The Wager – David Grann

The context: 1740 and the rivalry between the British and the Spanish empires has boiled over into war, the splendidly named War of Jenkins’ ear.

The mission: as a sideshow to the main theatre of conflict in the Caribbean, a British naval squadron are to set sail south, round Cape Horn, and harry Spanish ships and settlements on the Pacific coast of South America and the route to the Philippines, the main prize being the twice yearly galleon carrying untold riches of silver across the ocean.

The ships: four state of the art men-of-war – The Centurian, The Gloucester, The Pearl, and the Severn, plus a converted East Indiaman merchant vessel, The Wager.

The men: around two thousand on board the vessels, sailors, soldiers, and support staff such as surgeons, cooks, carpenters and the like. Among the key players in the drama to unfold are, aboard The Centurian, Captain George Anson, Commodore of the fleet, and First Lieutenant David Cheap, destined to be promoted to Captain of The Wager; aboard The Wager from the offset are sixteen-year-old midshipman John Byron, and a capable gunner, John Bulkeley.

The events: well, they have to be read to be believed, so no spoilers here. Sufficient to say they include sea battles, storms, scurvy, and survival of some to tell the tale.

Grann tells that tale rather brilliantly, using archive material and his fine writing style to compress some tasty nuggets of eighteenth century naval life and several years of adventure into a tight, gripping narrative of just 250 pages.

Read, marvel, and enjoy.

The Satanic Verses – Salman Rushdie

So, two blokes, Indian actors, not friends but acquaintances, rivals maybe, are in a hi-jacked aeroplane over the English Channel. The terrorist bomb is exploded, the plane breaks up, and the passengers are scattered to the winds to perish.

But not these two. Gibreel Farishta and Saladin Chamcha fall to earth on the shores of the Channel, landing gently enough to survive, though changed. Gibreel seems to have become an angel with a halo, while Saladin soon begins to show satanic signs, growing horns, hooves, and a tail.

Some inevitably odd adventures ensue in the English countryside and then in London. The initial physical changes disappear but psychological scars remain. More things happen in London, involving Gibreel, Saladin, various women of their acquaintance, and names and faces from the Indian film industry.

Periodically, the narrative switches to another place, another time. Is it Gibreel’s vision, memory, or imagination? Who knows! But it seems to be a parody (disrespectful for some, as events subsequent to publication testify) of the early history of the Islamic religion.

Another interlude in the narrative and location introduces a young woman, dressed in butterflies, leading a pilgrimage from India to Mecca that will involve passage, on foot, across the Arabian Sea. It was unclear to me how this episode fits in with things.

And so it goes on to a reckoning of some sort involving Saladin Chamcha and his estranged father.

Okay, it is magic realism, but I have three problems. One, in general, telling what is real and what is magic. Two, in this book, my relative ignorance of Islam and Indian culture and politics, probably meant there were satirical references that failed register. Three, the prose is dense, and the sentence construction is often unconventional or experimental, making it difficult to follow at times. Reading should not be such hard work.

This was read as part of my Book-et List reading journey – as a book I felt I ought to read. If you haven’t read it yet, my advice is don’t bother. After 550 pages I’m none the wiser as to its status as either literary genius or blasphemous tripe.

A Beginner’s Guide to Murder – Rosalind Stopps

Three elderly (though they turn out to be spritely) ladies, acquainted through their Pilates class, are taking a post-session cup of coffee in a café when the door bursts open and a distressed teenage girl enters. She asks for help, someone is after her, so she heads for the washroom. Just in time, as an older man comes in asking after ‘his daughter’. He is clearly a nasty piece of work (they subsequently christen him the toad). The ladies feign ignorance and see him off the premises, then spirit the girl, Nina, away.

Thus, Meg, Grace, and Daphne form a band and make a pact to protect Nina at all costs – which may, they realise, extend to eliminating the toad entirely – murder if necessary.

As their amateur efforts (which alternate between protecting and rescuing the girl) ensue, the back story and unsavoury exploitation of Nina is revealed. The back stories of the ladies are not so much given as hinted at, enough though to join the dots and realise this quest has given them new purpose and sorely needed bonds of friendship.

As they pursue the aim of eliminating the toad, they pick up other odd characters that help, or try to, including an incompetent hit man and woman (on which point, is that all there is to a beginner’s guide to murder – hiring an assassin?).

The story is carried forward in the four points of view – Meg, Grace, Daphne, and Nina – which gives some variety of narrative, but not much as while the three old ladies’ histories are different, they tend to waffle on in similar style. It’s all a bit twee, which given the horrific experience of Nina, jars somewhat.

If darkly comic was the aim, it falls short in both. Sex slavery is difficult to joke about, and the murderous plans of the three sweet old ladies (despite murky deeds in their past) lack both credibility and grit.

