Desert Island Discs

I expect you all know about Desert Island Discs - it's a series that has been running on Radio 4 since 1942 (and, astonishingly, has only had four presenters in that time) where a well-known figure picks the eight pieces of music or songs that they would take with them to a desert island. They are also allowed one (chuh! one!) book and one luxury item. These choices are also, of course, a chance for the interviewee (or 'castaway') to give the story of their life.

I've listened to it on and off all my life. It was only recently that archive recordings were made available online, so I listened to a few older ones - but I hadn't realised that they could also be downloaded from iTunes, and thus make their way to my iPod. (The 'download' link on the website doesn't seem to work, so iTunes is the way forward... although the website is a good place to narrow down the possibilities.)

Anyway, this is a roundabout way to saying what a delight it has been, over the past few days, to spend my journeys to and from work listening to Desert Island Discs. There are hundreds of recordings available, from many decades. I assume these are available internationally. So far I have enjoyed listening to...

Jenny Agutter
Joan Plowright
Judi Dench
Mary Berry
Dawn French
Penelope Keith
Gemma Jones
Maureen Lipman

You can tell me interest in theatrical actresses, can't you? I do love to hear or read about the theatre, and another version of Simon would have loved to be on the stage.

But perhaps the best was Sybil Marshall, a novelist whose first novel came out when she was 80. She spoke about what a charmed and lucky life she'd had - and, considering she also spoke about having a stillborn baby and cancer, just goes to show how much is about attitude.

If you've somehow missed these (like me) then - there are many, many hours of enjoyment! As for what I'd take myself... I'm afraid I'd have to eschew music and take audiobooks. I like music, but it doesn't hold a candle to literature in terms of its effect on me.

A Literary Journey Through Wartime Britain - A.C. Ward

Back in April I read A Literary Journey Through Wartime Britain (1943) by A.C. Ward, very kindly given to me by the always wonderful Karen/Kaggsy, but I have only just got around to reading it. I can't remember where this first came up (maybe in person; before her lovely review anyway) but I was extremely happy to be presented with a copy. What a fascinating little book it is, and so perfect for somebody with an interest in the early 20th century.

A.C. Ward has a special place in my heart because of his book The Nineteen-Twenties (published, I think, in 1930 - so a very immediate retrospective). I was reading it at the beginning of my DPhil, just to get a sense of how somebody contemporary might have characterised the period. Lo and behold, he had a chapter on 'The Refuge of Form and Fantasy', where he discussed the vogue for the fantastic in the period. Since I'd already decided to write my thesis on this, it was wonderful confirmation that it had been significant in the 1920s - as well as providing an invaluable quotation from a talk by Sylvia Townsend Warner that doesn't appear to have been quoted anywhere else. Research mad skillz.

Anyway, in A Literary Journey Through Wartime Britain Ward does exactly that, whether figuratively or not - he takes the reader on a journey through Britain, showing the literary sites that have been saved from bombing, or those that have been irrevocably changed by war. I can only imagine how poignant and moving this would have been in 1943; it is certainly moving enough now.

Plenty of his narration takes place in London, unsurprisingly - it was undoubtedly the area of Britain most physically affected by war - and in between commemorating Keats in Hampstead and Dickens in Doughty Street, he turns his attention to pre-war Bloomsbury (in a passage, incidentally, which would have been very useful in my first chapter):

After the last war 'Bloomsbury' became a synonym for intellectualist inbreeding and highbrow snobbery. But it is as difficult to define (or even to find) the pure 'Bloomsbury' type as it is to define or isolate 'Victorianism.' There is an old Punch joke, '"You can always tell a Kensington girl." "Yes; but you can't tell her much."' his, if given an intellectualist twist, might be applied to Bloomsbury in the nineteen-twenties. The authors who wrote and/or published their books in Bloomsbury then were not susceptible to instruction. They instructed. The hallmark of 'Bloomsbury' was a tart intellectual arrogance; and in their literary style Bloomsbury writers affected a dryness which was intended to have the vitrue of dry champagne, yet the product was, often, sandy on the palate. The Mother Superior of 'Bloomsbury' was Virginia Woolf, but, beside her, the rest were mostly novices lacking a vocation. Her one vice was preciosity; her virtues were legion.

