The Fire Hills – Henry Normal

This slim volume is a collection of poems by Henry Normal, better known for his scriptwriting for comedy shows such as The Royle Family and Mrs Merton. And while there is some comedy here (particularly the brilliant ‘Premier League Football – The Rules’), it is not so much laugh out loud as clever wordplay or thoughtful satire.

Another, possibly the main, theme is the natural landscape and built environment of East Sussex, to where the author recently moved. Added in are a few personal reflections on an aging body and on the country’s dysfunctional politics.

The poems are plentiful but mainly short with over a hundred in the 120 pages, so a quick dip in and out is easy and generally rewarding. Although for those who think poems should rhyme, this may not be for you.

A Chip Shop in Poznan – Ben Aitken

The book-packing journey continues in Eastern Europe with the eponymous food outlet just one element of Ben Aitken’s ‘unlikely year in Poland’.

In March 2016 the campaigning for the Brexit referendum is in full swing. Among the many and spurious issues being banded about is the allegation that migrant Poles are taking ‘our’ jobs. Ben Aitken’s response is to up sticks and head the other way, his mission to get to know the country, its people, and the reason why so many move to the UK for work.

He heads not to Warsaw or Kraków, but the workaday city of Poznan, to live and work for twelve months while he still freely can as an EU citizen. He finds a flat to share with some locals, and finds work, first in a school, then in the chip shop, which is more of a bar. The pay is meagre but the cost of living low.

The natives are friendly and as keen to talk about the UK as he is to talk about their country. He learns some Polish, but finds he is never far from and English-speaker. In addition to the language he immerses himself in Polish culture and learns some of its, largely unfortunate, history.

He sticks it out for the year, during which the UK serves notice on leaving the EU. His jobs, travels, conversations, and observations are reported in (mainly) whimsical style, often amusing but sometimes touching.

Not your standard travelogue, it makes for an interesting and entertaining read.

The Young Accomplice – Benjamin Wood

For the first half of this novel the focus is on the Mayhoods, a young couple, Arthur and Florence, both architects. It is England in 1952 but they are keen disciples of ‘organic architecture’ as set out by American legend of the profession, Frank Lloyd Wright. To that end they combine their nascent practice with developing and running a small farm.

We get some back story, and it is Arthur’s that is relevant. He is an ex-Borstal boy made good, and he wants to give others the same chance. He recruits a couple of apprentices from a correctional institute, who happen to be siblings, Charlie and Joyce Savigear. As they settle in, the focus changes to the Savigears. Again there is a back story, but it is Joyce’s continuing connections to the criminal fraternity that takes the plot forward.

The 1950’s setting has an authentic period feel to it and the prose is easy on the eye. The insight provided into the Borstal system is interesting to a point, less so the architectural practice backdrop. The characters of Arthur, Florence, Charlie, and Joyce are well drawn, but it is only Joyce’s criminal escapades that lift the plot above the mundane. Not even a late cameo appearance by Frank Lloyd Wright himself saves the, to me, rather limp ending.

 

Case Histories – Kate Atkinson

Another re-read, though only after a dozen years (and four sequels), back to where the Jackson Brodie novels began in 2005.

Ex-DI Brodie, newly separated from wife, Josie, and daughter, Marlee, is grubbing a living as a private investigator, mainly checking out partners of suspicious wives and husbands. In addition there are the continual demands of Binky Rain, the old lady with so many cats there is always one lost for Jackson to hunt down, which he tolerates as it pays the bills.

But then three cold cases come calling: an abduction of a toddler from 1970; an unsolved murder of a young woman in 1992; and a missing person (the daughter of an axe-murder convicted in 1979).

As we, the reader, are given snatches of each backstory, Jackson must trawl old evidence and look for gaps in the original investigations in the hope of finding a new lead. Slowly, the truths emerge, only to give Jackson some moral dilemmas to resolve.

However the strength of the book is not the crime-solving but the characters created, the relationships between them, and Jackson’s internal monologue and dry wit.

Good to be reminded of how it all began and, as ever with Kate Atkinson, an enjoyable read.