Ogre's Eyeballs

When I was 10 I fell truly madly deeply in love with the work of my favourite writer. And, while it's true I may have.....flirted.....with other writers since then, I have pretty much been faithful for the last 30 years.

I love Diana Wynne Jones's books - every singel one of them - with every fibre of my being. And this isn't a quiet passion - it's one I sing from the roof tops. I genuinely adore her work. The sheer inventiveness of her books - and the incredible longevity of her career - are amazing in themselves. She is also a lovely lovely person, which is obviously a bit of a bonus. I was lucky enough to meet her several times in the 80s, at conventions and literary events, and when I was in hospital in 1986 she was kind enough to send me signed first editions of all her then published works, just to cheer me up!! I mean - how lovely is that?I feel very lucky to have 'known' her.

DWJ has written shedloads of books, some of them astonishing, some of them merely very very good. My plan, for now (and it may of course change) is to write about my favourites first, one by one (or perhaps by series, where appropriate) and then maybe fill in the gaps down the line. This will take some time, but there you go. It's not like I have anything better to do!

The Ogre Downstairs is NOT my favourite DWJ book. It probably scrapes into the top 10, just, but that's about it. However it is the book that started it all, for me. Courtesy of Jackanory, as it happens. I must confess - a little embarrasedly - I thought that the Ogre really was a, you know, ogre, when I first read the book. I was little. I didn't know what metaphor was. I mean - this is a book where:
people fly
dustballs and meccano and pencils and dolls house dolls come to life
body swapping happens
people become invisible
hells angels sprout from the ground
the secret of invisibility is discovered

....so why wouldn't someone who was constantly referred to as an ogre be an actual ogre?????

TOD is a straightforward book, by DWJ's standards, about the modern family dynamic and how magical chemistry sets and a good sturdy bucket and mop can solve any problem. Its strengths are that it doesn't talk down to children at all - it's perfectly accessible for readers of all ages, it's genuinely funny, and it is written in a gorgeously relaxed and fluent style - nothing is forced, nothing is clunky. It totally blew my world away the first time I encountered it, and the repercussions are still going on to this day. I can't envisage a time when I don't reach for DWJs books on a regular basis. I can't see them ever being relegated from pride of place in my library. TOD started a lifelong love affair and there is no sign of it ending. Which is nice.

What makes a good book?

Reading a good book is never a chore.

A good book never bores you into submission - sometimes it seduces you, sometimes it clubs you round the head and drags you off to its cave - but it never, ever, wins by default. You may well fall asleep while reading a good book - but that will be because your body is weak, while the book has the stamina of an Ox.

A good book doesn't have to tart itself up with a come hither cover (but, interestingly.....many do).

A good book will wrap you up like a duvet. It will soothe you like a hot bath. It might excite you, or tear at your heartstrings, or make your heart sing, or utterly destroy you (and then maybe rebuild you again).

A good book may restore your faith in human nature. It may restore you faith in love. Or faith.

A good book may make you laugh. Or forget yourself. Or understand yourself. Or remember who you are, or once were, or would like to be.

A good book will always leave you wanting more.

A good book will never ever be a waste of time.

A good book is everything.

Nation

Nation (Terry Pratchett's latest mega bestseller) made me laugh out loud 7 or 8 times, and cry real tears, accompanied by loud wracking sobs and rivers of snot, once. Sadly, I was on an aeroplane while all this happened so it was a bit embarrassing.

This is the best book TP has written since Thud. And probably in my all time top 5 of his books. It's charming, inventive, funny (see above), poignant (see also above) and above all, optimistic. I hesitate to recommend it to anyone who has recently undergone childbirth or who has small children (I ws utterly destroyed at one point, although I recovered eventually (obviously)) but anyone else who enjoys well written, thoughtful, inventive stories should score a copy as soon as possible.

The last amateurs - Mark de Rond

I'm not sure how recently this book was published, but I read it this week. I wasn't expecting much, to be honest........just a bit of undemanding sporting reportage with a happy ending (for the light blues. Who are always the goodies). I certainly wasn't exoecting it to be as involving as Dan Topolski's 'True Blue' - but, turns out I underestimated, big time.

