Monday 25 February 2019

Really, Karl? - Getting Some Perspective

This blog is going to be a rant of sorts, so if you're not feeling up to it, click away now.

The sad news of Karl Lagerfield's death was announced last week. He was certainly a talented designer, no question of that. One of the things about him mentioned in a potted obituary was that, aged about 4 years old, he requested a valet. Really, Karl?? His cat, Choupette is worth millions as is his estate.  Well done, Karl Lagerfeld.

I have to contrast this world of luxury, fashion and undoubted talent with, for example, Leyla Hussein, a leading campaigner against female genital mutilation (FMG) and all the work she does for this cause. She cares.

Take Emma Sky, a British Council employee, who volunteered to help rebuild Iraq and ended up governing a province. She became adviser to General Ray Odierno from 2007-2010. Her novel In a Time of Monsters: Travels through a Middle East in Revolt is out now (Atlantic). She also cares.

David Nott has just published his memoir War Doctor (Picador). He has spent over 25 years operating on victims in some of the worst war zones in the world with very few resources to help them or him, as a volunteer for the Red Cross and MSF (Medecins sans Frontieres). He is also an NHS consultant in London. He cares.

Having read articles on all of the above over the weekend, I had to sit down and ask myself how I would like to be remembered? I think you will have guessed the answer.

Wednesday 13 February 2019

Best Sellers

I ordered two novels from the library because they got such good write-ups in the Press and endorsements from other novelists. I tried hard but I couldn't finish any of them even though the plot in both cases was intriguing.
For me, I have to be interested in the story's main character. It is not enough that they have a problem to solve, are in danger or part of an intricate spy plot. If a character doesn't gel with me, I can't muster up enough interest to finish the novel. In addition, I like well-written stories. Having said that, I have to admit that both of the above novels were well written. Both were translated but still managed to catch the authors' style. I take off my hat to the translators. Having worked as a free-lance myself many years ago, I know how difficult it is. But the stories themselves dragged on and on. In both books, I skipped several chapters, skimmed over the rest, and discovered that I had not missed much in the story. A disappointment all round.
As I am about to go on a short trip to the UK, including a visit to London, I did not want to start another long novel, so I went through my Eric Ambler collection and pulled out The Schirmer Inheritance. This is not one of his best known books but I have always enjoyed it. It is short (195 pages) and to the point and I am drawn to the main character, a somewhat naive young lawyer sent to Europe to find the heir to a huge fortune. It was written in 1953 and for that reason alone is a gem! It is hard for us to imagine that in those days, most communication was via letter and not telephone, and train was the favoured mode of transport.
Although often called a master spy story writer, in fact Ambler very often placed his main characters in a strange and difficult situation and had us all glued to our seats while they extricated themselves. He is still well worth a read today.
And I will have finished the book tonight before I leave for my UK trip.  I plan on visiting the book market on London's South Bank. Maybe I'll find some more gems there.


Friday 1 February 2019

Watching the Birds - where ideas for stories come from

I've been out walking on the beach this morning. The sun was shining but there was a bitterly cold wind from the North. The chill factor was definitely living up to its name.
Watching the sea birds, though, made me think of how very like humans they are in their behaviour.
As I walked along this morning, the elegant Oystercatchers were in their own little group, busy digging in the wet sand for whatever creatures Oystercatchers eat (apart, presumably, from oysters). Nearby were a group of sea gulls, jostling each other and squawking at the top of their voices. Now and then one of them would advance on an Oystercatcher and chase it away. The Oystercatchers had enough of this treatment after a while and took off in an orderly group for a quieter part of the seashore. Some minutes later a bunch of crows decided to join the sea gulls and their raucous voices made themselves heard above the screaming of the gulls. They were still warring with each other when I left them behind and continued on my way. It didn't look as if either party was going to give up ground or indeed score a win over the other party.


I'm afraid the picture doesn't do justice to the scene as I couldn't get too close without frightening them all away and anyway my camera isn't very powerful, but you get the idea. Here is another picture of my route which turned out a little better:
 

 
To return to the theme of this blog, I should say that I found plenty in the behaviour of the birds to develop a story on fights over territory or disputes among neighbours. Plenty of ideas there for the importance of setting boundaries, of being tolerant, and of the challenges if the main character in a story had to leave his/her environment because of unfavourable circumstances.
All in all, it was a thoroughly enjoyable walk with plenty of food for future plots.