It’s all about a desire or a need to read and to write too. I do not understand or even want to contemplate what people can do with their thinking time when they don’t read other than creating tangible items. For me the intangible creates more of an interest although I love the feel of polished wood.
Recently I have read The Ink Black Heart and although over one thousand pages long I did not want it to end. Solely, because I had not idea what could replace this immense read. That’s rubbish, of course, because there are many excellent storytellers and stories as close as the tips of my fingers. Vaseem Khan with his Malabar House stories filled the void. All reviewed and commented upon.
I may be considered weird while I read the above named books but I have had Black and British by David Olusoga on the go for a little while. I dip in and out of it and it is full of facts. Absolutely absorbing and a history that should be known and not forgotten. I love history and with his book little and often suits me well. It’s a thick paperback that has to be held open and the print could be larger.
Lucy Worsley’s Agatha Christie has absorbed me too. An historian writing about the ‘Queen of Crime’ makes an excellent read. It is another book high on content and detail. I am halfway through it and like ‘Black and British’ I will put it down for a while I examine the small pile of books that Michelle brought back from England. (We know how to avoid postal charges!). There is some serious stuff there with ‘The Folklore of Herefordshire’ by Helen Mary Leather and Alfred Watkin’s Herefordshire - in his own words. This is for research before I next visit my native county where we will explore and I hope to come up with something poetical.
If there was not enough fiction in our folklore then there will be fiction aplenty with these four books. Michael Connelly had to be included because Michelle is a fan and she has read them all. It’s a hardback copy with a signature to go with the others. For me, I have not read one although I have met him at Harrogate. It is simple, I have the screen image of Harry Bosch, (and other characters too) from the series that have been produced and that is all I need. They have created some great drama.
We are both a fan of The Skelfs by Doug Johnstone and now the fourth, ‘Black Hearts’ is here to be read. Ian Rankin has published ‘A Heart Full of Headstones’ and the enticing cover has to be removed to see the image on the hard cover. It’s impressive and melds into the title! I will be reading it but only after the next Tuva Moodyson, ‘Wolf Pack’, by Will Dean. As the cover says ‘if you haven’t met Tuva Moodyson yet, you really should’ proclaims The Times. It is the fifth in the series and although Mr Dean goes ‘off piste a lot’ they are all great reads. I can assure you there will be extraordinary characters in those Swedish swampy forests.
Poetically I have not been as prolific as I would want to be but I have produced three in the past few weeks. Autumnal was inspired by Autumn Voices and my love of the environment. Tree Lined by a news item and the illegal war in the Ukraine. I am on the reserve list for Contextual 13 and may have the opportunity to read one or even both. I will rehearse just in case!
Now that I have put my thoughts into an order I must studiously go through a wildlife collection of poetry I have been compiling. That is essential now. Also something for San Miguel Writers & The Rump of Stanza Mar Menor at the end of the month and what about a story?
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