Inner Gold by Robert A. Johnson

Read this book for a book group – at 76 pages of fairly large print at least it doesn’t take too long to read…

I found the ideas within it odd at a number of levels - your “Inner Gold” would appear to be a metaphor that Johnson has pushed too far towards the literal. The handing over of your Gold for someone else to look after until a time when you are strong enough to carry it yourself takes you a certain distance as an idea. There is something about self-worth that can at times in your life be difficult to hold onto, and having someone within your life who sees that worth and cherishes it even when you yourself can not could be valuable.

Johnson seems to focus on the male or masculine experience as the primary point of understanding the world, and portrays both masculine and feminine in a rather thin manner, caricatures – he claims that men come “factory equipped – it is absolutely ingrained – with two visions of women.”, which are essentially the Virgin and the Whore. For women their vision is of man as either “a knight on a white horse [or] a barbarian” while “If you’re homosexual, the same thing happens, but the labels are reversed.” Johnson writes in absolute terms – his pronouncements are made as universal “facts” - and therefore it would seem that the whole of human existence is trapped in gender norms of a rather up-tight version of Victorian morality. It is a deeply depressing prognosis.

I would also note that Johnson has a somewhat offhand approach when he views the roots of Nazism as an “archetypal force” which “miscarried” - it would suggest that the greatest crimes against humanity were the result of people’s sense of identity getting a little out of shape rather than an evil perversion of the essence of humanity.

For the most part the book was neither convincing nor compelling. While I find the idea of throwing books away painful, after we have discussed it in my book group I think I will be dropping this one in the recycling bin.

The Extra Mile, A 21st Century Pilgrimage by Peter Stanford

Buy it from Hive.co.uk and support local booksellers 

Peter Stanford begins his introduction with Waterden Church, a “Small Pilgrim Place”, before going on to explores 8 major places of Pilgrimage. Some have a pretty solid Christian identity – Walsingham – some less “solid” with significant pagan interest - Glastonbury – while Stonehenge despite its rich mix of identities has very limited explicitly Christian interpretations.

Stanford goes to these places at the times they get their peak pilgrim numbers, and observes – except that more than once he does get sucked into being a participant, he is interested in the people, the pilgrims, as much as the places.

One surprise was the realisation that I haven’t actually been to most of these places – Iona, Lindisfarne, Glastonbury, and Bardsey sit so firmly in my imagination that I have sort of forgotten that I have never physically travelled to them. This perhaps points to their power, a pilgrimage is only ever partly physical – the physical is a token signifying the “real” journey of the mind or spirit – the place of pilgrimage, even when you at physically present, is a place that you imagine.

In exploring the non-Christian pilgrimage, particularly at Stonehenge and Glastonbury, the absence of the traditional narratives of pilgrimage perhaps offers more direct insights into the question “What do people think they are doing?” as they have had to find a language of their own rather than wrapping responses stock phrases (although it seems they is plenty of borrowing of “Christian” vocab...).

Stanford finds common themes across all the expressions of pilgrimage – desires for connection, desires for a grounding, desires for a sense of something beyond the worries of everyday life. There are twin experiences of something intensely personally and something common or collective.

Stanford is visiting major pilgrimage sites at points of above average visitor numbers and this might explain the emphasis on the collective experience, but even in the absence of others the sense of a place “where prayer has been valid”, as T. S. Elliot put it, feels an essential part of pilgrimage.

These places have great stories associated with their pasts, and particularly with their origins – and our relationship to these stories can be complex. Many have rich layers, full of colour and drama, through which the location of historical “facts” is not always easy. The stories explain why the place is worth visiting, and yet in many cases the stories are probably not true. In some cases the place almost certainly existed before the stories – some have long pre-Christian heritage going back well beyond the Saints and Martyrs we recall today. There is a bit of Chicken and Egg – the Story that tells us why the place is significance only exists because the place was significant and people needed to explain why.

I am probably not someone who needed to be convinced that Pilgrimage is good for you, but nevertheless Stanford provides such engaging insight that he reaffirms its value. There can be great healing found through pilgrimage, not from some magic associated with spring waters or saints bones (although I wouldn’t rule that out), but in the intentional act of going somewhere, a bringing together of mind and body that allows renewal to take place.

Even reading it in the depths of winter I found my feet start to itch to be on the road again.

If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things by Jon McGregor

Buy it from Hive.co.uk and support local booksellers 

A book picked up in charity shop for a beach read, which has been on holiday with me a couple of times before I got around to reading it.

A worthwhile wait – such a well crafted novel.

The power comes from the focus – an afternoon on a single street – and yet so much is happening – so many lives going on being ordinary.

I think that is the real skill – it often feels that it is easier to write a James Bond thriller – you have the whole tool box – explosions and helicopter cashes – if people aren’t on the edge of their seats what are you doing. However to create a thriller out of a rainy suburban afternoon that is success.

