Bookchat New Mills - Archive

NEW MILLS LIBRARY CHATGROUP

From the beginnings to the end of 2006

There was no report on the meeting of 14th March. Nor on any subsequent meeting. Membership had fallen to 4 per meeting. However, at the last one, 11th July, there were 16 present, mostly new faces. No record was taken of names, but whoever you are, welcome. And keep coming.
The library looks well now in its new decor and well planned spaces. The sort of place the librarian of 30 years ago would have given his eye teeth for. In those halcyon days, the library was a real social centre, with regular meetings of the Civic Society, The Photoclub(twinned with Alsfeld), the Gourmet Club,the annual Amateurs Art exhibition, the W.I., the Music Club, The Arts Club,even the brass band had occasional committee meetings in the office. It was recognised as a place where local activities could happen. Alas, things have changed. The sociological environment as much as anything. Instead of a social centre, we have the global village. Instead of a shopping centre, we have supermarkets. But, we do now have the 3AU. The Third Age University, manned, and femaled, by volunteers giving classes and leading groups in their own homes. Wouldn't it be wonderful to see them at home in the library, using the library's computers for their database, giving the old place a new lease of life in tune with modern conditions?
Next meeting (holiday in August) will be in September, in conjunction with the New Mills Festival.

Meeting 10th January 2006

Back to normal. Gwenda in the chair, back from Khatmandu with gifts from Nepal to make up for neglect, and mince pies and mulled wine on the table to greet the New Year, also some announcements-
The first of which was that the library would be closed from Friday 13th January till 21st February for repairs and redecoration. So the next meeting would be in March, the 14th. Something nice was promised for then, with a special Spring theme.
Ideas were invited for the September meeting, which as usual will be run in conjunction with the New Mills Festival.
And in June the Derbyshire Literary Festival will be held, no details yet but watch this space.
And so to our latest read- "The Vine of Desire" by Chitra Divakaruni.
The book The Vine of Desire is a sequel to Sister of my Heart, although the novel stands alone.
Anju and Sudha, cousins and best friends since their Calcutta childhood, find themselves in the Bay Area, Anju with a husband and Sudha with a baby daughter. Each covets what the other has until finally their relationship collapses. Anju finds solace among her fellow Berkeley students, while the beautiful Sudha learns, for the first time, what it's like to pay her own way. Anjou uses Sudha to help her cope with a growing restlessness as well as with dissatisfaction with her husband, Sunil. Sudha is both comforted and suffocated by her life as an escapee from her past, becoming a servant in her cousin's household. At the same time, each woman must eventually acknowledge Anjou's husband's unspoken but obvious attraction to Sudha. It’s a story of passion, jealousy and redemption.
Some members thought they would not enjoy this novel, but surprisingly they did. It was felt that the cover did the book no favours. Comments included:
? Good flow
? Gripping
? Better than anticipated
? Lovely style of writing
? The first few pages were not so good
? In places the story was pretentious and overwritten
? Names were confusing at the beginning
? The technique of giving different viewpoints added to the enjoyment.
Its title did little to attract anyone, and we all thought the design of the jacket a bit "wet". Then we had to struggle through the opening pages- a description of a miscarriage, overwritten and pretentious.
However, everyone was gripped by the rest of the book. It had unusual characters in unusual circumstances - Indians in American culture, with the contrasts revealed through letters and an amazing party. The three main characters were developed realistically, their relationships coming under great strains. The very young daughter of one of them was the catalyst for many changes, experiences which might easily have become sentimental were described realistically.
The book was admired by everyone, and we were reluctant to turn the last page. A short story from another collection was appended at the end, without explanation, which was irritating, as we thought they must be connected, that the new people somehow be related to those we had grown to like and understand.We felt the main novel had been spoiled by this editorial decision.
Nancy found it compulsive reading, Brenda was totally involved and enjoyed reading it. Which summed up everyone's verdict.
Followed some lighthearted discussion of books received as Christmas presents. Some just said "book tokens"- which could be taken two ways, either as a boring get-out of present choosing, or as a double present, one when you get it, another when you buy the book you really want with it. Mavis reported Alan Bennett's latest, "Untold Stories",a book on the Venice Carnavale, P.D.James "The Lighthouse", and Jane Glover's "Mozart's Women". Cath had "A History of Coffee Houses" and a Nepali-English dictionary. And Gwenda said she'd got Guy Brownin's "How To" series. An interesting mix.
Don't forget, March 14th.

Meeting 13th December 2005

A rather flat meeting. Our organiser, Gwenda, was away in Nepal spreading goodwill and reading matter in Khatmandu, so the usual pre-Christmas mince pies and wine were missing. Only six members were present actually, and it was more like a meeing of the Grumpy Old wotsits. At least we all got a few grumbles off our respective chests, which no doubt will be reported by Brenda. No-one had a good word for the latest offering, "Dinner For Two" by Mike Hayle. The style of presentation put most of us off, single words heading each page with, apparently, nothing to do with the story. Mannered, trivial, superficial, no depth, no feeling, was this a code we were supposed to know? and so it went on. Like, text messages that never get beneath the surface- maybe, as one member asked, we are the wrong generation? But then another member said he had much enjoyed Sophie Kinsella'a "Shopaholic" series and recommended it if anyone wanted a laugh over Christmas, and that was the same generation genre. Just shows. Why do the County send us books like this? It was pointed out too that the advance list to choose from was more or less the same as last year's. Brenda said we can always send them back.
However, the biscuits were rather nice.
Then followed a general discussion on reading. How does one tell a good book from the hype on the cover? Only from the quality of the reviewer. In mitigation, most members agreed that doors had been opened and they had had literary experiences they would not have had but for the Bookchat, and that is after all its purpose. Why do we read at all? wondered Jane. It is not a lonely pursuit, as would appear. There is contact on some level with other readers reading the same words and having the same experience, and the Bookchat brings some of them together to express their views. Altogether, it was agreed it is a Good Thing. A Merry Christmas all round was wished.

Meeting 8th November

This meeting was a bit special, although only six members were present. We welcomed the Book Pushers from County Headquarters. These are young readers who visit groups of young people in clubs, libraries, schools, anywhere they congregate, to inform, entertain, acquaint them with the advantages and pleasures of reading.They are trained in the art of presentation, and three of them, Becky, Colette, and Adam were accompanied by Angela and Will from HQ staff. The idea was to give them experience in meeting an adult audience.
They told us about the books that had interested them in their childhood. Becky went for "Narnia", by C.S.Lewis, a series still popular and now a film too. Colette showed us Beatrix Potter, another good oldie, still going strong, and Adam described "Rainbow Fairies to the Rescue", a large picture book none of us recognised. The group came back with memories of their own childhood reading- Jean told us of the gruesome "Struewelpeter" which she would not reccommend to any child but it did warn her of the dangers of playing with matches. There was a discussion on the effectiveness of morality in childrens' reading. Christine lightened the proceedings with "Shadow the Sheepdog". This opened a long cosy string of reminiscences from the group. But two old wrinklies sat quietly waiting for their childhood favourites to be mentioned. Where were "Milly Molly Mandy", "Mumfie", "Worzel Gummidge", "Doctor Doolittle", to mention but a few? Biggles and William too. The library shelves seem empty without them.