I don't think I've ever read a more incisive and concise depiction of the Bloomsbury group.

Along with the text (and I should re-emphasise that he does sweep through other counties, and not just southern ones either) there are two types of illustration - pencil sketches and photographs. The photos are amazing. We see Westminster Abbey with rubble, Milton's statue knocked off a plinth, Canterbury ruins, etc. A trove of poignant (yes, that word again) images which bring to life a period that even the greatest description inevitably keeps at some distance.

Thanks, Karen, for sending this my way! A unique perspective on wartime Britain that I will really treasure.

Stuck-in-a-Book's Weekend Miscellany

Hope you've all had a great weekend! There's still a bit of it left, so there is time for a book, a blog post, and a link... and, you never know, I might even manage to review some books this week. I'm back in the position of reading lots at once, including some chunksters (Sarah Waters, anyone?) so I'll have to dive into the backlog of unreviewed books. And I will reply to comments soon too, promise...

1.) The link - if you live near Oxford and want to abseil down a church on October 4th in support of Oxford Sexual Abuse and Rape Crisis Centre, then this link will tell you how. If you either don't live near Oxford or (like me) could never be brought to abseil for anything, the same link will give more info anyway, if you would like to support. Thanks to my friend Sophie for sharing the link.

2.) The blog post - I adored Dodie Smith's Look Back With Love, the first volume of her four-part autobiography, and bought a couple of the others immediately. I still hadn't read any more, but Barb at Leaves and Pages has written lovely and glowing reviews of them. All got 10/10. And now I'm knee-deep in Look Back With Mixed Feelings.

3.) The book - I have heard much of Una Silberrad at middlebrow conferences, but not read anything by her yet - so was delighted to receive a copy of The Good Comrade from Victorian Secrets, and will report back in due course. Find out more here...

Great British Bake Off: Series Five: Episode Five

Well, the drama kept coming last week, didn't it? I had endless conversations in the office about the rights and wrongs of bingate, and whether or not we thought Iain would be reinducted in this episode (spoiler: he didn't). I also got the closest I'm likely to get to Bake Off fame, when Howard quoted me (eeek!) on An Extra Slice. Not by name, sadly, but he mentioned my Alan Bennett comparison and later confirmed on Twitter that I was the reference. Exciting times. (Extra Slice people, if you're reading, I would definitely come on the show. Just saying. Any time. I'm ready.) (Any time.)

But enough about me - let's go on to the Bake Off - which I watched at my friend Adam's house. His Mum made Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood scarecrows for her village, which shows his excellent credentials as a GBBO host. I'm still waiting for the photos ADAM, but hopefully they'll appear next week.

"All drama; zero gimmicks" say Mel and Sue in their increasingly contentless introduction to the show - and that's a fair assessment of the show, I think. Even the in-jokes aren't really gimmicks. I would have preferred it if they'd said "No gimmicks; all gimlet eyes" and panned to Paul's piercing blues, but we do not live in a utopia. I'm also very intrigued by that 'private' sign that seems to be facing the wrong direction, so that people see it as they leave the grounds. Are they trapped?

Stuck in a Book: asking the questions that matter

In this line, the news that Diana has been taken ill and won't be returning to the competition is delivered in the least sensational manner possible, even if the pan of the bakers arriving is performed, once more, in the midst of some foliage. It's voyeuristic and unsettling, cameraman. Stop it.

A few of the bakers talk about how they're going to miss her, and Martha says that Diana is 'her grandma in the tent'. What about Universal Grandmother Mary Berry??