It's a simple enough premis, one which has been used loads of times before in sporting books (most notably, for me, by Pete Davies in 'All Played Out', 'I lost my heart to the Belles' and 'Mad Dogs and English Women'):
1. Pick a team, any team
2. Follow them for a defined period of time, preferably one in which they are trying to win something special - a championship, a world cup, a historic race
3. Write about it in such a way that fans and oter interested parties can really feel like they were there, and understand what the sporting heros went through.....

It doesn't always work, but when done well (and Davies has used the same technique in books about politics and, um, the flu virus) I really enjoy this type of book. Undemanding? Well, yes. But uninteresting? Nope.

For me, the key thing about this book was observing Mark de Rond's transformation from outsider to - well, not team member, he was never that, obviously, but he was certainly well in the circle of trust from relatively early on - clearly the fact that he was present when the rowers were experiencing their lowest moments physically and mentally helped him to be accepted by the group - to the point that he became their facilitator and touchy-feely man. I wonder if this actually had an impact on how much he felt able to tell the reader - once inside the circle of trust, he was no longer an objective chronicler. Certainly despite the scope for sturm und drang around the issue of team selection and particularly the selection of the cox (the original first choice was unceremoniously dumped), there isn't much.....exposure. So, while it is very engaging, at the end, you haven't actually learned much. Still, I enjoyed it. Which is the main thing, from my perspective!

And as we're on the topic of books about sport:

1. The damned united
2. All played out
3. Gladys Protheroe: Football Genius
4. I lost my heart to the Belles
5. Mad Dogs and English Women
6. Heroes and Villains
7. Penguins stopped play

Red Priest........

..........are very good. Check them out - especially:

A valuable addition to any library

You know you want to. It's calling to you.......'Read me! Read me!'

The owls are coming......................

............and they are going to eat you all up. Or, you know, not.


Poor old Sepulchrave. He loved his books more than anything.........certainly more than any living person. Perhaps not more than tradition, obviously......

I was first introduced to Mervyn Peake's Titus books (emphatically NOT a trilogy, apparently) just before Christmas 1983. And it is in fact absolutely impossible for me to talk about them without running round waving my hands in the air shouting (excitedly) I love these books! I really really love them!!! . Because, I do.

Peake was an artist and illustrator as well as a writer, and he brought a very visual sensibility to his writing. It's actually quite rare for me to appreciate this sort of thing (I'm sure it's not particularly rare as a phenomenon, although other proponents may be less successful than Peake) because I'm incredibly un-visual myself (as those who have met me and encountered my dress sense will testify). Peake's imagery, though, is mad as a box of frogs. Grotesque, larger than life, on the one hand, intricate, involving and tender on the other. Intriguing and infuriating in equal measure.

Every time I read the books, I see something new about the world of Gormenghast,and the characters who inhabit it. Sometimes I love Steerpike (after all, Sting and Robert Smith can't both be wrong, surely?) sometimes I'm rooting for Titus. Thus far I have never found it in me to like Gertrude - but, you know, maybe next time? She does like cats, I suppose........Irma Prunesquallor, initially a figure of fun to me, has become one of my favourite characters. Sepulchrave and his owls..........I have an owl tatoo on my shoulder. It's not very good, the tattoo artist was obviously not that great at his chosen trade - but it's my permanent tribute to Sepulchrave, and his fate...........What would I do if I lost all my books? Well, I wouldn't turn into an owl I'm pretty certain, but I can understand his desolation, and why he chose to isolate himself with his owls rather than remain in the life of the castle, once his whole reason for living, his only respite from the tyranny of tradition, had gone up in flames. And Fuschia.....poor poor little Fuschia. She played with fire and got burned just as surely as the books did. She never had a chance, locked up in that castle.

The BBC adaptation 8 years or so ago was a bit of a disappointment to me, if I'm honest. I preferred the radio version in 84 (or was it 85?). And not just because Sting was playing Steerpike - I think the visual imagery was just a bit....off. Whereas the radio version, strangely enough, was perfect ;) The realisations of Gondor, Helm's Deep and Moria in the Lord of the Rings films were actually closer to how I imagine Gormenghast than what the BBC came up with - but that's probably because Peter Jackson used Alan Lee for a lot of his design work, and my first copies of the Titus books were the Penguin versions with the Alan Lee covers.

I wanted to call our cats Prunesquallor and Barquentine, but I was overruled. I live with philistines.