The Far Corner – Harry Pearson

If England was a football pitch, then the top right hand corner flag would be firmly placed in the far northeast, and that is where Harry Pearson spent the 1993/94 season criss-crossing the region to watch football. Geographically, the grounds span Middlesbrough to Ashington. In terms of league profile, the spread is much wider, from Newcastle in the recently formed Carling FA Premiership to Willington in the Federation Brewery Northern League Division Two.

The match reports are incidental. It is all about the match day experience – the travel to the towns, impressions of the grounds, interaction with the fans – and the rich history connected with the clubs. That history includes West Auckland’s historic world cup win in the 1900’s, the ‘Crook affair’ that exposed the shamateurism of the 1920’s, and a multitude of characters that graced the game in the region. Some are legends – Raich Carter, Jackie Milburn, Len Shackleton, Don Revie, Brian Clough, to name but a few – others are only legendary as local heroes for the fans of the minnows.

Whatever he is describing, Pearson’s turn of phrase is often laugh out loud funny, puncturing egos and exposing all too familiar stereotypes. But underneath the grade-A northern humour is a deep affection for the traditional culture of the game, nowadays found nearer the bottom of the football pyramid than the money-grabbing top.

Funny, informative, perceptive, and nostalgic, this is a book for the grassroots fan who enjoys the game whatever the level.

Review of 2021 Reading Year

Reading continued to benefit from the lockdown and social distancing effects of the pandemic with 37 books read in the year. An increasing proportion (59%) were by ‘new to me’ authors. The gender balance remained even with male authors edging it this year by 19 to 18. However, men dominate the best reads list by 6 to 3. The lack of a reading group enabled the ‘bookpacking’ reading journey to progress with three books, hopping from Africa via Australia and Hong Kong to Japan (though none of them get a place at the top table).

My nine best books of the year are by authors either new to me or for whom this is only a second read. (Month of full review in brackets.)

 

Into the Silence – Wade Davis: Comprehensive and fascinating account of the first three attempts to climb Everest between 1921 and 1924, covering biographical backgrounds, motivations, and characters of those who took part, and in some cases did not return. (Mar)

 

Elizabeth is Missing – Emma Healey: Sensitively written tragi-comedic tale of dementia-suffering Maud, concerned for a friend she is convinced is missing, and whom she gets confused with someone who similarly disappeared decades earlier. (Apr)

 

The Last Thing to Burn – Will Dean: Increasingly horrific but nuanced story of control, imprisonment, and cruelty imposed on an immigrant woman by a reclusive farmer in deepest Norfolk. (Jun)

 

The Bell in the Lake – Lars Mytting: Atmospheric slow-burner set in late nineteenth century, rural Norway, where Astrid Hekne finds herself in a love triangle with the new young priest and an architectural student; at the centre of the triangle are the church’s iconic bells. (Sep)

 

Heroes – Stephen Fry: Masterly re-telling of the exploits of Heracles, Perseus, Theseus, Jason, and their ilk, treading the fine line between archness and erudition. (Sep)

 

A Thousand Splendid Suns – Khaled Hosseini: Harrowing story of two women caught up in the maelstrom of events in Afghanistan between 1960 and 2001 that despite tragedy galore also manages to be uplifting. (Sep)

 

Olive Kitteridge – Elizabeth Strout: Retired teacher Olive’s role as wife, mother, mother-in-law, grandmother, friend, hostage, and airline security hazard all feature in this charming, humorous, and perceptive collection of episodes that hang together beautifully. (Dec)

The Girl with All the Gifts – M R Carey: Eerily believable post-apocalyptic science fiction that examines familiar human traits in a new challenging environment where five characters must put their differences aside to work for mutual survival. (Dec)

The Five – Hallie Rubenhold: The five women whose murders are attributed to Jack the Ripper become more than nameless victims in this fine piece of non-fiction writing that reveals them as rounded, if flawed, daughters, wives, and mothers caught in spirals of deprivation common in their social context. (Dec)

 

The Cranes that Build the Cranes – Jeremy Dyson

The nine short stories that make up this collection are notable for their diverse subject matter and style of delivery. Though grounded in everyday life, mainly contemporary, they generally have a supernatural element that raises them out of the ordinary and engages the attention.

In ‘Isle of the Wolf’ a super-rich businessman indulges his obsession with personal security to an extraordinary degree with unforeseen consequences. Similarly, a man who strives for membership of the exclusive ‘Challenge Club’ finds acceptance comes at a price.

Two stories feature superpowers: ‘Yani’s day’ features a man who can kill with a glance; in ‘Come April’ a woman sex worker’s ability to transport punters into raptures attracts an unusual client.

There are spooky stories: in ‘Out of Bounds’ boys in a deserted prep school explore a forbidden cellar; in ‘The Coue’ a collector of macabre artifacts acquire one he wishes he had not; in ‘Michael’ a shy seventeen-year-old boy is lured to a sexual encounter by a strange girl in the woods; and in ‘The Bear’ an up and coming young executive’s determination to make an impression at a corporate fancy dress party succeeds at some cost.

Finally, ‘Bound South’ is set in 1913 when a man on a train journey from Edinburgh to London is told a tale by a fellow passenger that leaves him chilled.

The stories are uniformly good. Well told and interesting enough to lead the reader on to their conclusions, some surprising, and others foreseen but still compelling as an inevitable end-game unfolds.