Meeting 11th October

Apologies were made for the absence of entries since April. Due to illness, holidays, etc. Business now resumed, we hope, as usual.
Report by Mavis deMierre.
We had a selection of books from the Orange Prize list 2005, so impressions were gained of the wide variety of content and styles represented. By the time we met, the winner was already known-
"We Need to talk About Kevin" by Lionel Shriver.
One member had found it "wonderful, - a piece of excellent writing". Another, while admitting it was a tour de force, and amazingly sustained, also thought it interminable, dealing in relentless, recalled detail with the horrifying actions of a child growing into violent adolescence, and the effects on his family.Another reader couldn't understand the choice of format, in a series of letters which achieved no answers untill the terrible final pages. Two more, stuck halfway through, decided to carry on reading to the end.
There was more enthusiasm for
"A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian" by Marina Lewycka.
Highly original, funny and sharply characterised. We thought the book jacket drab and unappealing, however, and one reader in particular was so struck by the vivid descriptions of deprivation and cruelty during the occupation that the humour barely registered.
One member had read "Billie Morgan", chosen because it was "slim and short". She didn't reccommend it to those of us who might be offended by the strong language. she found the story dark and disturbing but admired its vigour and narrative pace.

Meeting 12th April, 2005

The FESTIVAL event in September attracted some suggestions. One of the more interesting was that to celebrate this, the Writing Group (?3rdAge, ?Whaley Bridge) should combine with the Reading Group and read out some of their pieces. Also a link with Fair Trade would give us books from other cultures.
Next month's book is to be "A Small Island"- copies to be available later from the library.
Suggestions for future book collections from October onwards are welcomed. Make a list of ideas for next meeting.
Last month's book was "Vernon God Little." Most members apparently enjoyed this.Once the barrier of bad language was overcome, readers became fully engaged with the character/plot and were keen to see what would happen next. There was a greater emotional involvement, especially towards the end. The change in language from "bad" to "good" reflected Vernon's transion from rebellious victim to accepting faith.
Are books being written today which will stand the test of time? (Like, the classics, Austen, etc?.)There was a lively discussion abut this. A list of names was drawn up for future consideration, including Doril Lessing, Saul Bellow, Barbara Pym, Evelyn Waugh, William Golding.-

Meeting 8th March, 2005

It was a smaller group than usual, Gwenda and Joyce were absent, and the library seemed larger as the staff had taken the roofless period as an opportunity to reorganise the space. But there were bottles of red and white wine and a box of chox on the table to greet us. Why? No-one knew, but it didn't matter.
There were two books under discussion.
BETWEEN EXTREMES by Brian Keenan and John McCarthy.
Keenan and McCarthy became close friends during the four years they were held hostage in Lebanon. They managed to create another world for themselves by promising to undertake a journey on their release, through Chile, and to run an improbable yak farm. Five years after, they realised their dream. The notes they made on the way form the basis of their book, in short sections alternating between the two men. There were privations, fear, boredom and excitement.
Reactions to the book were equally extreme. Some of the group were captivated, thinking it wonderfully vivid; "couldn't put it down, didn't want the journey to end"... Others were disappointed- particularly those who had read Brian Keenan's "An Evil Cradling", and missed the intensity and care of that writing. Some found the quality really pedestrian, with some awkward reporting of dialogue. Some phrases were real pot-boilers: "Her eyes flashed understanding"..."I shrugged my shoulders"..."John rounded on me"...and a wild "I was struck by a group of mummies"..! (A thought occurred to me- did the mummies strike in sequence, or simultaneously, bandages flailing? Then walk stiffly back to where they had come from? I feel we missed something interesting there- ed.) One point raised was would these two have made the journey if they had just met casually and not spent that time incarcerated together and become obliged? Possibly not.
THE LAST GIRL by Stephan Collishaw.
The setting- in Lithuania - was interesting and came vividly to life. An elderly, reclusive man gradually reveals, through details of his present life, memories which have been buried for many years, involving life of the Jews in their ghettos and their persecution, together with his guilt at his failure to help a young woman and her child to escape arrest. This was a big theme, and the dilemma was appreciated by the readers. The descriptions of the city, poverty and endurance, are brought to vivid life; the narrative keeps one's attention. But most readers thought the situations somewhat contrived, the writing sometimes amateur, and the ending sentimental. (Both reports by Mavis DeMierre)

The February 8th meeting was cancelled, as the library roof was still under repair. There was, however, a poetry session at Ali's Cafe, Market St., New Mills, on 15th February, in honour of Valentine's Day. Ten members were present and all read their favourite love poems and consumed baked potatoes and wine.

We have also had additional reviews of the January 11th and December 14th books, by Gwenda and Kath. Not only Smiths give us two for the price of one..We had assumed Kath and Gwenda would not be contributing, as they were in Nepal on a goodwill mission establishing a childrens' library in Khatmandu and bringing relief to the womens' prison, where conditions are very bad. Kath and Gwenda, with Pam Francis who also went, gave us an illustrated lecture on their visit in January.

January 11th 2005 meeting

The book under discussion wasAusterlitz by W.G. Sebald.
Some of us had also read a second book. Those of us who had tackled The Red Tent by Ann Diamond were grateful for a good story, intrigued by its Old Testament setting and by the role of women within their families and tribes. In spite of the cruelties of the time, it was felt perhaps the book had settled maybe too readily into an easy light read, in spite of the constant references to the family tree.
Austerlitz. In spite of the unanimous admiration printed on the covers, our discussion revealed deep divisions of opinion. Everyone was dismayed by the syntax, the lack of sections or chapters, especially those who had to read in bed at night. The continuous flow of words was a problem, proceeding without let-up, and in seemingly endless sentences, (one of them 9.5 pages long), which rambled in minute detail from the present through flashbacks, through unconnected diversions and all exposed through the ears of a narrator who kept meeting Austerlitz, and recounting, in total recall, his latest updating of events in his life. One reader was totally captivated. Two were able to relate completely with the sequence describing his evacuation to strangers in Wales with the consequent loss of personal identity.
In spite of some wonderfully sharp observation and landscape detail, the device of including old-fashioned faded photographs, which were not always relevant, puzzled most of us.
The actual holocaust sequence was found the most moving when the discovery of events which were real history finally escaped from the previously laboured style.
One passionate outburst complained about the irritating device of recording it all through the ears of a person other than Austerlitz. So that one was continually held up by phrases "Austerlitz said"..."Austerlitz continued"..."Austerlitz resumed".
One thoughtful reader blamed the translator for some of the clumsiness and infelicities.
Report by Mavis deMierre.

11th January 2005
Austerlitz G Sebald
In 1967, the narrator bumps into a man in the salle de pas perdus of Antwerp's Central Station. Thus begins a long if intermittent acquaintance, during which he learns the life story of this stranger, retired architectural historian Jacques Austerlitz.
Raised as Dafydd Elias by a strict Welsh Calvinist ministry family, it is only at school that Austerlitz learns his true name - and only years later, by a series of chance encounters, that he allows himself to discover the truth of his origins, as a Czech child spirited away from his mother and out of Nazi territory on the Kindertransport. He returns to confront the childhood traumas that have made him feel that "I must have made a mistake, and now I am living the wrong life."
In this writer's hands, Austerlitz's tale of personal emotional repression becomes a metaphor for Europe's smothered past. Sebald wittily explores the tricks of time and space, unearthing Europe as an unconscious palimpsest.
At heart Austerlitz is a serious indictment of modern Europe's "avoidance system", its repeated patterns of personal and institutional forgetting that, even within Austerlitz's own lifetime, have contrived to obscure, ignore and render irretrievable his past and the source of his pain. And yet, despite the bleakness of that picture, the book ends with its hero - and its readers - committed to trying, at least, to remember.
Comments from members:
Artificial
Unusual technique
Precise evocative descriptions
Implausible
Sentences far too long/no chapters - irritating
Formidable

