Cove by Cynan Jones

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This is an example of the truth that less can be some much more.

Less than 100 pages, most with more white space that text, to be lost at sea is an encounter with the emptiness and the words that you place in that space have to be carefully crafted.

As I read I could feel my heart thumping with the determination of the unnamed man to survive, and with the unnamed women that waits for him.

I have very little that I can say, it is a tale of such power I just have to hold the emotion.

Dark Mermaids by Anne Lauppe-Dunbar

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The setting of this story, just after the fall of the Berlin Wall while the two Germanys remained uneasy about their pasts uncertain about their future, is so rich that it has significant potential to overwhelm a storyteller of inferior quality – it is credit to Lauppe-Dunbar that she weaves her tale seamlessly into this historical backdrop.

There is Sophia, young West German Police officer, realising that the Wall coming down is opening up not just a country but also her past – her past as a star of the GDR swimming team. Mia, teenager, orphan, raised by her, now dying, Grandmother, for whom the Wall may have come down but fear of the power of the state, of the Stasi, remains real. Their separate lives are drawn together intertwining as they unravel.

For much of the journey it certainly puts the “Dark” in Dark Mermaids – murder, doping, lies and betrayal, sexual abuse pile up, survival for Sophia was only possible through emotional shut-down. But as she faces her demons so she discovers the possibility of tenderness and love again. While it is a tale of the astounding capability of human endurance under ultimate strain, and in that way is a story of hope – Sophia's endurance is set against a backdrop of many others who did not survive.

It feels like we live in a world that needs to learn the lessons of this tale – a world that perhaps needs to learn these lessons more urgently now that at any point since the fall of the Berlin Wall. It is not just that the corruption of sport continues, there are suggestions of state sponsored programmes as far reaching as those of the GDR, but even outside of such state programmes the stakes have been raised so high that taking the advantage that drugs bring seems to too many worth the risks. But more pressingly the ways in which national pride is rising and with it claims to national interest can be used to justify stripping individuals of rights and basic human dignity – reducing them to mere instruments within the exercise of power. Ends claimed to justify means, when we need to turn the spotlight on whether the ends are even desirable in the first place?

A powerful novel in its own right, but all the more powerful for speaking to the Zeitgeist.

The Smell of Other People's Houses by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock

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I will be honest as admit to buying this book because I liked the cover … But thankfully the content rewarded this decision.

Writing in the voices of Ruth, Dora, Alyce, and Hank alternately Bonnie-Sue breathes an authenticity into their lives that is captivating. These are young people on that difficult threshold of adulthood – with lives that forcing them forward whether they like it or not. As these young people struggle, the sense of isolation – that it is them against the world – has a familiar ring. There is much drama to be had in the small town setting, with the sense of place as powerful character within the story as an of the people – which puts me in mind of Cider with Rosie.

This has been bracketed as a “youth” novel, which might be helpful to the marketing department of the publisher but to the reader it is a pointless distinction – this is quality writing, worthy of a readership of any age.

Crucifixions and Resurrections of the Image by George Pattison

Can be found on Amazon 

Pattison has in his sight the (false?) dichotomy between Modern Art and Christianity. While many artists reject a religious faith or world-view, or possibly increasingly are indifferent to faith – one of a number of irrelevances that have not bearing on their work. However Pattison notes that “Context and reception must also be weighed, and the work's effects belong to the work, whatever the intention of the artist.” Therefore the meaning of a work can go beyond the understand of the artist, and so Pattison goes on to explore a range of artist's work in this spirit.

A book about Art without any illustrations does make it essential to be reading it within reach of a search engine to see the works that Pattison makes essential to his analysis.

More Empty Tabernacles by Michael Yelton

Published by the Anglo-Catholic History Society, Michael Yelton recounts the history of 12 London Churches – most of which have been demolished, all of which have ceased to be Anglican Churches.

Most, but not all, of these Churches were founded during the Victorian heights of the Anglo-Catholic movement, with its urgent and energetic sense of Mission to the urban poor. That these Churches were short lived can be accounted for by the confluence of two main developments. One is a lost of urgency and energy within the movement in the post-War years, the other was the de-population of many of the poorest districts in London as slums were replaced with suburban estates.

Yelton gives an account of the building, and any significant modifications that occurred to it, but he also gives an account of the Priests that lead these Churches, and it is here that the real colour and interest lies. For much of the period under consideration the Anglo-Catholic movement was marginalised within the Church of England (most of those considered here would fall at the “extreme” neo-Papist end of the Anglican spectrum) and so those that inhibited it were often eccentric – probably those without that tendency would have found their place closer to the mainstream of the Church.

