Tag Archives: travel

Ten Weeks in Africa by J.M. Shaw

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Ten Weeks in Africa- What would you sacrifice to do the right thing?

Ten Weeks in Africa- What would you sacrifice to do the right thing?

When Ed Caine, an NGO  worker employed by the Global Justice Alliance moves his wife and young child to Africa to improve living conditions in the Makera slum, he genuinely believes he can make a difference, but in ten short weeks his ideals are shattered. Despite the assistance of Beatrice Kamunda and her father Joseph Kamunda, a senior government official known for his principled stance against corruption, he finds himself stonewalled as funds are siphoned off by the government. As Ed and his friends try struggle to save their project, they begin to realise that they a powerful enemy is behind the land grab. As political tensions seethe pushing the country to the brink of civil war, Ed and Beatrice begin to understand that much more than the survival of the project is at stake.

For anyone who remembers the outcry that arose when it was revealed that millions of pounds of Western Aid (including funds from Live Aid) was used by rebel leaders to buy arms, Ten Weeks in Africa by JM Shaw is an interesting read. It is well written with a fast paced and engaging story, but more than this it poses some interesting questions about Western interference in Africa. Through careful characterisation and plotting, Shaw creates a brilliant tension which gives birth to a pointed question: does financial aid from rich countries exacerbate the problems it is intended to solve?

Though I am interested in politics and global justice, I can’t make any claims to be an expert, so I did some research about what the experts actually thought about it and the consensus seems to be that it is a well-researched, accurate representation of the concerns of people working in this area. For more information I recommend this article by Peter Gill for The Guardian and this article by Charles Moore for The Telegraph.

 

Edinburgh Book List

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Yes, I know, this list should really have something by Walter Scott.

This evening finds me sat in a hotel room in the beautiful and atmospheric city of Edinburgh. I’m here for work, so no sightseeing for me(boo!) though it is difficult to avoid the stunning sights of Prince’s Street and The Royal Mile as you walk from Waverly Station. Having finished work for the evening, I wished I’d brought some reading with an Edinburgh inspired flavour. Maybe the next time I visit I will have put together a more comprehensive list of books to read in Edinburgh. In the meantime, here’s an off the top of my head list of books I’ve enjoyed which have an Edinburgh setting:

 After You’d Gone- Maggie O’Farrell

The best of all Maggie O’Farrell’s novels, After You’d Gone explores what Alice, languishing in a coma, saw at Edinburgh Waverly Station that was so terrible it made her get straight back on a train to London and walk out in front of a car. I read this in my second year of university before making my housemates read it. For about a month solid we spent every evening crying… in a good way… I think.

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie- Muriel Spark

The novel about an Edinburgh school teacher and the unique education she gives her charges, a select clique who become known as the Brodie set. It’s been a very long time (over ten years) since I read this book, but still the immortal understatement that “Hitler was rather naughty” stands out in the memory. I understand it was made into a film starring Maggie Smith who I love, so I need to watch that.

One Day- David Nicholls

You probably need no introduction to the hit novel One Day which follows friends and sometimes star-crossed lovers Emma and Dexter from their graduation in Edinburgh on St Swithin’s Day 1988, and returns to their lives on the same day for the next 20 years before returning to Edinburgh in 1988. Another tear jerker, I’ve met quite a few men who’ve said it made them cry like babies.

The Inspector Rebus Series- Ian Rankin

Again, this series needs very little introduction, but if you’re looking for a starting point into what has been called “Tartan Noir”, then look no further than Knots and Crosses which sees the eponymous Rebus struggling to solve the abduction and strangling of young girls, while receiving strange missives which suggest the murderer maybe someone closer to him than he realises…

 

I’m planning to drag my boyfriend North of the Wall for a visit next year, so was really pleased to come across this helpful link for more Edinburgh inspired reading, but I’m sure there’s more out there. What books with an Edinburgh connection would you recommend? I’m keen to expand my reading list!

Books, Baguettes & Bedbugs by Jeremy Mercer

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A colleague in work had to go to Paris for a conference recently and was asking for suggestions of things to do in her free time. I mentioned that she should visit Shakespeare & Co. which is across the river from Notre Dame Cathedral.

I visited Paris a few times on school trips, and remember seeing the books lined up on tables outside the shop. But being on a school trip, we were quickly bustled to the Cathedral and I never had a chance to go inside. I’ve been planning to save up for a weekend trip to Paris, to visit the store and see the sights, for a long time now.