January 11th 2005
The Red Tent. Anita Diamant .
This is the story of a woman whose life was blessed by great love and torn by tragedy, of the lessons she learned through her own experiences and those of the women, and men, whose lives she touched.
Anita Diamant has chosen as her leading lady a woman whose name alone conjures up echoes of mystery, passion and betrayal. The Red Tent is the fictional tale of Dinah, whose life, like the majority of women in the Old Testament, merits only a passing mention. It is the men in Dinah’s life that history has remembered: her famous father Jacob, his dozen sons and especially her brother, Joseph and his technicolour dreamcoat. The story Anita Diamant has woven from the merest hints, will appeal to all.
This novel is as compelling for its female take on the grand themes that transcend time - birth, death, love, hate, betrayal and forgiveness - as it is for its meticulously researched and hugely fascinating picture of everyday life as an early Jewish woman. The book's title refers to the tent where the women retired each month to pass their menstruation, and the descriptions of their time spent celebrating this fundamental rite of womanhood, and other daily customs make this a most original and inspiring book. In an age when gender and family traditions are becoming more and more diluted, The Red Tent honours women and their many and varied roles in life. Carey Green.
Comments from members:
Enjoyed the story from start to finish
Interesting theme
Family story in an unusual setting
Some members liked the end, but others found it disturbing
The story had highs and lows, but was not satisfying
Good story, but not brilliant
The next meeting will be on February 8th, assuming the library roof has been replaced. Whether or not, the book under discussion will be "Between Extremes" by Brian Keenan and John McCarthy.

December 14th Meeting

THE CORRECTIONS by Jonathan Franzen.
This is an enormous book- 650 pages, but it covers an enormous subject- no less than a cross section of American midWest middle class society. The various cogs in this huge machine, so cleverly manipulated by Mr Bush, are described beautifully and in minute detail. Even American influence in corrupt Lithuania.The wide-ranging narrative looks at family life- maybe the decline of the hardworking and austere Albert Lambert and his rigidly middleclass wife who wants nothing more than a nice family Christmas- is symbolic of the decay of the moral climate, personified by Chip, the "Failure" and youngest son.
The surprising thing was that everyone present liked the book. Helen rhapsodised over its style, and most agreed it was worth a second or more read to get the most out of it.
Next meeting is 11th January. We will have read "Red Tent" by Ann Diamond, and "Austerlitz" by W.G.Sebald. Also receiving the report of Gwenda, Kath and Pam on their expedition to Khatmandu.

The Corrections. Jonathan Frantzen.
Framed by matriarch Enid Lambert's attempts to gather her three grown children back home for Christmas, The Corrections examines their lives: Enid's husband Alfred, sinking into dementia, her sons banker Gary and writer Chip (now in Lithuania) and daughter Denise, a chef, busily re-evaluating her sexual identity.
With these characters, Franzen gives himself plenty of room to examine the foibles, fears, hopes, anxieties and neuroses of 21st-century American life and the mad Lithuanian subplot provides some real laughs. But most striking and surprising about The Corrections is its reassuring normality. Despite all its well-signposted dysfunction, this remains at heart a big sprawling family saga. The book closes with Enid noting "that current events in general were more muted or insipid nowadays than they'd been in her youth" during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
The book brings an old fashioned world of civic virtue and sexual inhibition into violent collision with the era of home surveillance, hands-off parenting, do-it-yourself mental health care and globalised greed.
Comments from members were as usual mixed:
Not the best of novels
Well written
Impressive
Too long and detailed
Moving.

November 9th meeting

Report by Mavis deMierre.

IF NOBODY SPEAKS OF REMARKABLE THINGS by Jon McGregor.
Terraced houses in a bleak Northern industrial town contain many different small families, single people and temporary students. They see each other coming and going, into, and out from, separate lives. Brief glimpses of their lives, conversations, loves and misunderstandings are revealed only gradually, through the reflections, revelations, memories and expectations of the young woman at the heart of the book, and her gentle finding of love.
This first novel was supported by rave reviews on its back cover so was keenly anticipated. Readers' opinions were sharply divided.Of twelve people, three were truly amazed and found it wonderful. Indeed,one person reflected ruefully that she would probably have to buy her own copy to keep. Another 'couldn't put it down' and completed her reading in two days.
More general agreement concerned the quality of the descriptive writing- the poetic precision, the startling phrases.
Comparisons were drawn with Dylan Thomas' 'Under Milk Wood'.
The 'poetic nature' got in the way for some, making it difficult to extract a coherent narrative expected from a novel. It was felt to be such a visual and aural overload that a reduction to words alone strained the senses.
Complaints were voiced about the anonymity of characters who lived in the street and the little snapshots of their lives, (one or two had considered making a sketch map of where people were) with fleeting impressions of their situations and conversations.
'No proper punctuation marks' were found by some to be deeply irritating, although 'yes, it captured the hesitations and interruptions of conversations very well'.
Uncertainties remained to the end regarding the identities of central characters.
Three people couldn't get into it at all, and abandoned the effort quite quickly.
It was clear however, that one way or another, the book had generated intense responses, and left a deep impression. All felt that the group discussion had added a really useful layer to their understanding.

October meeting. Report by Gwenda.

Border Crossings by Pat Barker
When Tom Seymour, a child psychologist, plunges into a river to save a young man from drowning, he unwittingly reopens a chapter from his past he'd hoped to forget. For Tom already knows Danny Miller - when Danny was ten Tom helped imprison him for the killing of an old woman. Now out of prison with a new identity, Danny has some questions - questions he thinks only Tom can answer. Reluctantly, Tom is drawn back into Danny's world - a place where the border between good and evil, innocence and guilt is blurred and confused. But when Danny's demands on Tom become extreme, Tom wonders whether he has crossed a line of his own - and in crossing it, can he ever go back? Border Crossing is haunted by one of the most disturbing figures in contemporary English culture: the child who kills. It is a thrilling, gripping novel that leaves you in a fearful trance throughout, thanks to Barker’s mesmeric style of writing.
Unflinching yet sensitive, this is a dark story, expertly told.

Tuesday 14th September

The No. 1 Gent's Detective Agency: Fieldwork in Lesotha 1972 - 2004. Illustrated talk by Colin Murray - 7.30 in the library.
(It was recommended that some background reading is done prior to the talk - these papers can be collected from the library.)
The September meeting of the New Mills Bookchat joined with the New Mills Community Festival and about 30 people attended what turned out to be a popular and fascinating evening covering African life and Ritual murder.
Colin Murray is a Bookchat member. His forthcoming book covers his experiences as an anthropologist on fieldwork in one village in northern Lesotho (South Africa) over more than 30 years.
Ritual murder in the form of Murder Magic was the gruesom topic of the evening as Colin elaborated on his tale of Lesotho life and culture. The slides of African life provided a wonderful insight into the enduring friendships and bonds formed over so many years. (Report by Gwenda)

There was no Bookchat meeting in August.