Act of Oblivion – Robert Harris

It is the year 1660, and after the eleven years under the Protectorship of the recently deceased Oliver Cromwell, the monarchy has been restored in the person of Charles II. And there are scores to be settled. Under the Act of Oblivion, those who were directly involved in the execution of Charles I are to pay with their lives.

Fifty-nine ‘regicides’ signed the King’s death warrant and forty-six are accounted for (executed, awaiting execution, or otherwise dead) leaving thirteen still at large. Among those are Colonel Edward Whalley and his son-in-law Colonel William Goffe, now fled to America where they hope the puritan colonists will shelter them.

Back in London, Richard Naylor, clerk to the Privy Council, reports to the Lord Chancellor that his network of spies and informants have tracked Whalley and Goffe’s departure. His zeal in tracking them down is more than professional, he has an old, bitter score to settle. Cue a hunt as Naylor uses the power of the new king to flush out and pursue the two colonels across New England.

The action alternates between America, where Whalley and Goffe struggle to keep undercover in the sparsely populated wilderness, and London, where their families remain hidden in the teeming city.

It is a long 550 page read, but it covers a lot of ground going forward – including the fire of London and a plague or two – and some history flashbacks as Naylor recollects the Civil War from a Royalist viewpoint and Whalley pens a memoir of his time in his cousin Cromwell’s New Model Army. However, the pages fly by easily with Harris’s fluent prose and narrative flair all the way to an exciting and uncertain climax.

In summary, a good story, based on fact, well told.

Violeta – Isabel Allende

In 2020 Violeta Del Valle is one hundred years old and dying as the coronavirus pandemic rages worldwide. She finds it oddly appropriate, as she was born during the Spanish flu pandemic of 1920. The story of her life is related in an extended autobiographical account addressed to Camilo (whose identity is revealed about halfway through the book).

Violeta’s childhood is spent as the spoiled daughter of a wealthy businessman in Santiago, Chile, but when the business fails and her father dies shamefully, her family choose to exile themselves in the far southern wilderness of the country. From there, she and her brother start to rebuild.

We get Violeta’s perspective of growing up, getting on, surviving life’s knocks, and growing old in twentieth century Chile. Over the years she gets through a few relationships and sees the carnage wreaked on the country by a succession of regimes, dictatorships, and brief periods of democracy. Her business acumen, in partnership with her brother, gives her some financial independence and protection that helps her manage her less successful personal and family life.

The twin tale of Violeta’s life and her country’s trials carry the reader effortlessly forward, keen to discover the next development. Allende skilfully conveys how a life story is a succession of lives lived in changing contexts, be they personal, political, economic, or cultural. The sixteen-year-old is different at thirty-six, fifty-six, seventy-six. Different priorities, different loyalties, different abilities, but at heart the same core values and underlying personality.

A thoughtful, interesting, and insightful read.

Great Rides According to G – Geraint Thomas

Geraint Thomas, or ‘G’ as he is known in the cycling fraternity, here shares some of his favourite rides with the reader. Of course, as he is a winner of the Tour de France, these are not Sunday afternoon pedals for the family, but challenging routes for the enthusiastic amateur or aspiring professional.

And be prepared to ship your bike around the world. After a couple of settlers in his Welsh homeland, he is off to exotic locations in Italy, Spain, Monaco, Tenerife, California, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. In each location we are treated to undulating roads, steep ascents, great views, treacherous descents and, universally, a plethora of coffee shops and cafes. It seems a pro-racer’s training schedule includes obligatory coffee at the start, during, and towards the end of each route.

Well that bit sounds good to me; it is the cycling in between where I would struggle. Which is why the book makes pleasant armchair reading, imagining the ride, enjoying G’s descriptions of the terrain, landscape, and yes, the coffee. Anecdotes are told, and names such as Chris Froome and Mark Cavendish, are dropped. The odd non-cycling sporting icon gets a mention too.

G’s style is relaxed and conversational, so reading the slim volume is as easy as the flat 2km stage from the front gate to the newsagent’s and back.

The Pier Falls – Mark Haddon

This collection of nine not so short stories showcases Mark Haddon’s talent and imagination.

There is a variety of settings from the deceptively mundane – a south coast pier, a country cottage, a housing estate – to the startlingly exotic – a deserted island, the Amazon jungle, the planet Mars.

Ditto the characters who feature – men and women, young and old, rich and poor. As in life, they are people ordinary in one sense yet unique in others. Haddon places them in unusual situations that have some commonality; they are generally in jeopardy, which makes for tense and entertaining reading.

The prose flows well, the present tense narration giving an immediacy to the events. It is just as well that the length of the pieces enables them to be read in a single sitting of under an hour.

The collection is highly recommended. If you think short story collections are not for you, this anthology could change your mind.