Graphic history

Sally Heathcote: Suffragette by Mary M Talbot, Kate Charlesworth and Bryan Talbot.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of (a limited number of) women being given the vote and while my book of the year last year was the wonderful Things A Bright Girl Can Do about the suffrage campaign I wanted to read more.

Around the February anniversary there were a lot of new non fiction books about the suffragettes and I have added them to my reading list to investigate when my reading stamina is improved, but in a lot of recommended lists I saw mention of Sally Heathcote: Suffragette. On looking the book up I found it was a graphic novel (a genre I always intend to read more of) and so reserved it from the library in the hope that my brain would cope with the format.

It took a while for it to be my turn to borrow the book (hurrah - it is popular!) and this did mean I am further along in recovery and after a few pages struggling with the different format I was drawn in.

Sally is a fictional character but is obviously based on detailed research into the suffrage campaign, and we follow her contacts with the movement from its early days in Manchester, through the split between the militant and peaceful branches, on to the real violence of the years before the First World War and then the war itself and the culmination of the campaign.

This little splashes of colour, especially for Sally's hair, help to keep the story straight in all of the scenes and I did become involved in her story, the little flash forwards were especially effective. I also very much liked how the tale did poke holes in the mythology that surrounds the Pankhursts, they were a complicated family and this is highlighted in the book.  I've always been uncomfortable with Emmeline and Christabel's total volte face on the outbreak of war and this is reflected very well here.

To make the narrative work Sally is obviously repeatedly in the right place at the right time which does sometimes seem a little improbable but it is the only way the authors/illustrator can give a complete overview of the movement, the book definitely follows the 'show not tell' school of story telling.

Without spoilers the last few pages of the story pack a real punch.

Overall I enjoyed this book, but I think that it should be taken as a version of the history of the Suffragettes and read in conjunction with other books on the subject. It is also not clear from a quick glance at the book that Sally is an amalgamation of characters and the book fiction not biography.

Theatre 2016: Review Twenty-Five

The Deep Blue Sea, Lyttleton Theatre, National Theatre, London. August 2016.

This was a play we were lucky to get seats at, and typically the day after I grabbed three together it was announced that there would be a National Theatre Live performance - the very next day to our visit.  However live theatre is preferable and it was nice for Rebecca and I to meet up with the Upstart Wren.

I have a soft spot for Rattigan - I loved Flare Path when Mr Norfolkbookworm and I saw it back in 2011 and I've also enjoyed films penned by Rattigan or adapted from his plays - and so I was happy to go to see this.  I'm not sure what drew my companions to this one - reviews and the cast I think.

In not booking until late we did have seats right at the back of the Lyttleton theatre and for the first half I felt very distant from the action, however by the end this distance worked and it was as if we were watching the play through the deep blue sea.

Like Flare Path this is a play with very little plot as such but is all about emotion - on the surface and repressed and it grew on me very cleverly. At the interval I thought that the recent film was better viewing but I was drawn deeper and deeper in and by the end I was cheering for Hester.

In many ways this is a very modern play, Hester, ultimately, takes a very brave line and goes her own way. She takes neither of the 'easy' ways out that are on offer to her. The men in the play are less stereotypical than you might expect for the late 1940s and early 1950s and there is just a prescient hint of the relaxation of society that started just a few years later.

On reading around the subject, and the wonderfully detailed programme, it becomes clear that this in someways is an incredibly autobiographical play and this might explain why the characters took so long to grow on me - like real people they are more flawed than you'd like and not people you want to identify with. The callous act with the shilling really drove this home.

The set was fantastic, Hester's flat took the main part of the stage but the other other apartments in the building became visible as needed through clever lighting and it made the play both claustrophobic and a great reminder that one couple's drama is very small fry in the scale of the world.

Rebecca and I enjoyed the play more than the Wren but we've spent the past 24 hours discussing the whole thing a great deal which implies that there was more to this play than first thought.  While Rebecca and I became more and more involved as the story went on out third found it becoming more trite... it would be a dull world if we all had the same views and in being challenged in our opinions has meant that we've had to think more about our views which is always good.

All of us however, and the people sitting next to us, were bothered by the slightly anachronistic feel to the props and sound  - the most important piece of music came from at least 5 years after the play was written let alone set...

I'm pleased I saw this live, and with friends so we could discuss it - but I do wonder if we'd have seen a different play if our seats had been closer to the stage...

Theatrical Interlude 29

Edward II, Oliver Stage, National Theatre, London. October 2013.

So much for not having so much time to blog - well I suppose I am reading less for fun currently and don't have so many book reviews to share.

This past weekend Rebecca and I had another of our London binges - this time two plays and two museums in the space of 36 hours (37 if you count the end of BST!). We were joined by another friend but she has more sense than us and just came for lunch and the first play - Marlowe's Edward II...

This was a mix of styles in performance as some of the actors were in period costume and others very much in modern dress. The same followed through with the set and staging and after a few moments to understand that this was the style I found that it didn't bother me too much. The swapping of genders for participants also took a while to settle in but the actors were so good this did also cease to be an issue.