The judges and presenters line up to announce the first challenge - custard tarts, gladdening the heart of Lionel Hardcastle - and Blazer Watch has never felt more necessary. Mary and Mel have both gone neon,while Sue appears to be recycling last week's blazer. C'mon, Sue. Give a recapper something to work with. Paul not only continues to forego a suit jacket, he's also gone cuff crazy this week. As always, he looks ready for a line-dance.

Is Laurence Llewellyn-Bowen well-known enough
internationally to make for a successful reference?

The first reaction to the challenge is, as usual, Chetna being very nervous, and apologising to the cameraman for no obvious reason. Chetters, you'll be fine, don't worry!

Paul and Mary waffle about pastry textures in the garden ("If they make holes, the custard will leak out" - do feel free to grab a notebook if you want to jot down these insights) and we see lots of bakers playing with flour and butter. Frankly, it's not a difficult challenge. But I look forward to seeing them dramatise.

First off we come to Norman, who is making a tarte au citron. He's obviously of the opinion that making something foreign - and saying actual foreign words - is plenty fancy enough, and he won't be wanting to show his face in the Aberdeenshire Working Men's Club for a month of Sundays, thanking you kindly. "I first tried it in France twenty years ago, and had never had anything as exotic as that at home," he actually says. Is he trolling us? It's pastry and lemon, Norm. Mary Berry Reaction Face:

Wut?

It's so simple that Mel actually includes 'dusted with icing sugar' in her voiceover description of it.

"...and served on a plate."

He says that he'll be stretching himself tomorrow, and so he's keeping it simple today. Paul seems ok with that ("if you're stretching, you need to warm up, and this is your warm up") but his hesitant face says different. Just you wait and see, Paul... #becarefulwhatyouwishfor

Martha isn't sure about the challenge. She doesn't like making pastry. "It's one of those things that you make if you're a bit older. People like Nancy make pastry a lot." She could so easily be given the bitch edit, so I admire the BBC for being kind to her - and I still think she's fab. Having said that, we get a good reaction face from Nancy (which was probably filmed long afterwards):

Watch yourself.

In justice to Martha, we almost immediately hear Nancy saying how much she likes making pastry. And hers sounds amazing, combining three of my favourite flavours - chocolate, coconut, and passion fruit. I might steal this recipe if poss. Some pastry purists don't like the chocolate version, but I do a mean choc pastry myself, so I'm all for it. And it gives BBC Colouring Pencils Man a chance to break out a different colour. His pastry colour must be running down.

May contain Minotaur.

Montage time, and the same levels of dramatic music that were given to the #bincident are accorded to Luis pulling clingfilm, Norman advising people to chill pastry, and Martha (perhaps eavesdropping) putting her pastry in the fridge. She takes a leaf out of Voice of Doom Mel's book and says that she could ruin her tart if she chills the pastry for too long or too little time, which is nonsense. These are the low level stakes we know and love from GBBO.

#drama

Alex/Kate is making almond and rosemary pastry for her rhubarb and custard tart, which sounds a bit much to me, but M and P are all over it (and she claims it's 'simple'). She, wonderfully, continues to treat every moment as an opportunity for am dram. In this image, you might think, she has just dropped her tart, or had her home repossessed. No, she is simply talking about rhubarb.

"And... scene."

Luis is making a 'Tropical Manchester Tart', presumably named by somebody with the good fortune never to have gone to Manchester (bad Simon). My friend Hannah, with whom I watched, is a card-carrying Northerner, and was Not Happy about the tart being messed with. (Incidentally, my friend Malie also watched, having never seen it before. The appeal took some explaining beforehand, but I think she enjoyed it.)

Richard is poaching figs (I suggested at this juncture that nobody liked figs, but was shouted down by my companions). More importantly - where is the pencil?  It's in the shot before this, and the shot after, but not here. Guys, what's happening? We have lost the only consistent element of the known universe.

Is this a Dumbo/feather situ?

More on the pencil later, building stationery fans.

I'm super jealous of everybody's pastry, and the way they are able to pick it up and line the tins. Lest we forget, here is an early stage of the quiche my friend Lorna and I made last year:

Nailed it.