Meeting July 6th

Fasting Feasting by Anita Desai.
The story is opened with a busy domestic scene, as the parents -- who have such a fused authority that they are often referred to simply as MamaPapa -- fussily ask whether daughter Uma has given orders to the cook and prepared a package for son Arun, who is studying in America. In the novel's present tense, Uma is a gray-haired spinster living under MamaPapa's demanding rule. In flashbacks scattered through the novel's first part, we gradually see how Uma arrived at this imprisoned state.
Uma is an eager, thwarted character of genuine pathos: Clumsy, nearsighted, slow, she is treated with neglectful impatience by her parents and with some condescension by her smart and pretty younger sister, Aruna. Uma resembles the good, frustrated woman in a Victorian novel. When Arun is born, the family's resources are poured into his physical and intellectual nourishment. For the girls, the sole future is marriage.
The arranged marriages produce their own painful comedy when Uma proves difficult to pair off: "Mama worked hard at trying to dispose of Uma, sent her photograph around to everyone who advertised ... but it was always returned with the comment 'We are looking for someone taller/fairer/more educated, for Sanju/Pinku/Dimpu.'" Twice the family is duped into handing over a dowry as part of an unsuccessful engagement -- a shame that clings to Uma forever after, though she is blameless in both situations. Inevitably, Aruna's marriage is a glamorous triumph, taking her off to a new metropolitan life in Bombay.
Although perpetually cheated of opportunities -- a benign doctor's attempt to give Uma a simple job is swiftly quashed by MamaPapa -- Uma is not jealous of her siblings, exactly. When Arun receives his longed-for acceptance from an American university, Uma notices her brother's blank joylessness: "All the years of scholarly toil had worn down any distinguishing features Arun's face might once have had." With a deft touch, Desai shows us that MamaPapa's ambitions for Arun are as stifling as their lack of ambition for Uma, and that Uma's brief spiritual ecstasies have given her moments of self-expression that Arun has yet to enjoy.
Two-thirds of the way through "Fasting, Feasting," the narrative abruptly shifts to present-tense Boston, where gloomy Arun is spending his own captive summer lodging with an American family, the Pattons. Who represent excess: The father barbecues great slabs of meat, the mother overfills vast shopping carts and the miserable daughter binges on endless candy bars. Arun is comically appalled by these physical and emotional hungers; in the contrast with India his wistful, belated appreciation of home comforts is real and vivid.
"Fasting, Feasting" is a novel not of plot but of comparison. In beautifully detailed prose Desai draws the foods and textures of an Indian small town and of an American suburb. In both, she suggests, family life is a complex mixture of generosity and meanness, license and restriction: The novel's subtle revelation is in the unlikely similarities. In one dark moment, Arun recognizes in the Pattons' bulimic daughter a version of his own unhappy sister Uma, and the shock provokes a reflection on these two frustrated women: "But what is plenty? What is not? Can one tell the difference?" Desai's novel is a moving, eloquent exploration of that question.
Cath Bolton

Most members of the group thoroughly enjoyed the novel, finding the characters and settings convincing.

New Mills Book Chat. Meeting June 8th

Jackie Gay – Wist

There are two beautiful young characters connected by chance and by choice. One travels and one stays put, but both make that crucial interior shift which takes them from love to forgiveness, from total loss to survival.
With its engaging, varied characters – from Tom the one-eyed urban tramp to Nyala who herds the buffalo grazing by her mountain plateau home – and rich thought provoking themes this is a very readable book.
Kate and Romany call themselves sisters and are so alike they could be twins – but they met as strangers. Romany was living rough and begging on the street of Birmingham, her past a mystery. Kate is the conventional girl from a warm, stable and decent family who believes in helping others. When Romany was adopted into the family, the two girls became inseparable. Now restless, Romany goes off travelling to India and is caught up in an Indian romance with the once bookish Ty. Kate stays at home as a student but is haunted by a sense of inconsolable loss for her sister. Kate journeys to the Norfolk coast with the sea-wist sounds beneath her friends Frieda’s outpost home. But disaster, death and mishap pull their travels up short – and as the inextricable connection between them again becomes taut, they confront a re-working of their emotional bonds and self-understanding. Both characters get the chance to tell their story in a slowly unfolding world of mysteries, secrets, passions and love.Report by Kath Bolton.

May 11, Bookchat Meeting

Easy Peasy, by Lesley Glaister.

This is the story of a lesbian relationship between the writer, written in the first person, and Foxy, her much older lover. Much of it is concerned with her coming to terms with her lover's infidelities, and the suicide of her father, who had been a prisoner of war in the hands of the Japanese. Much of it is implied too, indeed it is not till half way that we realise it is a lesbian relationship. Some of the group thought that the opportunity to write a more important novel exploring her own sexual deviation had been missed, but perhaps her obsession with the death of the father and the gradual revealing of his awful secret tells us all we need to know. Brenda didn't like the book- "fed up from the first page"- Barbara thought the story just didn't jell, was too obvious and naive, Jane thought the author was not authentic, trying to write a lesbian novel and not succeeding. A complicated novel, with many subplots, most of us had a stab at unravelling the implications, but no-one found it really satisfying. Interesting cotrast with last month's, which everyone liked.- Anonymous report.

Bookchat meeting 21st April 2004

Trumpet by Jackie Kay

Report by Gwenda.
In this unusual first novel, Jackie Kay has combined a love story with a mystery, thriller and case of mistaken identity to devastating effect. The protagonist of Jackie Kay's novel, Trumpet, is dead before the story begins. He is Joss Moody, a black Scottish jazz trumpeter. He left his wife in deep mourning and his adopted son in shock. The posthumous medical report revealed Joss Moody, a tall, handsome man, to be a woman. Joss's son, Colman, raging against what he perceives as his father's duplicity and perversion, colludes with a tabloid journalist in a rewriting of Moody's history. The story Trumpet is told in a multitude of voices, revealing the feelings of the other characters involved in a very sensitive way.

Only one member did not enjoy this book. Comments included:
•............ One of the best books I have read.
•............ Sensitively written.
•............ Vivid, genuine descriptions.
•............ Well written and beautifully constructed.
•............ Clever how the story revealed itself.
•............ Short scenes, but very powerful and vivid.
•............ Interesting technique.
•............ The story was taken from fact.

BookChat meeting 9 March 2004

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
This report is by Gwenda.
The story is set in the Belgian Congo from 1959 during a time of political and social upheaval. It follows the fortunes of An American Missionary and his family. Nathan Price, an evangelical Baptist, his wife and four daughters travel to the mission taking all the trappings of their former life that they think they will need only to find that life is very different in the Congo. The story is told through the eyes of the wife and daughters and unfolds their undoing and recovery over next three decades.
And a bit by Joe Hill.
Not often that I, your scribe and webmaster, puts in a comment, but this time I feel obliged. This brief description of the book in no way conveys the impact that it had on the group. Seldom have I heard of so much varied and approving comment, everyone seeming to find something new to praise. It is a long and rambling book, very uneven, the final episodes almost superficial , the earlier ones tediously overdone, the characters somewhat overdrawn in the earlier stages yet some essentials, like the decline into madness of the missionary, skimped and the novel ends like the finish of a romance. The episodes are related by different characters, but in the later stages the differences in style seem to diminish. As though the author had got fed up with her characters and wanted to be rid of them. But the technical deficiencies did not seem to matter. The group loved it, and discussion went on much longer than normal. What is it that makes one book go down so well, and another almost ignored?

Book Chat Meeting 10 February 2004

The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
Precious Ramotswe inherits a healthy sum of money from her father and opens the first ever-female run detective agency in Botswana. She employs a secretary, the simple but ambitious and highly qualified Mma Makutsi, and together they wait for the first client. Mma Ramotswe's warm personality and her keen intuition and the comforting and rock solid presence of her friend Mr J L B Matekoni, the proprietor of Speedy Motors, ever in the background ensures a steady success as the cases come trickling in, not least the case of the missing child.
The book was very well received amongst the majority of our members having been won over by the gentle wit and warm charm of each of the characters. One member did, however, prompt a discussion as to whether the author might have been a little patronising in his portrayal of these people, perhaps poking fun at them. This opinion was in the minority, however, most of our members believing the opposite that his writing held a great deal of genuine affection. In this delightfully different slant on the detective story as we know it, the reader’s senses become immersed in the sights, sounds and smells of Botswana, developing their own affection for the characters.
Some of our members also read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night- Time by Mark Haddon by way of a comparison. This book too could be described as a detective story with a difference. The narrator is a 14-year-old autistic boy and all who read it agreed that this is indeed a remarkable book in its sensitive and deeply knowledgeable handling of the subject. This was very moving, again gently humorous but at the same time tragic story which everyone enjoyed.

