What I Read On My Holidays Part 8- This Holey Life by Sophie Duffy

This year, I went on a beach holiday. I proper, full blown, Brits Abroad beach holdiay. When I put a call out for holiday reading on Twitter I was chuffed to bits by the response, thank you for all the lovely books sent, although this means my TBR pile ain't going down any faster!
Legend Press is an independent publisher, and This Holey Life is the second book published by them by Sophie Duffy. This cover is bright yellow and lovely, and the blurb sounded too tempting for it not to go in my suitcase, Ryanair bastard baggage limit or no Ryanaire bastard baggage limit.
The story of a highly dysfunctional family centered around Vicky, the reluctant curate's life that reeks more of Katie Fford than Joanna Lumley, this is a feel-good, non-nonsense family saga that was made for lounging about on a beach with.
When Vicky's hideous brother finally gets thrown out by his career-woman wife, he throws in his lot with his sister, coping with a new born baby, a three year old that is obsessed with cleaning, a neglected ten year old growing up too fast, a husband who had abandonned his lucrative career as a plumber after a religious conversion, and a father who may or may not be having an affair with his home help. Vicky herself is also suffering in a more personal way, grieving for the death of her son six years before.
The chaos that unfolds leads to Vicky questioning the importance of family, and whether she herself should pack it all in. It is witty and warm and full of stand out characters. The twists and turns of the plot are well constructed and there is just enough drama to keep it interesting rather than hard work. I love love loved the children especially and this is a family I would like to see again.
Although this book is a little odd in places, jumping for Vicky to the thoughts of other characters,w hich it really doesn't need to do, the adventures of a British family are very well observed, in a way that reminded me a little of Deborah Moggach's Close Relations. As the the whole Church aspect, I couldn't tell you if it is true to life, but fans of Rev will enjoy it.
All in all this is a lovely, if slightly preditable, tale and fans of the more 'mumsy' side of chick lit* will enjoy.

3/5 and a lovely day on a sun lounger-thank you! xx

*not an insult cos I bloody love it!

What I Read During My Holidays Part 4- Theodora by Stella Duffy

I never intended for this to be part of my holiday reading, but I happened to be in town during my week off and found this in the library, and having been recommended it so highly by @sianushka, I thought, why not, I'll give it a go.

The story of the rise of Theodora from dancing girl to Empress of the Byzantium Roman Empire, this novel could be one of those ridiculous wish-fulfilment blockbusters where Our Heroine goes through seventeen different reincarnations reflecting ever aspect of a time and culture, resulting in a rather unlikely ascent to a position of power which the reader is never quite sure they deserve (*coughs* Forever Amber *coughs*). However, this book wins, because it's real, it's based on a real person who is now worshipped as a saint in the Orthodox Church, who really did start out a dancing girl, go through a religious conversion and become one of the most powerful women in the world.

Stella Duffy's Constantinople is epic. Theodora is introduced to us as a clever, but cheeky, child, intent on fame when not being hideously abused in the name of love by her dancing master. She becomes a prostitute at 12, gives birth at 14, and at 18 leaves the city the most famous actress the Hippodrome has ever seen with her much much older lover, all of which makes for fairly squeamish reading and made me question when we consider people adult and our reasons for doing so.

Theodora herself is a marvel, mostly because she is so real. Although the modern language used in the dialogue was strange to me, as most historical fiction tends to shy away from modernising, it fitted well with the fast paced nature of the book and made Theodora a much more accessible character-a 'modern' woman working her way up the chain, being used variously by the men and institutions she encounters along the way.

Knowing nothing about Byzantium Rome (we only ever went up to the end of Roman Britain with Mrs Oldfield's class), Theodora or Justinian I have no idea if this is accurate or a true reflection of how people thought and lived. The explanations of the schism in the Church over the Divinity of Christ I found particularly baffling-being a massive heathen I have but a little knowledge of such things, and reading around the subject this is something I really should have paid closer attention to as the next book in the series The Purple Shroud published later this year (ARC would be LOVELY, thank you) deals more heavily with Theodora as a symbol of faith against religious persecution.

However, this book was fun, and made me think, and if you are looking for some medium-weight holiday reading and are a fan of feisty women from history a bit further back than the current Plantagenet Explosion, then this would be perfect for you.

What I Read During My Holidays Part 2- Why Be Happy When You Could By Normal?

Now I'm going to sound really dreadful, but I've never read any Jeanette Winterson before. I've heard of her, obviously, and I own quite a but of her, but I've never read any!
I understand this means they want by Feministy Book Blogger badge back but HA HA HA YOU CAN'T HAVE IT BECAUSE IT IS IMAGINARY.