Yelton does these Parishes the honour of remembering them, they burned brightly with the spirit of the Gospel, even if they burned briefly.

Messy by Tim Harford

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This is an insightful book, at one level liberating but at another uncomfortable.

There is a significant chunk of the book that deals with the functioning of organisations, there is a dominant trend for order and predictability within organisations. The message is that this can get you to “good” but rarely gets you to “great”.

Within education practices like the literacy hour raised the baseline, giving a solid structure that allowed less able teachers to perform well but for stronger teachers it is seen by many to have limited their potential. The same is true of chain restaurants, walk into any Pizza Express and you know what you are getting, walk into an independent Italian and you might get the best meal of your life, or the worst.

Tim Harford also points out the ways that targets that are set as a measurable proxy for performance quickly become the be all and end all and fail to work – how many organisations have set a performance indicator that all emails will be responded to within 24 hours, and then create an automated response that merely thanks you for your email to hit that target, with the meaningful response coming days or even weeks later if at all. The KPI is met, but whether a service is delivered remains in doubt.

The part of the book that sat less easily was about those who were successful through the deliberate creation of chaos. Once you know that most of the world operates on pre-scripted rule based protocols, and you have the guts to back yourself to deal better with off-script scenarios than your rivals, it is natural for you to set up those scenarios and trust your wits to get you through. That Harford's examples of this in action are Field-marshal Rommel, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and Donald Trump proves it is effective but maybe leaves you wondering if winning is the same as virtue? Being a good person and being a “successful” person are not necessarily co-determinate.

The Greasy Poll by Mike Parker

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Most political memoirs are written by “successful” politicians, maybe after a fall from power, nevertheless there has been some period at the top. Therefore the memoir of a loser is in itself an interesting take.

As a follower, from afar, of Welsh life and politics I am clearly particularly drawn to this account of a Welsh aspect of the 2015 General Election, but I don't think that you need to have any particular interest in Wales to find the dynamics of a constituency campaign being played out – how the big picture of the election does, and in many ways does not, influence the local. It is also an intensely human story, and so I don't think you need to be a political nerd to engage with it either.

Mike Parker is honest, at times brutally honest, about Plaid, the party he was standing for. It gives clues about why Plaid is not riding on the crest of a wave in the same way as the SNP, but also perhaps why all parties are undergoing some level of existential crisis. How the SNP has seen a surge in support in the wave of a defeat in a referendum on its primary raison d'etre, UKIP possibly the reverse, and Labour's membership is seen by many to be growing in direct inverse to its electability are political puzzles equal to Plaid catch-22 to being too “small c” conservative to capture the anti-establishment vote, and yet too radical for many others.

Given the turning point of the tale is the dredging up of Mike Parker's past published writing makes me even more cautious that usual about putting writing what I am really thinking... His conclusion is a sad one, that writers are unwise, unable, to become politicians because there will always be something in their past that can be quoted out of context and torpedo them. But in the age of Twitter, we are not all writers now? What we once said in the pub we now publish online...

I would be deeply worried by the prospective politician who has never made an ill judge quip on Twitter, whose every move from the first utterance online, has been considered and calculated with a view to future electability. As Billy Joel once sang “And the only people I fear are those who never have doubts”. We complain that our politicians are out of touch with reality, and yet pounce on them when they betray that they are human... In so doing we get what we deserve?

Mike Parker's relationship to his party feels very real, he is loyal to his party but not blinkered to its failing. Enough of an outsider not to be consumed by its internal and self-validating bubble, a bubble that is likely to be true of all parties not just Plaid. His accounts of the hustings, where many are attended almost exclusively by the committed supporters of the various candidates, no one comes to listen, learn, and decide, but merely to cheer their guy (in most instances in this campaign all the candidates at the hustings were male). Rather than a debate they are in effect 4/5 simultaneous rallies occurring in the same physical space but without meaningful overlap.

It would seem that one of the challenges Mike articulates is the erosion of nuance, it is not just that he gets “better” at keeping to the script in his doorstep encounters, it asks if there a question about chicken and egg between message and medium?, the sound-bite existed before the 140 character limit of Twitter, but for whatever reason it seems clear that if you need a paragraph to explain your position you are unlikely to get traction with the current electorate. But while the message needs to be simple the world isn't.