Overhearing this, another colleague offered to lend me her copy of Books, Baguettes & Bedbugs by Jeremy Mercer, a Canadian writer who fled to Paris after receiving a death threat from a thief he’d upset by revealing his name in a true crime novel. Almost penniless he took refuge at Shakespeare & Company, then run by the remarkable George Whitman, who allowed writers, poets and artists to stay in his shop free of charge while they worked on their projects and got back on their feet. In a world obsessed with money, George managed to distance himself from the drive to acquire, using his cash to feed and home relative strangers. The maxim of his store being, “Be not inhospitable to strangers lest they be angels in disguise”

The book is a portrait of a remarkable bookshop, its remarkable inhabitants, but most of all of the remarkable man who ran it. A great read which really does make you think. I read sections of it aloud to my boyfriend (who hates being read to) and even he was interested in the philosophy of the shop. My favourite quote from the book (except the one that compares self publishing to using prostitutes in unfavourable terms):

From wikipedia- sadly I can’t properly reference the Flickr account it came from as the wiki link is dead. Let me know if this is your image!

“’People all tell me that they work too much, that they need to make more money,’ George told me. ‘What’s the point? Why not live on as little as possible and then spend your time with your family or reading Tolstoy or running a bookstore? It doesn’t make any sense.’” Books, Baguettes and Bedbugs Jeremy Mercer

Mrs Harris Goes to Moscow- Paul Gallico

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What happens when Ada Harris, an interfering cockney char lady with a heart of gold, finds out that her employer is hopelessly in love with a Russian girl he has been parted from? An adventure of course! When the old lady heads to Moscow on a package tour with her trusty friend Mrs Butterfield there are run ins with the KGB, meetings with ambassadors from both nations and a cameo appearance from Prince Philip. But can Mrs Harris save the day and make sure that love conquers all?

I really enjoyed this short-but-sweet, old-fashioned romp of a novel from Paul Gallico, acclaimed author of The Snow Goose. I hadn’t realised that I’d heard of his Mrs Harris series (of which this is the fourth and final book) before buying this book which I picked up as pot luck because I loved the cover of the re-editioned Bloomsbury copy. It was only upon reading the book I realised that I had actually seen a ballet adaptation of the first novel, Mrs Harris Goes to Paris, on television years and years ago. Weird, huh?

If you’re going on holiday to Moscow, and want a holiday read set in Russia but can’t face the length of any of the Russian classics, I think this would make a great light read.

Holiday Reading, Ericeira, Portugal

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I was lucky to have a long weekend in Portugal for my friends’ wedding recently. Reading on holidays is simple- slather on a high factor suncream (and if you have a free tissue flap on your foot, whack on a sock to prevent scars burning…), some sunglasses and a hat. Find a suitable spot and a cold drink and proceed with reading. If you fancy making blog readers jealous, take photos of your scenic location.

Reading at the Villa

Boyfriend hiding from camera

Taken while lying on beach reading.

Sherlock, I salute you

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“What do you say to a ramble through London?” The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

 

 

Well Sherlock, after the day I’ve had, I’m afraid I’ll have to give that one a miss. I can handle the tube fine, I can manage to find my way to all of the tourist traps because they are sign posted. But when it comes to finding a hidden office down a series of side streets then I have to admit I struggle.

Sherlock Holmes however, did not. He is meant to have known the city like the back of his hand, to the extent that he would practise finding the quickest route between any two given points in London.

I like to think that this was made easier by the city being much smaller then. And these things are easier when you’re a fictional character.

Alice In Wonderland- The Shopping Experience

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On Saturday, after I’d visited the festival bookshop of The Oxford Literary Festival in Christchurch Meadows, I stopped by Alice’s Shop which sells memorabilia associated with the Alice in Wonderland/Alice Through the Looking Glass books  by Lewis Carroll.

This picture is a bit wonky- like Wonderland itself

As you can see it seems to be very popular with tourists and was even busier inside that it was out. I bought some post cards (as part of my campaign to resurrect the art of letter writing- they are letter writing-lite) and Mad Hatter Tea for my father, as well as a Mad Hatter quote card. We’re big Alice fans in my family.