Book Chat Meeting - 13 January 2004

Review of The Little Friend by Donna Tart

This heavy tome opens with an account of the discovery of 14 year old Rob, found hanging from a black tupelo tree in the garden. His unsolved death has haunted his family for 10 years. The Cleves, Charlotte, Grandma Edith, Great Aunt Adelaide, Aunts Libby and Tat, are a Southern family of noble stock whose wealth and numbers have declined by the 1970's. Charlotte's youngest child Harriet, a smart and bookish girl and rather precocious, makes up her mind to solve the mystery surrounding the death. She suspects that the local Ratliffs family may have something to do with it and with the help of Hely, enlisted from the playground, sets out to investigate. The book isn't so much concerned with plot, and neither can it be described as pacy, but characterization of the individuals with their histories and fortunes takes a strong part in the book.

As usual, the response of members was mixed, but the majority enjoyed the book immensely, although faults were identified. Comments included:

..............Cover revolting, far too thick.
..............Good adventure story, escapism.
..............Could have been shorter.
..............Lacking in relationships, too many characters.
..............It was like a treasure hunt with no treasure at the end - the hunt had been the whole thing.
..............Vivid, striking language.
..............Good story line.
..............Loved it.
..............The ending caused frustration.

Billy,
by
Pamela Stephenson
Reviewed at the Christmas meeting on 9th December.
Pamela Stephenson came to public attendion as the peroxide-blonde Australian comedienne in Not the 9 O’Clock News, famous for its off the wall sketches. Some members felt it inappropriate for a funny woman to take on a funny man’s rise to fame! Most thought the book a poorly written pot boiler, but two or three members really enjoyed for what it was. Being Bill’s wife gave Pamela Stephenson a unique insight into his life, but was this an advantage? As a clinical psychologist, the book was perhaps written with a slant towards Pamela’s subject, and as a result the book was remarkably uneven.
The story itself is truly inspiring: born of humble Irish Catholic stock in Glasgow, Billy Connolly survives abandonment by his mother, sexual abuse by his father and psychological torture by his aunts. He ends up working as a welder in a shipyard and later buys a banjo and starts playing at gigs on the side. His music led to a stand-up routine – by accident, it appears, as he forgot the words to a song. The act grew, and the venues got bigger. Before long Billy was a household name.
Stephenson was criticized for her constant name-dropping clichés, but whatever the viewpoint, it’s a story of triumph over adversity, which has made it such a success.
Members of New Mills Book Chat enjoyed mulled wine and mince pies during the discussion, and wish all visitors to the site a very happy Christmas.

Friday, 10th October. NewMillsBookchat

Friday, 10th October. NewMillsBookchat was privileged to be part of a historic (first ever) video-conferencing link up with Newbold Bookchat, Nottingham. Only 2 New Mills members turned up, plus library staff, but even they found it difficult to crowd onto the 6" screen. A bigger one was reccommmended. Gwenda reported the group felt the scheme had potential for scattered groups and group co-operation, and that it opened "another dimension."

Derbyshire Literature Festival June 2004
Events in the High Peak District

Provisional Programme.

Tuesday 8th June.......... New Mills Book Chat – Talk by author Jackie Gay, author of Wist, 7.30pm. New Mills Library.
9th or 10th June......... The Witches of Hayfield talk by Ben Ramwell. Hayfield Library 7.30pm.
Wednesday 16th June.......... Humpty Dumpty Lives: A light-hearted look at nursery rhymes - an interactive talk for adults, by Mavis De Mierre. New Mills Library 7.30pm.
Thursday 17th June........ Author visit - Glossop Library. Danuta Reah Writing Blue Murder 7.30pm.
Friday 18th or 25th June......... Jazz and Poetry at the Old Hall, Buxton - evening
Saturday 19th June........ Calligraphy is Fun - workshop at New Mills Library - a.m. Margaret Morgan.
Tuesday 22nd June........ Bards on a Barge - music and poetry on a barge - evening. Host Library- Whaley Bridge.

Pending:
?** Ghost stories in Poole's Cavern, Buxton - family event.
?** Reminiscences of Gamesley: a potted history - more details to follow.
?** Possible event on the mobile.

County Wide events
?** Saturday 26th June..... Readers Day at County Hall, Matlock
?** Local History Quiz - all libraries
?** Competition for the best letter, in any format, written to your favourite book character - all libraries.

New Mills Book Chat Provisional Programme 2004/2005

2004
January 13........ The Little friend by Donna Tartt
February 10....... The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander Mcall Smith
March 9............ Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
April 20............. Trumpet by Jackie Kay
Please note that this is the 3rd Tuesday of the month due to the Easter break
May 11............. Easy Peasy by Lesley Glaister
June 8.............. Author visit linked to Derbyshire Literature Festival - Jackie Gay, writer of Wist. Tickets £3 (£2 Conc.)
July 13............. Fasting, Feasting by Anita Desai
August............. No meeting
September 14... Event linked to New Mills Festival to be arranged.
October 12....... Crossings by Pat Barker
November 9...... If nobody speaks of Remarkable Things by Jon McGregor and/or Instances of Number Three by Salley Vickers and/or Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald
December 14.... The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen

2005
January 11....... The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
February 8....... Between Extremes by Brian Keenan and John McCarthy and/or Birthday Letters by Ted Hughes
March 8........... The Last Girl by Stephen Collishaw
April 12............ Vernon God Little by D.B.C. Pierre
May 10............ To be arranged
June 14........... TheWorld's Wife by Carol Ann Duffy

We don't only read books. Here are some of the other literary events we have hosted:

World Book Day 6 March 2003

New Mills Orange Prize for Fiction - June 2001

In 2001 Derbyshire County Council New Mills library hosted their own Orange Prize event. This was held prior to the official prize-giving event and voting took place for a winner by the readers who attended. The shortlisted books were presented by a team of panellists made up of members of New Mills Book Chat and library staff. Each member gave short readings from and spoke briefly about the book they had been assigned. The atmosphere was enhanced with an orange colour scheme for the tables which were set out appropriately with orange juice and snacks of fresh oranges and nibbles for the readers to enjoy. Promotional posters adorned the walls and the scene was set. The event was a first of its kind and proved to be a great success providing readers with an incentive to explore new authors and expand their reading development. After the event, news was eagerly awaited of the official winner. It was very satisfying when Kate Grenville's triumph matched our own majority judgement. Her book, "An Idea of Perfection" was not only the winner of the official Orange prize for Fiction but also the New Mills Orange Prize for Fiction.

The Edith Nesbit Connection

In the summer of 1999 the staff at New Mills Library discovered that the author E.Nesbit had connections with New Mills and surrounding areas. Gwenda Culkin and Barbara Matthews carried out extensive research and found considerable evidence to suggest that Nesbit based her most famous book "The Railway Children", on this area. Findings of the research were presented to New Mills Bookchat in May 2000, backed by an extensive exhibition. A booklet, The Nesbit Trail is available from New Mills Library, price£1.

Please contact Gwenda or Barbara on 01663 743603 for further details of the booklet and research.

