancing horse has to be considered truly brilliant and biased although I am I do think that this rivalled a lot of professional stage productions.

Roll on the summer and the next Blakeney Players extravaganza!

a sneaky photo taken by Mr Norfolkbookworm during the curtain call.
On stage you can see the Harpies, Helen of Troy, Hermes, Zeus's earthly form, Hera, Zeus, Eros and the Muses.

Top Tens from 2012

Better late than never...

Due to my Christmas lurgy I'm later than I planned in posting my personal top 10s from the last year.

I've been thinking about them for a while but I don't like to list them until the year has turned - there have been times when the book I've finished as New Year's Eve ends have been the best of the year, The Book Thief in 2006 for instance. This wasn't quite the case in 2012 but I did read one of my favourite books late on in the month.

None of these lists are in any particular order and all of them seemed a lot hard to pick this year!

Top 10 Books 2012 

Shakespeare on Toast by Ben Crystal - this is the book that made me understand how to read the plays of Shakespeare and enjoy them as much as seeing them performed.

We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver - very late to the party on this one but despite this it blew me away.

The Polish Boxer by Eduardo Haflon - a rare book that despite *having* to read for book group I loved.  I was wary of the book because it listed so many translators but it was beautiful if odd.

How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr - another book that I liked enough to blog about.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce - a very gentle book that just swept me along.

Strange Meetings by Harry Ricketts - I loved this one so much I blogged about it!

The American Wife by Paula McLain - I like Hemingway's collection of stories called A Moveable Feast a lot and this novel captures his lifestyle at this time wonderfully.

These Wonderful Rumours by May Smith - a recently discovered wartime diary of a female teacher in the midlands.  A real insight into a young woman's war and terrifically funny at times although possibly this was not intentional.

The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of a Window by Jonas Jonasson - I only finished this book between Christmas and New Year but I've already been recommended it to several people. It is deliciously dark and funny although just occasionally the history isn't quite accurate.

The Slaves of Solitude by Patrick Hamilton - this was another book group novel that I'd probably never have picked up otherwise.  It was a dark, unsettling war novel but unlike my favourites by R F Delderfield this was not a comforting read - it was the language and style that made it stand out.

Top 10 Plays of the year

Richard III - The Globe & Apollo Theatre

Henry V - The Globe

The Recruiting Officer - Donmar Warehouse

Cabaret - Theatre Royal, Norwich

Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime - Cottesloe Theatre at the National Theatre

Noises Off - Novello Theatre

War Horse - New London Theatre

Taming of the Shrew - The Globe

Hymn and Cocktail Stick - The Lyttleton Theatre at the National Theatre

Berenice - The Donmar Warehouse

Worst 5 Books of the year 

Care of Wooden Floors by Will Willes - a book on a longlist I was reading, found it a real chore to read and by the end was ready to throw the book at the wall in frustration. I think it would have made a great  short story or novella but as a novel was just dull.

Paddington Races Ahead by Michael Bond - it pains me to put this on the list but as I blogged earlier in the year the updating of classics rarely seems to work.

The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekov - I know it is supposed to be a classic but by the end I was willing them to tie the lead charcters to the trees and then set fire to the orchard. Perhaps I should see this on stage and see if my opinions change?

The Descendents by Kaui Hart Hemmings - this was a hit film so I thought I'd try the book. On finishing it I decided not to bother with the film...

The Fifty Shades trilogy by E L James - I confess I read all three of these (on an eReader so that no one could see that I was doing so). They were dire and for me and about as erotic as toothache. The real problem was that there was just enough story in the trilogy that kept me reading to the end as I had to know how it finished - badly, don't bother!

Worst 2 Plays of the year

Love and Information - Royal Court Theatre

What the Butler Saw - Vaudeville Theatre

Theatrical Interlude 25 (2012)

Richard III, Apollo Theatre, London. December 2012.

I'm a bit late in getting this review up, I can't blame the pressures of the festive season more a nasty virus that has wiped me out.

In retrospect it was probably a bit silly making the trip the London to see this, I'd been ill beforehand but the lure of seeing the production again and feeling fine on the day saw Mr Norfolkbookworm and I on our way to the Big Smoke.

I'd seen this play back in August and thought it brilliant then and I really think that it transferred wonderfully to the West End.  In many ways it was a better location - with no helicopters and sirens to be heard none of the dialogue was lost and the seats were also more comfortable than the Globe benches.  The lights weren't dimmed out and so some of the audience atmosphere from the open theatre remained.

Being in a smaller theatre (no Groundlings between the seats and the stage) the nuances of Mark Rylance's Richard III were very clear and his take on the character's madness were chilling.  His stage presences and expressions were funny but the words chilling, put together this made for a brilliant performance.

The rest of the cast were all fantastic, and as ever the Globe created a real ensemble piece, the one thing I found most interesting about this version was I *think* that the cast used the theatre and stage steps far more here than they did at the Globe.  We had end of row seats near a door and to be that close to the actors was very exciting.

I loved having the chance to see Richard III again, it is certainly in my top 10 of 2012 and seeing a Globe performance in the winter makes me all the more excited for the Sam Wanamaker Indoor Jacobean theatre next year!

Theatrical Interlude 24

Sunday Double Bill, Lyttleton Theatre at the National Theatre, London. December 2012

I think that the general feeling was that Rebecca and I were slightly insane in planning a theatre trip to London less than 10 days before Christmas but we're afraid that the lure of two new Alan Bennett plays was too strong.

After some freezing cold and dreadful weather we were very lucky and spent the morning wandering along the South Bank's Christmas market in glorious (and for December)warm sunshine.  An indulgent lunch followed before we settled in to the circle at the Lyttleton for the first of our two playlets.

Hymn

This is  a collection of memories and micro essays from Alan Bennett set to live music.  The set is very sparse, just an armchair and side table plus 4 seats for the string quartet. The musician appear first and were very talented then Alex Jennings, looking and sounding very much like Alan Bennett, walks on and starts talking.
The snippets were humorous, moving and educational and the music sublime although just occasionally I lost some of the words due to the volume of the music.

This is a very short piece, just 30 minutes and then we left the theatre for the 45 minute interval - the idea is that you indulge in a nice Sunday tea but we were too full form lunch so browsed the bookshop and then looked at the Landscape Photographer of the Year Exhibition.

Cocktail Sticks

The second of the two plays is longer, and more traditional although there are still musicians on the stage.  This time the play starts with Alan Bennett clearing his parent's house and coming across a packet of cocktail sticks in the kitchen cupboard.  From here it becomes a narrative tale with Bennett's memories and thoughts about his life being told and at times re-enacted by his parents and various other people.
A cast of 5 (Alan, Mam, Dad and 2 people playing everyone else) tell over 40 years of family history in just over an hour and in that time the audience is taken on a really emotional roller coaster journey - such as only Alan Bennett can.

The stories weren't new to me as I have read Bennett's books of autobiography/memoir but this didn't matter at all - hearing them in Alan Bennett's voice and acted out made the stories live even in a way that Bennett's writing hadn't.

These are two very odd pieces of theatre that were both sublime.  They were odd because unlike so much theatre I think that you really do need to be older to understand and appreciate them.  If you have no experience of his themes you won't understand either the humour or the sadness.

The best bit? Bennett's take on the line "they f*** you up, your mum and dad"

This isn't my last theatre trip of 2012 but was the last with Rebecca and very soon I shall have to work out my top 10 shows of the year.

I'm loathe to do this yet for as I started to do this with my books of the year but then in the past 3 days have read 2 books that have been fantastic and who knows what I'll think of the last play!