I’m back from holiday and straight into work again - ugh. As it was, like another reviewer upthread I didn’t have much time for reading while I was away, but did lots of walking and soaking in the scenery. I’ve spent the last few days catching up on the thread, it’s moving quickly ATM!
@VikingNorthUtsire Set my Heart to Five was a bold for me a couple of years ago, a charming read but with things to say about the place of robots in a future society.
@PermanentTemporary your review of Judy, Patrol Leader reminded me of another Guide-fic, Pam’s Patrol by Mrs Osborne Hann. I have DM’s copy from the 1950s but it was originally written in the 1920s as it mentions Scouting on the Home Front during the ‘last’ War (the First World War). Plucky city schoolgirls setting up a Guide Unit and having adventures on camp.
A few reviews of reads before and during the holiday:
33.. An Island Parish – Nigel Farrell
In 2007 broadcaster Nigel Farrell spent a summer on the Isles of Scilly and subsequently produced a BBC documentary series about life on the Islands and the people who live in Britain’s most south-western parish. This book tells the story of his time there, following Scillonians and newcomers, looking at the realities of living (and making a living) in this remote, beautiful landscape.
34.. Chowry – Jean Forbes-Robertson
A reread of two children’s novellas in one volume, billed as ‘Tales of Fantasy’ when published in 1953, but what might be described now as magical realism. Chowry relates how an old motor car pulling a gypsy caravan turns into a yak, taking a family of children on an adventure. Idle’s Islands is more unsettling, even reading as an adult, with aspects of folk horror, when the children are on holiday at the coast and explore mysterious islands with dark local legends attached.
35.. Ice Cold in Alex – Christopher Landon
A story set in the Western Desert during the Second World War ahead of the capture of Tobruk. The main protagonist, Captain Anson, a battle-weary alcoholic commander of a field ambulance unit, is tasked to cross the desert eastwards with his driver to deliver two nurses to the safety of Alexandria. On the way the unit picks up a South African officer, who is hiding a secret of his own. The harsh conditions and enemy movements turn the run into a twisting, epic journey across the desert with the promise of an ice-cold beer in Alexandria as their ultimate goal.
This was written in the 1950s but by an ex-RAMC/RASC officer who served in the Western Desert, so the sense of place was tangible. My grandfather was posted there at the time, and the book’s descriptions of the landscape and climate brought home the difficulties of fighting in that terrain. A story of understated heroism and quiet determination against all odds, a definite bold.