Watch this space!:

Quite recent- Valentine's Day

Valentines- a report by Barbara Jagger

Past Events

Other Notable Events

The Scapegoat", a surrealist French murder mystery by Daniel Pennac. Here's a review of the kind our selections sometimes inspire.

A Review of "The Scapegoat" from Mavis de Mierre. Some reviews are too good to throw away, we hope you don't mind our keeping this one for a while.

Picking up the book
... Is like sitting on a train
... Moored in the station
... Awaiting departure.
Quite a slim book.
... Thank goodness this train isn't crowded.
One consults the reviews
Looking for clues
Edging it into its place.
One says "It's a real lark"
But I'm still in the dark;
"You'll laugh till you cry" it announces;
It's a bit unenticing
A bit uninviting.

...That woman across the aisle
...Has a long, anxious face;
...A baby is already crying;
...Tables are laden with papers and bags;
...There must be a mobile
...As someone shouts "Hi!"
...WHY must they do that?
...Oh, good, we're just off
...We jerk forward at last.
Reading Page 1.

...Another train passes, but
...It's all an illusion, as
...We remain stationary;
...There's a moment of nausea -
...One really feels sick;
...It must be a trick.

This book is like that
There are names
But no pack drill;
Speed like America
Supposed to be France;
Wise-cracks and bomb-cracks,
Smart-aleck, pacey;
I'm running alongside
Slipping and breathless;
Can't grip the handle, it's covered in blood.
Bodies exploding all over the track-
They cannot turn back;
Passengers stare
I can't get on board,
Who ARE all these children?
This SHOP?
And that DOG?
And such LANGUAGE!

O well, never mind; the 9.30's gone.
The timetable says there'll be yet another one
Along in half an hour.
I'll wait.
It's slow, and a "stopper";
That'll suit me just fine;
I can happily read
Till the end of the line.

On The Edge: BOOKSTOP- 38, Market St, New Mills SK22 4AA. Tel/fax 01663 744 472
email books@bookstop-newmills.co.uk

Bookstop, an independent bookshop, has been here in New Mills for 16 years. After a year or so of planning, research and hard work we opened in 1986 on Sett Close, and in 1988 moved to a small shop above the shoe menders and finally to this prime position in 1995. We have no plans to move again!
It is unusual for a town as small as New Mills to have a bookshop selling only new books; we feel we are achieving our aim to offer a vital service to the community as well as adding diversity to the town. Obviously our range of books cannot compete with the large book stores, but we are appreciated by local book lovers and readers who also use our rapid free ordering service. We have diversified our range and now stock cd's, books on cassette, cards and wrapping paper. Local artists display and sell their works through the shop, which adds another dimension. Ideally it would be wonderful to be able to offer a cafe on the same premises, but that is merely a pipe dream as it would take more space, finance and time than we have.
Why not visit us in person, visit the website www.bookstop-newmills.co.uk or email any queries or orders? You are welcome any day between 9.30 and 5.

HIGH STREET BOOKS has been at the top of High street for nineteen years now, run by "Archie" and his wife.
Their stock is mainly paperbacks, but they also have a wide range of second hand cassettes and new CDs, with some very unusual labels and of-beat titles. Archie says there is a very wide variety of demand too, as one would expect from a secondhand bookshop that derives its stock from anywhere and everywhere.
Besides the usual romances, thrillers, adventure stories,Psycho-thrillers sell well, true crime, like the Moors murders which happened not too far from here. Also out of print non-fiction makes up a large part of his stock- Railways, Mountaineering, History, especially war history, and, books on local history and archaeology. Archie says this area is rich in prehistoric remains.
Come and have a browse any day except Sunday and Wednesday, 10 to 5, you may not find the latest best seller, but you might find something much better.

New Mills Book Chat

. We feel our members' views are too good to throw away. And you may like to browse among what's been said...

Book Chat Meeting - 13 January 2004

Review of The Little Friend by Donna Tart

This heavy tome opens with an account of the discovery of 14 year old Rob, found hanging from a black tupelo tree in the garden. His unsolved death has haunted his family for 10 years. The Cleves, Charlotte, Grandma Edith, Great Aunt Adelaide, Aunts Libby and Tat, are a Southern family of noble stock whose wealth and numbers have declined by the 1970's. Charlotte's youngest child Harriet, a smart and bookish girl and rather precocious, makes up her mind to solve the mystery surrounding the death. She suspects that the local Ratliffs family may have something to do with it and with the help of Hely, enlisted from the playground, sets out to investigate. The book isn't so much concerned with plot, and neither can it be described as pacy, but characterization of the individuals with their histories and fortunes takes a strong part in the book.

As usual, the response of members was mixed, but the majority enjoyed the book immensely, although faults were identified. Comments included:

..............Cover revolting, far too thick.
..............Good adventure story, escapism.
..............Could have been shorter.
..............Lacking in relationships, too many characters.
..............It was like a treasure hunt with no treasure at the end - the hunt had been the whole thing.
..............Vivid, striking language.
..............Good story line.
..............Loved it.
..............The ending caused frustration.

Billy,
by
Pamela Stephenson
Reviewed at the Christmas meeting on 9th December.
Pamela Stephenson came to public attendion as the peroxide-blonde Australian comedienne in Not the 9 O’Clock News, famous for its off the wall sketches. Some members felt it inappropriate for a funny woman to take on a funny man’s rise to fame! Most thought the book a poorly written pot boiler, but two or three members really enjoyed for what it was. Being Bill’s wife gave Pamela Stephenson a unique insight into his life, but was this an advantage? As a clinical psychologist, the book was perhaps written with a slant towards Pamela’s subject, and as a result the book was remarkably uneven.
The story itself is truly inspiring: born of humble Irish Catholic stock in Glasgow, Billy Connolly survives abandonment by his mother, sexual abuse by his father and psychological torture by his aunts. He ends up working as a welder in a shipyard and later buys a banjo and starts playing at gigs on the side. His music led to a stand-up routine – by accident, it appears, as he forgot the words to a song. The act grew, and the venues got bigger. Before long Billy was a household name.
Stephenson was criticized for her constant name-dropping clichés, but whatever the viewpoint, it’s a story of triumph over adversity, which has made it such a success.
Members of New Mills Book Chat enjoyed mulled wine and mince pies during the discussion, and wish all visitors to the site a very happy Christmas.

11 November 2003

Northern Lights by Philip Pullman

When Lyra’s friend Roger disappears, she and her daemon, Pantalaimon, determine to find him. The ensuing quest leads them to the bleak splendour of the North where armoured bears rule the ice and witch-queens fly through the frozen skies – and where a team of scientists is conducting experiments too horrible to be spoken about. Lyra overcomes these strange terrors, only to find something yet more perilous waiting for her – something with consequences which may even reach beyond the Northern Lights…
This book created a very lively and often heated discussion. Opinions, though varied, were never indifferent. It was a matter of love it or hate it.
Those who loved it did so with childish gusto. The secret of its appeal is in its sheer undemanding tale of pure fantasy, its many strong and lively characters and its pacy journey through each part of the story. We take each character and setting to our hearts but are often forced to leave them behind without a backwards glance as we are carried along by the book’s momentum. Our members found it refreshing not to be required to look too deeply for hidden meanings but to just enjoy the thrill of pure storytelling, reminiscent of childhood days.
The few members who hated the book, did so with passion and conviction. The author borrows from C S Lewis and other great writers of fantasy. It is too fanciful, offering no educational value to children and filling their heads with dangerous nonsense. The book lacked lucid descriptions and humour and one member at least found it hard to embrace the main character. But even those who hated the book found some merit within the pages and gave fair justice to those parts.
The general verdict, though not unanimous, was that the book should be approached with a sense of fun, and to be read through half closed fingers (protection from the scary bits). The book was a great success as a subject for group discussion and certainly got our members animated.
Christine Barnes

BookChat meeting, 14th October, 2003

"Armada", poems by Brian Patten.
This book takes on a different mood to that of his other published works, many of which are written for children. Ths first part draws from his inmost feelings regarding he death of his mother which made many of our members feel uncomfortable. They are dark and depressing words which, whilst obviously written as a necessary outlet for his intense emotions, some felt should have been kept private. Others welcomed the sharing of these feelings expressing the opinion that sometimes the sharing in others grief can help with their own.