It is tarts week, of course, and you might have thought that Mel & Sue - five series in - would have exhausted the comic potential of saying 'tart' and winking at the camera. How little you know this programme. But this year's is rather special. Mel and Nancy have a brilliant conversation about looking like tarts, and having tarts' hairstyles. I love both Mel and Sue, but Mel is the best at forming galpal friendships in the tent.

Also, Nancy's top has handbags all over it.
Presumably she'll do you a good price for them.

Martha talks again about not liking making pastry, which fills us with nerves about her security in the competition. Then we see lots of bakers trim their tarts, while Mel intones about the importance of keeping it neat. Any voiceover about neatness and perfectionism can only end in one place - a swannee-whistle and a shot of Norm.

"That'll do" is something a life mantra, isn't it?

"A steady hand is vital for pouring the custard," warns Mel. It really isn't. It's quite a large target, isn't it? And gravity, despite being Iain's nemesis, lends a helping hand here. And cue montage of pouring. Mel looms over Richard while he carries his tart, making the whole thing more difficult. And then, this:

You can see why he's grown to be one of my faves, can't you? At least he didn't dunk a biccie in it.

Kate does some extremely impressive swirling, while Norm looks at her bewildered by all the fanciness, and then she collapses over the desk - because of course she does. You can just see a glimpse of Norman, and it looks a bit like she's unsuccessfully trying to hide from him.

"If I can't see you, you can't see me."

But, bless her, she gives Martha a helping hand getting her tart (which closely resembles a tomato quiche) out of its tin.

We see Luis with a stencil, Nancy doing intricate piping, and Norman... dumping a bag of icing sugar on top of his tarte au citron.

Dusted with icing sugar? Really?

During the judging, Paul says Norman's looks a mess (sad face), and he takes it stoically. Nancy's looks as amazing as I'd hoped. Chetna is told "I think you could have cooked your rice a bit longer," which doesn't strike me as something anybody should say during a custard challenge.

"It's custard" is one of the helpful comments Paul makes, to Alex/Kate.

Richard describes himself as "a clumsy blad", and I can't work out if he's using some sort of gangland slang, or reverting to 'lad' after starting with a naughty word. Or perhaps he's referring to himself as a promotional flyer or mockup for a product? Either way, Mary gets her flirt on, talking about his steady hand.

"If I were sixty years younger..."

Martha gets her first criticism of the series, really, and - bless her - she's upset. One of Paul's criticisms is that "it's quite tart" which, given his propensity to mix up parts of speech, could be exactly what they should have been doing. "It's very bread," and "Not quite cake enough" are, I feel certain, things he has said in the past.

The bakers repeat all the things Paul said, but standing in the garden.

Bride cake was apparently once a thing, and was to be broken over the bride's head. In case those words mean nothing to you, we have a two-second reconstruction:

And thereby two Equity cards were earned.

The less said about the rest of the Pies Through The Ages the better. We're back to the tent, and they're making... mini-pear pies. Poached pears in pastry. C'mon, GBBO. This isn't a thing. Go home, GBBO, you're drunk. It started with the proving drawer and it's getting out of hand. (Was this challenge chosen just so we can hear Norman say 'poached pears' a lot? It's great in a Scottish accent.)

Btw, I live for pastry, but I can take or leave pears, so I can't get excited about this challenge.

The soundtrack at this point appears to be performed by a double bass and a pair of maracas.

"Something scientific probably happens to it," says Nancy, of the pastry. Oh, guys, I love everybody in this tent. It's a really fab group of people, isn't it?

My boy Luis (win me that £15, Luis!) keeps explaining how things actually work, and why certain actions are being performed, giving Mel and/or Sue very little to do in the voiceovers - other than, of course, warning that slight adjustments in temperature or pear placement will inevitably result in the tent burning to the ground.