The play itself is also a little bit of a mixture as it has a deceptively simple story line - bad king makes bad decisions and his lords rise up against him. However as plotting to overthrow a monarch is something best done in private how to show this, and all of the bad decisions, on stage...

This production used handheld cameras to follow the actors into less visible areas and at times there were two stories being told - the actors at the front of the stage and then the projected video feed on the walls to the side.

I think it worked.

I came away being bowled over by the quality of the actors and the power of the story but slightly less convinced on the staging.  The Oliver theatre has a wonderful revolving section and in my mind I'd imagined that being used to switch between parts of the story.

A lot of Edward's downfall comes about because he advances his (male) lovers politically and the existing nobles,naturally, don't particularly like this usurpation of their power. For me this play wasn't about their homophobia - when the king kisses his favourites (which he did a lot) the lords aren't shocked by this, or repulsed. It is the behaviour of the lovers as they flaunt their wealth, power and influence that enrages the establishment.

Gaveston (the King's lover and one cause of his downfall) was seated in the audience at the start and when he leapt from his seat and started talking to the stage I did wonder if there was an unhinged audience member. While this use of the whole theatre works at The Globe it felt a little awkward in this performance and made me long to see this either done in a more 'straight' fashion or actually at The Globe with full groundling participation.


This all sounds more negative than I actually felt on seeing the play as I enjoyed it a great deal.  It also makes an interesting comparison with this week's set uni text which is Richard II - another poor king who loses his life.

picture of the whole cast and crew of the play tweeted by the National Theatre and taken just after the curtain fell on the matinee that we saw.

Backlog of books

Over the past few months there have been loads of advance copies on the download Net Galley service.  I've been approved for lots of them but have only recently had time to read them.  I'm saving the rest for my holiday and for light relief as I work through my uni reading list.

The first book I 'opened' was Last Launch by Dan Winters this is a beautiful photographic book dedicated to the last 3 flights made by each of the Space Shuttles before they were retired a couple of years ago.  I viewed this one on my PC as it wasn't Kindle compatible and as a proof it worked completely as I fell in love with the pictures and have added the book to my wish list.
The advance copy gave a nice flavour of the book but there really is no substitute for a nice coffee table book.

Next I came to The Girls of Atomic City by Denise Kiernan and this book was in equal parts informative, interesting and totally frustrating. I knew a little of the history of the Manhattan Project but not a lot and this book did give me an overview of how the decisions were made and how 'the Gadget' was put together in various factories throughout the USA.
It was also nice having the focus on the women workers on the project rather than the scientists, like so many war time industries it was quite a female dominated industry.
But...and you just knew this was coming!
The book chopped and changed from history to science to biography so rapidly that I never felt I got to grips with any part fully and disappointingly it was the biographies of these fascinating women that lost out the most.
The book doesn't set out to discuss the rights and wrongs of nuclear weapons, it is just supposed to be a personal take but the lack of follow through on the stories left me frustrated at the end.  These were people who worked in a highly dangerous, unregulated and unexplored industry and we don't find out how they coped after the war - were there illness etc?

I wanted to really love this book - social, thought provoking personal histories are just my thing but I left feeling disappointed by this one.

Lastly I had a copy of Fortunately the Milk by Neil Gaiman. I have a love-hate relationship with Mr Gaiman's books and recently at a book group I was the only one in a group to not like the book we'd read. This one however was great fun - mum's away and the milk for cereal runs out. Dad goes out to get some more and is gone for ages, when he gets back it is with a wonderful tall tale to explain the delay.

The plot, when mixed with Chris Riddell's fabulous illustrations, was a delight from start to finish and I can't wait until my nephew is old enough to have me read this to him!

World Book Night Challenge 17/25

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon

I read this book when it was first published back in 2003 and while I remember it being an okay book I was surprised when it won so many awards.
9 years on that remains my main thought about this book.

I admire the way that Haddon seems to create the world of a young adult male with autism but neither being male nor (fortunately) suffering from autism I just found that the book frustrated me.

Being a literate person the sign posting of important events seemed too obvious to me and I was frustrated that the book really was that simple for me to understand. I think I was reading it expecting another layer to the story that just wasn't there.

In fact the main emotion I feel on finishing this book is anger.
I am about to read The Hound of the Baskervilles - it is top of my to read pile once I finish the WBN challenge - and Haddon gives away the whole plot without warning.

I can see that this is a brave attempt to explain the world of a young adult with autism who doesn't see the world in the same way as I do but my cynical side kept asking me how realistic it was, how can Haddon write this book while not suffering from the condition himself?
Realistically I know that this is the sign of a good author, being able to create a world like this, but knowing some people with autism and how hard they find it to explain the world I wonder if it is how Haddon imagines.

I can't coherently express my thoughts for this book. It isn't a book I enjoyed and to be honest I can't see why it won as many awards as it did, however with my perverse hat on I can see that it is a brave book and why it won as many plaudits as it did.

A book I'm glad I read as a library book, probably not one I will read again but ultimately a thought provoking read. All I have to do now is forget the spoilers for Hound of the Baskervilles...