Cornflower Books

Beyond the Thirty-Nine Steps

   

 

 

      A while back I mentioned I was looking for a biography of John Buchan; well, seven years on I have one and it's certainly worth the wait.

    In that 2012 post I also said I had not read a word JB had written, and quotations apart that still stands, so why - you might well ask - have I been so keen to learn more about him? That Karsh portrait (you'll find it via the above link) was one thing, the extraordinary CV another, a memory from childhood of the Hitchcock/Donat film, a notion to walk the John Buchan Way  (in lovely country not far from us), a book by his sister and one by his wife; all these fed my curiosity. I was intrigued by this son of the manse, the brilliant scholar who was the bestselling author of his day, the statesman who inspired devotion in his staff and respect in his peers.

    In Beyond the Thirty-Nine Steps, Ursula Buchan has told me all I wanted to know about her remarkable grandfather, but in addition to her eloquent and elegant marshalling of the facts of his life (fascinating in itself), she has given us a picture of the man which fulfils my hope that here was someone truly, personally, special. Throughout the book we are shown JB's "famous courtesy and good nature", his work ethic, loyalty, gift for friendship and capacity for kindness, his modesty and intellect, his "humility, humanity and humour."

    A passage which seems to sum up that character is the following:

    "After JB's death, his son Alastair wrote that his father had developed to a high degree what the Greeks called Sophrosyne, an inner harmony which engendered spiritual restraint. From this 'sprang a force so warm and positive that it charged the air around him. This lack of jealousy and anger, springing not from indifference but conviction, so pervaded the climate of his mind and of his conversation, that in his company one forgot the cheap jibe and the vindictive comment'." 

    Last summer, leaving Oxford for the long drive north, we sought out Elsfield, the village in which John Buchan and his family made a happy home from 1920 to 1935. In the churchyard is his resting place - and that of his wife - marked with a distinctive circular stone on which is inscribed a Latin couplet which translates as "His own earth here holds a man who cultivated the muses, served his country and was loved by countless friends". As good an epitaph as one might wish, and a succinct summing up of a uniquely talented and engaging person, but for the full measure of the man, look to this excellent, clear-sighted biography, of which its subject would, I'm sure, be proud.

Speaks volumes

    Away from the blog I recently recommended Tim Pears' West Country Trilogy to a discerning friend.

    He tells me that he found it so enthralling he read all three books back to back, something he has never before done with a series.

    I'm delighted to hear that but not at all surprised.

The Effortless Mind

 

   

    I came to Will Williams' book The Effortless Mind: Meditation for the Modern World having been a meditator for the last year. A newspaper article on Transcendental Meditation led me to learn the technique, and twelve months on I still practise twice a day, every day, and wouldn't be without it.

    Will teaches something called Beeja Meditation, very similar to TM as far as I can judge in that both come from the Vedic tradition, involve the same twice daily 20-minute sessions and the silent repetition of, in TM's case a personal mantra, in Beeja's case a 'personalised sound', in order to still the mind.

    In the preface to his book Will introduces his subject in a clear and straightforward manner and shows that it is accessible to all. He goes on to tell his own story (the title of that chapter is 'From Hedonism to Happiness' which shows, I think, just how far he has come), and through various case studies demonstrates the far-reaching uses of meditation, for physical, mental, and emotional health, to improve relationships, expand creativity and find greater purpose in life. Bold claims, you might say, but each one is supported by an 'in their own words' account of their experiences with the practice from people Will has taught to meditate in this way.

    In addition to the anecdotal evidence, Will explains in some detail the physiological processes which occur in states such as anxiety, depression, insomnia, and anger, and he cites numerous scientific studies which show what happens in the brain and body during and after meditation, helping to achieve overall a state of balance and equanimity, even in the face of "life's twists and turns".

    I should point out that the book won't tell you how to meditate - for that you will require a teacher - but it does a sound job of explaining the benefits, whatever your life circumstances or state of health when you come to the practice, and if you're at all interested in the subject I'd recommend it as a very good introduction.

A man o' pairts

   

    "John Buchan's career as a writer, one of the best-selling of his day, would have been remarkable, even in someone who had done nothing else. He wrote more than a hundred books, including twenty-seven novels, six substantial biographies, a monumental twenty-four-volume contemporary account of the First World War, three works of political philosophy and a legal textbook. There were also dozens of poems and short stories, and about a thousand articles for newspapers and periodicals. As well as a writer, he was a scholar and an antiquarian and, at various times, a barrister, colonial administrator, journal editor, publisher, director of wartime propaganda, Member of Parliament, and imperial proconsul. He had been a skilled and intrepid mountaineer in his youth and was always a dedicated fisherman and a prodigious walker. And he did all this while suffering from debilitating illness for most of his adult life."

Ursula Buchan, Beyond the Thirty-Nine Steps: A Life of John Buchan.

Persephone Books in The New York Times

    Good article here.

Bookshelves and shadows

    A play of light brings the outside in and draws the eye to a couple of the biography shelves. Among the books sits Monty Mouse (NB Rebecca now sells her wares here) and a postcard of the Wenhaston Doom I mentioned the other day.

Wakenhyrst

 

   

    Michelle Paver appends an extensive Author's Note to her excellent new novel Wakenhyrst; in it she describes the book's genesis - the chance finds and happenings which sparked ideas which in turn formed the basis of her tale. A novel is more than just a clever assemblage of components, of course, and it's in the way she has used her raw material that Michelle Paver's skill is evident, for while her research has been extensive and comprehensive, she has made her facts work, both efficiently and elegantly, for their place in her intricate story.

    From disparate sources come an inspired conjunction: a lonely house in the eerie and forbidding Suffolk fens, a medieval 'Doom'* discovered by chance, a historian writing a monograph on a fourteenth century mystic, his bright young daughter, overlooked because of her sex. Add to that a dreadful act never admitted or atoned for, a liberal dash of local folklore and a touch of the supernatural, and you have a gothic thriller about obsession, set in the Edwardian era and the 1960s, which should grip you until the final page.

    If you've read Dark Matter or Thin Air you'll know how good a Michelle Paver book is; her latest doesn't disappoint.

*Based on this one, which I happened to see when in the area a couple of years ago.

Friday reads

   

    I'm currently in Edwardian Suffolk in the good hands of Michelle Paver, reading her new novel for adults Wakenhyrst.

    Thus far we have a historian obsessed with a medieval mystic, a young girl making sense of the adult world, the discovery of a disturbing ecclesiastical painting, and more than a hint of 'unhallowed forces' at bay. It's very well-constructed and nicely gripping - as you'd expect from MP - so I read on with great interest.

    Where's your reading taking you this weekend?

The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction: the shortlist

    

    The longlist for this the 10th year of the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction has been reduced to a six-book shortlist:

 

A Long Way From Home by Peter Carey

After The Party by Cressida Connolly

The Western Wind by Samantha Harvey

Now We Shall Be Entirely Free by Andrew Miller

Warlight by Michael Ondaatje

The Long Take by Robin Robertson

 

    Place your bets!