Book #24 Trains And Buttered Toast

Trains And Buttered Toast by John Betjeman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This wonderful book is a record of most of the best of John Betjeman’s radio talks for the BBC - most of them broadcast in the 40s and 50s, the golden age of wireless. Betjeman had a boundless capacity to delight and inspire and is undoubtedly one of our best-loved poets. His great passion was for architecture, particularly churches and he is reckoned to have visited more than 5,000 in his time. Eccentric, enthusiastic, whimsical and often belligerent he is at home here with his tales of trains, buttered toast, hymn-writing vicars and Regency terraces.

For me this is a book full of nostalgia (a word that Betjeman disliked, said it reminded him of neuralgia! He preferred the word sentimentality). Nevertheless, in these pages I am reminded so much of my own carefree childhood, spent in Kent in the period following the end of the 2nd World War. Here are a few lines taken from ’Coming Home, Or England Revisited’, broadcast on Thursday 25th February 1943:

’For me, at any rate, England stands for the Church of England, eccentric incumbents, oil-lit churches, Women’s Institutes, modest village inns, arguments about cow parsley on the altar, the noise of mowing machines on Saturday afternoons, local newspapers, local auctions, the poetry of Tennyson, Crabbe, Hardy and Matthew Arnold, local talent, local concerts, a visit to the cinema, branch-line trains, light railways, leaning on gates and looking across fields….’

These talks are a fitting memorial to what set Betjeman’s pulses racing and what he feared the loss of and are no longer of course a guide to what can be seen today. But as a picture, a snapshot of past times in the country I love, this is nostalgia (sorry, sentimentality) at its best.

Thank you Sir John. I loved it.

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Book #80 The Nightingale

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Nightingale will linger long in my mind. I have ready many factual accounts about French resistance and the Maquis. I do not recall reading such a spellbinding fictional account such as this. It has left an indelible memory of the bravery and courage of two sisters, each involved in the 2nd World War in juxtaposed places. Each face the horrors of the Nazi occupation of France, endure deprivations that are heartbreaking, atrocities so inhumane as to leave one reeling with a profound sense of anger and loss. The final redemption is bitter-sweet and defines fear and love in a time of war. Other reviewers have explored the plot in greater detail. For me the story of Vianne and Isabelle is beautifully written and required a great deal of research by the author Kristin Hannah.

It is a remarkable novel - one of my best reads this year and highly recommended.

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A Week In Paris

A Week in Paris by Rachel Hore
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Having looked at other reviews on Goodreads of Rachel Hore's 'A Week In Paris' it appears that most readers are female. I trust that I am not alone as a male reader because I thoroughly enjoyed this compelling story, set in the years between 1937 and 1961 and located mainly in Paris, a city I love and know so many of the places featured, although in these pages darkened by the Nazi Occupation during the 2nd World War. A well developed plot, comprehensively researched, with wonderful characterisation, had me hooked. A heartwarming tale of war, secrets, family and enduring love. Yes, I loved it.

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