Soul Tourists by Bernardine Evaristo

Buy it from Hive.co.uk and support local booksellers 

This is a crazy love story – but what genuine love stories aren’t crazy?

Stanley and Jessie are an odd couple but there is an energy that gives them authenticity, as characters and as a couple.

There are a range of formats used, some first person narrative, some couplets, some “letters” - they play off each other helping you see the different twists and turns of the narrative from different viewpoints.

At the heart of it all is Stanley’s sense of dislocation – his integration into society, he is a banker, makes him feel cut off from his roots as a “Black” man, he feels that there is a part of him that should be an outsider. Some of the attraction to Jessie’s chaotic spirit is the desire to be outside society’s norms.

However we have these dream sequences where during the road trip across Europe historical figures of “Black” origin appear and this challenges the assumptions. The history of Europe has not been as monochrome as we thought.

One of the interesting things about the BBC’s What Do You Think You Are programmes has been the stories of those of Afro-Caribbean origin - they generally had a fairly clear idea in their head that their parents, or grand-parents, arrived in the UK as part of the Windrush generation, in a one off fundamental crossing of the divide and the ocean, however the programme has often found earlier crossings – for military service, for university education as doctors or lawyers – and suddenly the story becomes more complex.

A great book for exploring issues without being “issues-based” - across Evaristo’s work you get big themes treated in a really accessible way.

Hello Mum by Bernardine Evaristo

Buy it from Hive.co.uk and support local booksellers 

Published by Penguin working with Quick Reads at 80 pages of large-ish print it packs an incredible punch.

There is no way to talk about this without giving a massive spoiler away…

It beings “Hello Mum” and ends “So now you know, I can say goodbye. Jerome Cole-Wallace 1995-2009” - it is a letter of explanation from a dead Boy to his Mother.

As you should expect from Evaristo it has raw honestly, authenticity, insight, and power.

There is currently attention given to the issue of teenagers, mainly black, dying on our streets – but this book, which speaks to that exact issue, was published in 2010 – we might not of been paying attention but lets not pretend that this situation is new, and therefore lets not pretend that the solutions are quick or easy.

It is clear that the social context placed Jerome in the situations where he made choices that led to his death – that combination of context and choice is important. Most 14 year-olds in this country are growing up in contexts, thankfully, where they are protected from crime, drugs, and violence. They don’t have to make choices. But too many grow up in contexts where they are face with the choice between a hard slog with little reward – if you work hard at school etc the best you can hope for is “a job” - and the alternative - the status and the money that come from involvement with drugs.

Jerome was faced with a choice, he made a bad choice but at the moment of decision a pretty reasonable one – he was street-wise but probably essentially naive to the consequences. He was a victim – but there can be a risk in our legitimate desire to avoid victim shaming to strip people of all agency – and one of the powerful things Evaristo does is give him his voice back, give him his story back.

On A Bender (A Esmorga) By Eduardo Blanco Amor Translated by Craig Patterson

Out of print but can be found on Amazon 

Written in Galician at a time when the language, like so many aspects of life in Spain, was under the repression of the Franco regime.

The story is told through one side of a conversation, or more specifically an interview/interrogation.

This style is not always easy to follow, and I had in mind Waiting for Godot for the overall feel.

Cipriano Canedo, or the Boar, has been on the “Bender” with two others, and there would seem to have been a trail of destruction left in their wake. He maintains his repeated intention to go home and blames everything on his fellow drinker.

It ends with Canedo’s death, beaten to death by the Police. A clear message that Authority is brutal and oppressive. But your thoughts about Canedo and his fellow drinkers are less clear – nothing they do warrants a violent death but are we to read their drunkenness as another function of oppression – excluded from society life is hard, miserable, drink is some relief? Characterising the poor/the masses as lawless in an animalistic way finds its way into various literary sources, both from positive and negative perspectives – but I feel it needs to be treated with extreme care.

The People Speak Ed Colin Firth & Anthony Arnove

Buy it from Hive.co.uk and support local booksellers 

500 ish pages which I have read over 5 years ish.

The content is interesting in and of itself – speaking in various historical contexts and on various issue.

However the whole is really interesting. “The People” is complex – it feels a little dated and New Labour – making us think of Diana “The People’s” Princess.

Equally at this moment in time “The People’s Vote” is a hot topic – somehow differentiating it from when the people voted in recent General Elections or in earlier Referendums.

The Sub-title is “Voices that changed Britain” but it is I think only voices that changed Britain for “good” as defined by the Editors. A future edition is unlikely to include a speech from Nigel Farage, despite his impact on Britain. The copy I have has a Red Flag on the cover which probably indicates the starting point of the Editors.