Something that really excited me was learning that the shop itself actually features in Alice Through The Looking Glass. It used to be a grocery shop that the real life Alice used to visit to buy her sweets, and was run by a lady with a bleating voice. This ended up as the mean sheep who sells Alice the egg that becomes Humpty Dumpty. I remembered the passage well because Alice is told that two eggs are cheaper than one, but if she buys the two she must eat them both. It always struck me as the type of thing you would say to a greedy child whose eyes were bigger than their belly, though I could imagine an eccentric shop keeper having such a policy.

‘I should like to buy an egg, please,’ she said timidly.

‘How do you sell them?’

‘Fivepence farthing for one— Twopence for two,’ the Sheep replied.

‘Then two are cheaper than one?’ Alice said in a surprised tone, taking out her purse.

‘Only you must eat them both, if you buy two,’ said the Sheep.

‘Then I’ll have one, please,’ said Alice, as she put the money down on the counter. For she thought to herself, ‘They mightn’t be at all nice, you know.’

The Sheep took the money, and put it away in a box: then she said ‘I never put things into people’s hands— that would never do— you must get it for yourself.’ And so saying, she went off to the other end of the shop, and set the egg upright on a shelf.

‘I wonder why it wouldn’t do?’ thought Alice, as she groped her way among the tables and chairs, for the shop was very dark towards the end. ‘The egg seems to get further away the more I walk towards it. Let me see, is this a chair? Why, it’s got branches, I declare! How very odd to find trees growing here! And actually here’s a little brook! Well, this is the very queerest shop I ever saw!’

Always late…

I’ll be going back when I get my house buying sorted out to buy myself their amazing character key holders. I think I’ll get myself one of each and use them to hang my necklaces from!

Books and The Assassination of JFK

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The Sixth Floor Museum

 

A bit of famous book place tourism for you here, this is the Texas School Book Depository, now known as The Sixth Floor Museum where Lee Harvey Oswald hid to take part in/ undertake the assassination of JFK in 1963. I visited here on my first day in Dallas, apart from the TV show (which I’ve never watched) the assassination of JFK is the first thought that sprang to mind when I was told I would get to visit the city for work.

Displays at the museum show how text books were stacked to create a partition, seat and gun rest for the gunman, making them an active part of history rather than documents of the fact.

You can’t take pictures from inside the museum, but to contextualize the historical period, they had examples of popular culture at the time of the assassination which included posters from films which were released around the time, such as Breakfast at Tiffany and first editions of books such as To Kill A Mockingbird, Catcher in the Rye and The Rise and Fall of The Third Reich. It was really interesting for me to see those books on display as part of the exhibit, because in my mind they are a part of what I would have considered the mid-20th century, whereas the assassination of JFK I thought of as later in the 20th century. It was interesting to see that historically they are much closer together than I thought, and it reminded me that this really was a time of historic turbulence and the Kennedy regime had so much potential as a turning point in this. Growing up in the UK it’s not something I’d ever studied.

It was really interesting to visit the museum and see that the curators had chosen to display these books. Seeing this done with modern history really brought home the ways in which books can contain the spirit of the times, and stand as a testimony to this.

 

Poetry on the Texas DART

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The world sprang

from ancient dreams

Time is alive

like an open sky

An extract from the Texas DART poetry in motion, a display of poems that can be read on the state’s light rail systems. I particularly enjoyed the lines above on my way to a TexMex place for dinner and a walk around the mall. An added advantage of these is that you can read the whole collection on their website. My favourite is the one above which I think just beautifully captures the idea of life as a journey with plenty of speed but no motion. You can read the full collection here, let me know which you prefer.

Crying on the Aeroplane

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I won’t be very active on the blog for a few days because I’m in the USA for work- my first time here and I’m loving it. I had plenty of time to read on the flight out, especially as I didn’t manage to sleep and arrived on the verge of a migraine and ready to have a real temper tantrum!

I was sat in between two people on the flight out, a very friendly guy and a woman who avoided eye contact for ten hours and ten minutes. This seemed a little unfair at first, but after I started reading may have been justified. I picked up a copy of Sarah Winman’s When God Was a Rabbit and spent the early part of the book laughing, and the latter part- you’ve guessed it- sobbing and rubbing my face into my sleeve. Oh and occasionally doing both at the same time.

I will post my review when arrive home, then you can read the book and let me know whether my emotional outbursts were perfectly understandable or the work of a mad woman!