1. Does anybody ever sit on those outdoor chairs?
2. It looks like the freezer has a very intricate handle

Richard and Chetna have a discussion about whose pears are on which shelves of the fridge. We can but learn from the mistakes of others, so well done guys.

Norman is no fan of the poaching wine. "Too sweet for me," he says, with the exact same expression that he had when saying how delicious his dessert was last week.

Horrilightful.

Chetna tests the maxim that watched pears never poach.

Lovely Martha, as usual, is anxious about what everybody else is doing - and revealingly says "I'm doing what isn't allowed, and looking at other people's." Has there been a rule against this all along, brazenly ignored by absolutely everyone?

Including, in fact, Martha in this next shot - while Mel makes a 'nice pear' joke that Luis completely ignores. Good for you, Luis. Mel's better than that.

(She really, really isn't.)

She does make a very good 'cutting it fine' joke at this point, which is only slightly ruined by that blue bandage.

Now we have a montage of people wrapping pears in pastry ("It's like I'm mummifying a pear," notes Martha, stealing joke potential from me). This is up there with stuffing a mushroom in the life's-too-short stakes, surely, and the ultimate reward is so small. And it's not going well for our Rich.

I'm pretty sure this is what that London 2012 sculpture looks like.

OH NOOOOOOOOO.

No, sorry, THIS is what the London 2012 sculpture looks like.

They are all presented. Mezza Bezza and Paul aren't very impressed, on the whole. Richard's is a hot mess, and obviously comes last (he is very witty about it in the post-challenge interview, suggesting that he'd have done better if he'd set the tent on fire.) Martha redeems herself by coming top of the rankings.

We come to the final challenge, and it's raining. Everybody has an umbrella, seemingly, except for Luis. Questions must be asked.

The steps continue to be an inadequate substitute for The Bridge.

They're making tiered pies. This, again, isn't a thing. Have they run out of baked goods that actually exist? It does give me an opportunity, though, of crowning the winner in my Facebook Pun Competition:

Well done, Adam. Proud day for you.

Paul is obsessed with stating the obvious this week: 'this is a pie challenge'. At which point we immediately cut away to someone stuffing a chicken. And it's not even Nancy and her penchant for East End greasy spoons!

Pie, schmie.

Several of the bakers are making hot water crust pastry (I don't know which of those words should be joined together, so I've spread them all apart) including Richard. "You could build a house out of it, probably!" he says, in an amazingly shoe-horned-in manner, for which I can only admire him. Truth be told, they've mentioned the building profesh less than I thought they would.
(This is famous last words, isn't it?)
(Ah... yes. Moments later, he's making 'posh builder's pies'.)
(Are these posh pies for builders or pies for posh builders? Enquiring minds must know.)

Kate (who is using prunes and rhubarb - good grief, why?) warns us that the pastry mustn't be too hot or too cold. It's just dawned on me that all five series of GBBO - with all their dire pronouncements "not too long in the oven, or too little time", "not too much kneaded, or too little", "not left to prove for too long, or too briefly" etc. - have essentially been a longwinded retelling of Goldilocks.

On a similar theme, Martha is making a 'Three Little Pigs' trio. My friend Malie wondered if she was going to make one tier out of straw, one out of wood, and one out of bricks - gosh, can you imagine the triumphant display Frances from Series 4 would have produced? - but instead she has gone the macabre route of adding insult to injury and mocking dead pigs by subverting a story in which they figure as (well-meaning, if stupid) heroes, as well as eating them. Martha, you big bad wolf.

You can tell I'm a vegetarian, can't you?

So what is Norman making? Three steak and kidney pies, you'd assume, if that doesn't sound too exotic. But - no! He really is pulling out all the stops. By which I mean that he is putting every single flavour he's ever heard of into this creation - haggis, duck, venison, spinach, haddock, cheese, raspberry, passion fruit, and lavender. Seriously. This is what we call going from one extreme to another. Brilliantly, he calls it his Pieffel Tower.

For Nancy, they just reuse footage from bread week, as far as I can tell.