Altogether there were very mixed feelings about this book and it received a thorough dissection by our members. Some thought the poet far too self-indulgent, disturbed, obsessed, depressing. They felt he gave no hope in his writing, and perhaps he needs to move on in his life and leave his grief behind. The poems embarrassed some members, upset others, while one or two thought him superficial.

There were other members who enjoyed the poems tremendously, finding the poet to be sensitive and, contrary to hopelessness, found a positive spark in each one.

A couple of members had actually met him and found him to be a man of passion, a lovely man, wonderful with children. Whilst performing he possesses an intensity which brings on perspiration. He hassuffered trauma in his life and needs to let it out, expose it and work through it. One member described him as "like a child".

A surprising comment was made by one member who disliked the poems was that she could not bear to look at his face on the cover. She had to cover it up - it made her feel uncomfortable. This coment was taken up by others and the discussion took on an unusual twist as we chewed over the merits or otherwise of this image. Rugged, sinister, sneery, sensitive, were among the adjectives applied.

We also took a close look at the poet's style of writing. The rhythm of the lines was criticised. It was pointed out that some lines did not flow well and were rather lumpy or contrived in their rhyming when they occurred. Other lines were thought by some to be quite beautiful.

The second part of the book met with more approval and most, if not all members (even those who disliked the book) found at least one poem they enjoyed. Many thought that without the first part, the book would have been very acceptable.
There followed a series of readings by various members of their favourites among the poems:
"Garden Lore"- page 76. (Most agreed the book was worth it for that poem alone)
"Lockerbie" -page 69.
"An incident"- page 27.
"The Mirror's Apprentice"- page 74, a popular choice.
"Waiting in Macedonia"-page 67.
"Why Things Remained the Same"- page 64.
It was concluded that perhaps the poems lend themselves more to listening to his own readings than to being read off the page, so that his personality can come through.

The meeting was a fairly sombre one which reflected the mood of the book and was brought to an end with other readings of poems about associated emotions. One poem read by a member, however, made us laugh, and, with our spirits lifted, we called a halt.
Christine Barnes.

Tuesday 16th September 2003 New Mills Library

"THE BIG READ" (BBC). New Mills Bookchat supported this venture with a selection of readings from a list supplied by the BBC entitled "Grand Passion."
We started the evening with a definition of passion read by Cath.

Members of Book Chat read from the following books:

Part 1

Clara by Janice Galloway.....................................................................Mavis

3 poems from "I'm in a mood today". selected by John Foster........................Christine

An Equal Music by Vickram Seth.........................................................Colin

I have a Dream by Martin Luther King Jnr...............................................Pam

Love in the time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez..........................Barbara

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin......................................................Cath

Girls in Love by Jacqueline Wilson.......................................................Brenda

Perfume by Patrick Suskind................................................................Jane

Part 2

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh................................................Colin

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver........................................Jane

The Tadpole's Promise by Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross.........................Christine

Longitude by Dava Sobel....................................................................Brenda

Beyond a Boundary by C.L.R. James..................................................Colin

My war gone by, I miss it so by Anthony Loyd......................................Pam

Funeral Blues by W. H. Auden............................................................Mavis

Summer with Monika by Roger McGough.............................................Pam

Passages from the books were read beautifully by members of Book Chat and provided much inspiration. The subject passion was widely interpreted, providing a varied evening. The event proved a huge success and was enjoyed by all who attended.

The BBC Big Read is proving to be a huge success and has had a massive impact on both book sales and library borrowing.
In mid October the Top 21 Titles will be announced, and between then and mid December there will be seven TV programmes each featuring three books. During this period there will be another round or voting. The winning title will be announced at the end of the year.

Monday 22nd September

“A Mixed Harvest: Stories of New Mills” New Mills Library Lecture Room 8pm

Jointly hosted by New Mills Library and New Mills Wives.
Author Maurice Hope will be talking about his new book, with readings by Kate Millward.
It was a chance visit to the Torrs Millennium Walkway that inspired Maurice Hope to write “A Mixed Harvest: Stories of New Mills”. As an outsider (albeit one who had lived in nearby Mellor for over twenty years) he was able to take an objective look at the changing faces of New Mills – its past and present, its joys and celebrations, conflicts and sorrows. Though published materials have been carefully explored, the author’s primary source for the book has been the people of New Mills themselves. It is they who bring the book to life.
Free event

The Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Meeting: Tuesday 8th July 2003. Report by Gwenda.
The first part of the novel tells of Pi’s childhood as the son of a zookeeper in Pondicherry. During this time Pi learns a lot about animals, both penned and wild, and how to keep them content controlled.
As he enters his teens, Pi goes in search of God. Growing up in India, Pi was initially a Hindu. When he first enters Christianity, he finds Jesus lacking in comparison to Hindu gods, who are grander in stature and history. He goes on to embrace Christianity’s message of love, and later discovers Islam. Pi becomes a devout member of all three religions, content in his newfound sense of God. When it is discovered by the priest, the pandit and the imam, that Pi has been active in all three religions, arguments result between the leaders. This brings humour into the novel. Pi’s brother provides a different perspective by suggesting that he might also become a Jew! He goes on to say
“At the rate you’re going, if you go to temple on Thursday, mosque on Friday, synagogue on Saturday and church on Sunday, you only need to convert to three more religions to be on holiday for the rest of your life”.
The first part of the novel ends with Pi and his family leaving India and moving to Canada. The zoo is closing and the animals are being sent to zoos in various parts of the world. The family and some of the animals board a cargo ship, but unfortunately the ship sinks.
Pi is cast adrift in a lifeboat with a zebra, a hyena, an orang-utan and a tiger. The animals battle for survival in the cramped boat and Pi tries to avoid being eaten alive. Eventually just Pi and the tiger are left in the boat. The rest of the book is about Pi’s tale of 227 days at sea, keeping the tiger content. Pi spends his time in emotional and physical despair, but refuses to give up and die, and instead lives by his wits and determination. At the end, Martell challenges the reader to disbelieve it all - it becomes a matter of faith.

********** Members of New Mills Book Chat had mixed views on this novel, with the majority being full of praise. Comments included:

?
• An action tale which raised physical questions
?
• The book kept me turning the pages
?
• Parts of it were contrived
?
• A deserved winner of the Man Booker Prize
?
• Well worth reading
?
• Unrealistic
?
• Took a while to get into, but got better
?
• Incredibly boring fantasy
?
• Brilliant
?
• Bizarre
?
• I grew very fond of the tiger – it had a personality. I was more concerned about the tiger dying than the boy
?
• I recommended it and bought it for members of my family
?
• Good story of survival
?
• The super illustration on the cover was a brilliant résumé of the book
?
• Well written, irresistible, intriguing
?
• Not the best book I have ever read, but a ripping good read.

Once a year the Penguin/Orange group holds a competition for the best chatgroup report in the current year.The following is Colin Murray's entry on our behalf.

Stephen Booth: Black Dog.