This, her autobiography, tells the story of her life up to leaving home, then skips twenty years of finding fame through her writing, and onto the last few years of finding her birth mother. Parts were very very hard to read, dealing with depression, anxiety and abuse as they did, but parts, especially on how language and literature are such wonderful things and how the library saved her childhood, made me very smiley indeed. I also love love LOVED the description of Northern Town Life in the 1950s (even if she is from Lancashire...) and her stories of her various loves and the wonderful people who helped her along the way, this is one of those autobiographies that is mostly about other people and doesn't suffer for it.

If it wasn't so literary in places, this was be lapt up by my students, because the love 'true life' stories (because happy childhoods don't exist), but I read this in a night, and it's definitely worth a loan from a library. Parts are a bit dragging and skimable, but all in all this is a fascinating incite into an authors' world and the first half is some of the most gripping stuff I've read this year.

Holiday Reads 02 - Why be happy when you can be normal?

Holiday Reads 01 - The Luddites

What I Read During My Holidays Part 1-The Luddites

Last week I broke with tradition and spent my holiday lying on my Dad's sofa and reading. And it was, as it always is, utterly blissful.

I took originally three books to read with me, this soon rose to four as I went via my Auntie S, who's always good for a lend, and I managed all but one of them. Then I went to Headingley on Friday and had a bun and very stupidly went into Oxfam Books and came out with a bagfull (this Mount TBR is never going to happen, admit it) so I had to read one of those IMMEDIATELY. Anyway, this is what I read.

Inheritance by Phyllis Bentley.

I inherited three things off my mother; my chin, my hair, and my love of historical fiction.

My obsession with the Luddites started as a child hearing the story of the Dumb Steeple in Mirfield, West Yorkshire, where they gathered on 12 April 2012 (still not established a proper time frame, sorry Father) to march on Rawfold's Mill, run by Mr Cartwright, in protest of the new machines that, as they saw it, were stealing their jobs leaving them and their families to starve. Seeing as it's the 200th anniversary of the Luddites this year, a shed load of activities are happening surrounding them. Myself and Father set off on Thursday on a fascinating and at times quite emotional tour of the route of the Luddites-including the beautiful Norman Church in Hightown, Liversedge, where those that died in the ensuing ambush at the mill were secretly buried, and the site of the mill itself, now Cartwright Street, which houses a liposuction clinic.

Me, next to the Dumb Steeple.

As a personal way of remembering the Luddites this year (I wrote my dissertation on them and also did this talk at Bettakultcha last year on them) I re-read Phyllis Bentley's Yorkshire Classic, Inheritance, that no one but me has ever heard of, and isn't even in print (BUT IS BEING RE PUBLISHED IN AUGUST, THANK YOU BLOOMSBURY*) but was mysteriously part of the Headingley Lit Fest a couple of years ago (I missed that talk and was beyond gutted). Inheritance is basically North and South meets Maureen Lee; a family saga filled with Emotion and Tragedy, but with shit loads of historical references and a really important message about class divide. I love it, and anyone who enjoyed South Riding/The Apple Tree Saga/Gone With The Wind/The Thorn Birds would probably as well. It's also got some cracking examples of Yorkshire dialect, that I always enjoy reading, 'Aye, we're allus thrung a neet' being my favourite line, and was also made into a TV series Back In The Day starring Inspector Morse but YOUNG. Telling the story of the manufacturer and the mill hand, this intermingling of two families, the Bamforths (mill hands, with soft voices and hair like clouds) and the Oldroyds (mill owners, with pulsing veins in their foreheads) over 80 years starts with the old Mr Oldroyd bringing in Frames to him mill for the first time, and the reaction of this by the local community. The characters spend half their time walking about on the moors between their cottages, the mill and the pub, and everything is always incredibly tragic, but if you live in the West Riding (Leeds, I'm looking at you), you need to read this book as the history it contains is IMPORTANT. Just ignore that slightly ridiculous love stories that are mingled in with the cracking descriptions of the wannabe revolutions. There's also not one redeemable woman character in the whole thing, but never mind.

Happy Reading!

BookElf xxx
* as an aside, what is with all these 'ere reprints of amazing books over the past few years? They did Stella Gibbons last year, Dodie Smith just a couple of months ago. Now Phyllis Bentley. Anyone would think that the generation brought up to love these authors by their mothers now were in their late twenties/early thirties with a disposable income...

Holiday Reads 02 - Why be happy when you can be normal?

Holiday Reads 01 - The Luddites