"I call it Lots of Meat in Carbs."

Paul reminds Chetna of her flavouring mishaps in the Signature Challenge, and she appears to dither back and forth over whether or not to stab Paul through the heart.

Mel calls Norman 'Normski', and he quotes Robert Burns. There's no way I can improve on that.

Richard: "I'm just knocking up the final pie... I mean lovingly crafting the final pie!" He cracks me up. But all the wit and self-awareness in the tent is making it difficult to write recaps, guys. And then comes my favourite moment of the episode, and one which entirely brings me around to Richard's Ways. Nancy is on the hunt for a pencil. Guess who has one to hand? Or, should I say, to ear?

And the tent hosts the smallest ever relay race.

Bless them. I have accepted the pencil.

Dramatic musical instruments now - tuba and xylophone?

Pies are coming out of ovens everywhere - I'm starting to realise how much Paul and Mary are going to eat. Things aren't looking good for Norm, as there is the first ever instance of Sue stealing a baker's food and not liking it... in this case, lavender meringue.

"...but why?"

Martha's pie has sprung a leak! Wasn't she listening to those wise words about holes in pastry letting things go through them? CATASTrop... no, wait, apparently it's fine.

Luis has a spirit level, thus treading all over Richard's schtick.

I'm enjoying the different ways the bakers are incorporating tiers. We have plastic, wooden, and cardboard tiers - and then some (Chetna and Martha) are just dumping their pies on top of one another in a big PIEle. Pie. Pile. Geddit? (Leave me alone... it's better than Sue's 'surpies!' which means nothing in or out of context.)

Somewhere Frances is watching and she's ANGRY.

A PIE FALLS OVER.

My friend Hannah shrieked at this point, which was terrifying, but Luis' pie is resilient and he just shoves it back on top. And... time is up!

Here are my two favourites:

Quite a lot of compliments, but not for poor old Norman. The lesson here, to quote The Simpsons, is: never try. Richard's is burnt, Martha's needs three people to carry, Kate's is a festival of floral eccentricity, and Chetna is recrowned Flavour Queen.

The judges and presenters repeat everything they've already said, backstage, and bring up the idea that Diana's absence might mean nobody goes home. Mary is firm in refusing to reveal anything, and also says perhaps her harshest criticism yet: "I've never had lavender in meringue before, and I don't think I want it again." Ouch.

So, who is star baker? It's Brighton's finest ("I am as southern as they get"):

And going home? With a catch in my throat...

He needs an umbrella for my tears.

And, like that, the Great British Beige Off ended, losing both its contestants in one week. And, uncharacteristically, in a whirl of lavender-flavoured egg. Oh, Norman, it's not going to be the same without you! You are already a national treasure.

See you all next week!

I met Sarah Waters and said "I love a spinster aunt"

That's all I have to say on that topic, really.

Pleasures and Landscapes by Sybille Bedford

Another book review to point you to in Shiny New Books! This one is by an author I'd love to know more about - Sybille Bedford. She seems so fascinating. I loved her novel A Favourite of the Gods, and so I took Daunt Books up on their offer of her collected travel writing, Pleasures and Landscapes (2003, although collected from mostly 1950s and 1960s articles).

I usually don't like travel writing, so I was nervous, but I really liked the way Bedford writes - and the unusual (often food-orientated) take she has on the world. If that's tickled your fancy, you can read the whole review on Shiny New Books...

Home by Marilynne Robinson

Since I've got a review copy of Lila on my shelves (the third of Robinson's novels to concern the good people of Gilead), I thought it was about time that I read Home (the second, from 2008, after 2004's Gilead). When I read Gilead, I was completely bowled over. How could an elderly minister's reminiscences create such a stunning work of fiction? On the strength of one book, Robinson became the living writer I admired the most. A subsequent read of Housekeeping did nothing to diminish this, and reading Home has cemented her position. Nobody else holds a candle to her.