A teenager disappears. Her father waits with her mother to hear news of, presumably, the worst, and in everything he says and does fits comfortably a stereotype of careless prosperity, impervious to the ripples of ‘community’ that otherwise seep and ooze through the pages of the book. Canny old man (sagely cussed ‘old-timer’) sucks on pipe and remains churlishly enigmatic to police enquiries. Thoughtless and philandering local youth, erstwhile garden-minder to jumped-up family of the victim, also suits instant stereotype, and feeds suspicion – of course - by disappearing. We know he will turn out not to be responsible. Eager policewoman from Birmingham (‘outsider’ with mysterious past) teams up with local PC who is born and reared in the Peaks (‘native’ with shockingly schizophrenic mother, no doubt Significant to Character Development). Irritatingly, he knows every grass stem. Their characters bounce off one another with tediously predictable sparks but they avoid, it appears, any ultimate romance. Earnest senior policemen wander about, and wonder uselessly what they will have for dinner. There is a hint of past teenage passion, suggestive but unresolved for the future (what happened to Helen?) between local PC and canny old man’s grand-daughter. Two other old men (echoes of Last of the Summer Wine) gab laconically in the pub. One of them, in the end, hangs himself, turns out to be the murderer, and glibly vindicates the theme of melancholia which stalks the narrative in the gimmicky shape of one black dog or another. (At least one of us felt this was superficial and contrived.) Meanwhile, we are trawled all over hills and dales with overcrowded and inconsequential descriptive detail (too many adjectives, see!) as this ‘mystery’ winds to its ponderous conclusion.
All this called for another hatchet job from Bookchat New Mills. We are a disparate lot: mostly female, many of us on the generous side of middle-aged, grousing, critical, enthusiastic, opinionated, some of us looking for a racy read, most of us for good writing. Occasionally we might agree that they’re found in one book. This last year’s experience suggests the combination is elusive. We usually disagree on what we like and we don’t like, and we discover why. This was an early novel of Stephen Booth, and it showed, we thought. It got swiftly denounced, with some trenchant comments recorded in my (informal) notes on the meeting: awful, trivial, far too long (by two-thirds, by one-third, by 100 pages, by double padding), laboriously descriptive, cardboard cut-out characters, slack and repetitive writing, over-clinically ghoulish (the author makes sure we know he is familiar with mortuaries, post-mortems and police inference from tiny detail below the waist). Waste of good reading time. Certainly wouldn’t take it to bed. Reminded one of us of the way in which an ex-colleague kept sending chapters of novels, evoking the embarrassment of inexpressible disappointment. Author ill-served by publisher’s editor’s over-indulgence of length and adjectives. Some of us discerned a hint of presumption in the author’s dangling of loose ends, as if he knew he was on to a good thing (Murder in the Peaks, and another one), and was promising to sort them out in one sequel, and (groan) probably another one.
The book got some enthusiasm also, mostly for its evocative scene-setting in a familiar environment. Better guide to the Derbyshire landscape – waspish remark, this, from our floaty vegetarian – than to character and plot. An opportunity for escapism, nevertheless, that indulged our strong sense of local rootedness: at least he writes about our region, and it’s not an invasion from another poncy southerner. We fairly disparaged Black Dog, in our contentedly ranting way, but we noted Stephen Booth was signing books at Buxton the next week. A tinge of envy? (Some of us are writers aspirant or manquées.) The tea and biscuits were exhausted and we moved on to the more pressing question of how we choose our books. Much to do with what our indefatigable organiser can find through the High Peak library service. We felt we should lay a stronger grip on the choices made, so that our books had a better chance of making the grade as seriously enjoyable rather than annoyingly diverting. But it is a recurring dilemma, for we don’t pay for them at present. Good company, and the sniping stimulates us as we disperse into the night.

Meeting Tuesday 10th June 2003

Being Dead by Jim Crace - Report by Gwenda Culkin

The opening sentence introduces Joseph and Celice who are lying dead on the beach, only partially clad. Joseph is touching Celice, his hand curved around the arch of her shin. Was he trying to help her in the last moments of her life? Is it a testament of his love for her?

Being Dead involves rotting and decay, involving a vast array of tiny and not-so-tiny animals gorging themselves. The couple are hidden amongst the dunes for nine days before they are found. During this time Crace takes the reader through every detail of the changes occurring in the rotting corpses of Joseph and Celice.

The novel starting with death, takes us back through the lives of Joseph and Celice, a very ordinary couple, leading very ordinary lives.

The views of reading group members were mixed. Barbara Jagger, who was unable to attend the meeting, writes:

I’m sorry I can’t be with you for discussion of “Being Dead”. I first read this book two or three years ago, after reading the same author’s “Quarantine”. And then I couldn’t not buy a third Crace novel, “Arcadia”.
I love his rhythmic prose which at times is almost poetry. He achieves balance and depth in his choice of word and phrase. I’ve picked the following example at random: “Death…called on people who had drowned in their pyjamas amongst the roofs and corals of their furniture”. And: “The only crops these days were mortgages and weeds.”
I like the ironic detachment of his observer who comments on the action. It allows the author to philosophise; and also to give a lot of clinical detail about decay, so that we learn the carefully described stages in physical disintegration of zoologists who had spent most of their own lives charting the lives of creatures.
It’s an unfolding and moving love story about people who are apparently semi-detached in their marriage if not actually detached. And it picks up slowly and gradually on the theme of guilt and how perceived responsibility for another’s death, at a crucial point of their own falling in love, cast a long shadow over this couple’s marriage.
It’s cleverly put together, past events interleaving with present developments, as if both past and present are unrolling right now.
It’s surprising that death happens on the first page, as if death is one of the main characters. There are in fact surprisingly few characters, and the plot is surprisingly slight, and I don’t want to put it down.
As you see, I’m bowled over by this book…
Other group members commented:

• A thoroughly enjoyable gradually unfolding love story.
• A cleverly written, unusual storyline.
• Poetic description of decay, but unpleasant subject matter.
• Not convincing, contrived, annoying.
• What made the author write about such boring characters?
• Gripping, original, quirky.
• Beautiful language.

The Black Dog by Stephen Booth

Book discussion: Tuesday 13th May 2003. Report by Gwenda.
At the beginning of the novel, helicopters are searching the Peak District for missing 15-year-old Laura Vernon. Detective Constable Ben Cooper is assigned to the case where it seems that the girl’s parents are indifferent to their missing daughter. The townspeople are not helpful, particularly Harry Dickinson who finds Laura’s shoe and then her body.
Ben Cooper is trying hard to fight his father’s ghost, a policeman killed on duty, as well as other personal demons. He is teamed up with Detective Constable Diane Fry, a newcomer to Cooper’s police precinct. She is ambitious, headstrong and manages to take the case away from Cooper.
As the investigation twists and turns, Ben and Diane discover that to understand the present, they must also understand the past; and in a world where no one is entirely innocent, pain and suffering can be the only outcome.
Although the reviews for this police procedural were glowing, overall, members of New Mills Book Chat found it disappointing. Of the fourteen members present, only four actually enjoyed the book, saying it was a lighthearted easy read which gripped their attention. Two members had not read the book, and left the meeting with no desire to do so. The location of the story, being set locally, added interest for some members. Most members thought it contrived, and far too long, containing too much trivial information. One member went as far as to say it was dire, another went even further by saying it was absolutely dire. To a certain extent, the author was forgiven, and the blame apportioned to the publishers, who should have edited the book more rigorously, and reduced it to half its size. There is evidence that Booth had done extensive research within the police force, but had tried to cram too much of this into the storyline.

Book Chat Meeting 8 April 2003

Love That Dog by Sharon Creech

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