Home covers much of the same time period as Gilead, although it is not a requirement to have read the former before you read the latter. Indeed, it would be interesting to read all three of this series in various orders - it's been so long since I read Gilead that I have forgotten a lot of it, so it was a bit like coming to the characters for the first time. And, indeed, different characters take centre stage. While Gilead is narrated by the Rev. John Ames, Home looks at his neighbour's house. Ames' closest friend, Rev. Robert Broughton, is old and ailing. His wife has died, and he is looked after by the only child who has remained at home - Glory, a spinster who is kind, good, and a little regretful. The novel sees how they cope with the return, after twenty years, of Glory's wastrel brother Jack.

His return will be familiar to readers of Gilead, and Ames certainly did not approve of him, but seeing him through the eyes of his family is a different matter. Glory is some years younger than him, separated by several siblings, and never felt that she knew him very well. Robert has longed for him to return - their dynamic is very much that of the Prodigal Son and the Forgiving Father - but even his patience and hope have their limits.

It's very difficult to talk about great writers, or to pinpoint what makes them great. Home details the awkwardness of people who are biologically very close and emotionally very distant, but not through arguments or slamming doors. Instead (and no author does this better) Robinson shows us the silences - the emotions that family members cannot discuss, the past hurts they cannot confront, and the future hopes they dare not express. All the more impressive that this is done in the third person, so - although it feels like we know all three key players intimately - we are never actually taken into their perspective wholly. Being very close to my nuclear family, particularly my brother, I can't quite understand the awkwardness of Glory and Jack's relationship, but (being a family of introverts) I can understand the reluctance to discuss depths of emotions - and yet communicating them at the same time.

Like Gilead, there is a background of faith to the novel. But, where Gilead is a beautiful depiction of a life of faith, Glory is a little less certain. She seems occupied more with duty and goodness than with grace, try as she might. She sums up the theme of the book while musing on the Bible:

What a strange old book it was. How oddly holiness situated itself among the things of the world, how endlessly creation wrenched and strained under the burden of its own significance. "I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old, which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us." Yes there it was, the parable of manna. All bread is the bread of heaven, her father used to say. It expresses the will of God to sustain us in this flesh, in this life. Weary or bitter or bewildered as we may be, God is faithful. He lets us wander so we will know what it mean to come home.

'Home' is, unsurprisingly, the biggest quandary in Home. What makes a home? What does it mean to come home?  For Glory, home is a place of safety and continuity, but also a place of disappointment and a sense of failure. For Jack, it is a mirage and somehow dangerous. For Robert, it is chiefly an ideal in his mind.

One of the loveliest things in both this novel and Gilead is the friendship between neighbouring ministers. Friendship is depicted so seldom in literature, and it is touching to see one that has proved far more constant and successful than romantic or paternal relationships. And for readers like me who dearly love Ames, it is a joy to see him again - albeit frustrating at how little we see of him! Not to mention illuminating to see a different vantage of a man that any reader of Gilead will know intimately. It's like hearing your best friend described by somebody who only knows them a little.

I quote this passage partly because Ames is in it, but mostly because it's a lovely example of how beautifully Robinson writes a domestic scene:

Then Ames arrived with Lila and Roddy, the three of them in their church clothes, and she took her father into the parlor with them, the company parlor, where they sat on the creaky chairs no one ever sat on. It had been almost forgotten that the were not there just to be dismally ornamental, chairs only in the sense that the lamp stand was a shepherdess. Ames was clearly bemused by the formality her father had willed upon the occasion. The room was filled with those things that seem to exist so that children can be forbidden to touch them - porcelain windmills and pagodas and china dogs - and Robby's eyes were bright with suppressed attraction to them.

Home has so many nuances and is so rich in insight that it would be futile to go much further. I don't love it as much as Gilead - perhaps because I missed the first-person voice that Robinson handles so extraordinarily - but I am still amazed by what a great work it is. Sometimes I wonder which writer from our time will be remembered in future generations and centuries. If there is any justice in posterity, Robinson will be among that number.