The Sunday Salon – The Welsh Girl

I reckoned during last week’s Sunday Salon where I had started The Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davies that I’d finish it within a matter of days, as it was a nice, easy to read story, but of course life gets in the way of books, so apart from a few snatched moments reading at a cafe and outside a ballet lesson, I didn’t really get a chance to finish it until today.

So now I can give my final impressions, The Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davies is ‘nice’ (although the subject matter itself is not nice), set in principal in a Welsh village during the Second World, it tells the story of how the village responds to the arrival of prisoners of wars. Told from the viewpoints of Esther, a village girl, Karsten, a German prisoner of war and Rotherham an officer of German origin working for the allies, as with a lot of stories with differing viewpoints it can be a little piecemeal, I wasn’t totally sure what the point of the character of Rotherham was and he doesn’t feature for much of the story, I can only think that as someone who grew up in Germany but was working for the Allies he was meant to act as a bridge between the two sides of the story. The character of Esther, well I’ve heard alot of discussion recently whether male writers can write women and to be honest normally I don’t notice any difference, but Ho Davies’ portrayal of Esther did seem a little odd and at times I had trouble feeling sympathy for her. My favourite character though was Karsten, I thought he was really well done and I found it easy to be in the shoes of a German prisoner of war.

So in my verdict of The Welsh Girl as ‘nice’ where does it stand in my own personal Richard and Judy Bookclub rankings? To be honest I don’t think it was the best book of the lot, so here’s the final (as The Welsh Girl is the last of this year’s Richard and Judy list) list.

1. A Quiet Belief in Angels by R.J. Ellory – every page grips you, scares you and tears at your heart.
2. The Rose of Sebastopol by Katherine McMahon – a very close second, it is deeply and beautifully researched invoking the sites, sounds and smells of the Crimean War.
3. Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones – a lovely little story of bravery and island life, let down in my opinion by it’s final 20 pages.
4. Random Acts of Heroic Love by Danny Scheinmann – the description of the journey across Siberia is epic
5. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini – a very vivid description of life at a terrible period of time in Afghanistan’s history.
6. The Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davies – a nice readable story
7. Blood River by Tim Butcher – non-fiction so difficult to judge
8. Notes from an exhibition by Patrick Gale – just not my sought of book, far too ‘cosy’.
9. Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris – argh this is hard, I liked this book but Notes from an exhibition was more flawlessly written in my opinion.
10. The Visible World by Mark Slouka – I’m sorry, but for me this book dragged.

So in summary what did I think of this year’s Richard and Judy Bookclub list? Most of the books were really good and it was hard to judge between them, I only really did not like The Visible World and even that had some really beautiful scenes in, it was just the bits in between I had problems with. I can thoroughly recommend A Quiet Belief in Angels, The Rose of Sebastopol and Mister Pip plus A Thousand Splendid Suns and Blood River provide thought provoking insights into troubled parts of the world only seen briefly on news stations. Who do I think will win the British Book Awards Best Read of the Year? I’d like it to be A Quiet Belief in Angels, The Rose of Sebastopol or Mister Pip but I have a feeling it’ll be A Thousand Splendid Suns.

So now, ten weeks, ten books (actually I’ve read a few more than that), no more Richard and Judy to read, so it’s back to the Unread Book Mountain, which is a rather a nice feeling. I’m currently also mid-way through Stephen King’s On Writing, I’d heard so many good things about it over the last few months I had to read it. I still haven’t finished The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters and I’m not sure I will. I think what’s luring me the most is Sergei Lukyanenko’s Night Watch, now that looks good. Plus of course thanks to the Richard and Judy list I’ve got some new books to add to my ‘to be purchased list’ notably R.J. Ellory and Katherine McMahon.

The Sunday Salon – Happy Mother’s Day (UK)

My eldest, Girl Lacer, is getting to the age where she’s starting to understand the significance of ‘special days’ (she’s 4) but is still working on the art of surprise. She’d been telling me all week that she was doing something ‘secret’ at nursery and then tell me it was for Mother’s Day. She was so funny when she came out of nursery on Friday, all the other kids were handing their mother’s day card straight to their mummies but Girl Lacer came out of nursery like she was a Soviet era spy smuggling documents across the border, she had the card behind her back and she was looking shiftily left and right as she walked out, she made me shut my eyes until she had secreted the card in my bag and made me promise not to look in there. When home she made me shut my eyes whilst she hid the card, when she had done so she went “It’s ok mummy, you can look now, I’ve hidden it in a safe place, it’s under your pillow, so don’t look”. I was good, I didn’t look, so the card (and a homemade bracelet) was a lovely surprise, the front of the card had Girl Lacer’s glittery handprint and inside it read, ‘This is my hand you used to hold when I was only 4 years old (the 4, Girl Lacer’s name and some rainbow kisses all handwritten by Girl Lacer) and then handwritten by the teacher ‘I love my mummy because she cooks food for me’ lol.

Today was also a birthday party for one of Girl Lacer’s friends (don’t worry, I’ll get to books in a minute), the mummies gathered together to compare bracelets and what was written in our cards ‘I love my mummy because she plays the shopping game with me’, ‘I love my mummy because she gives me icecream when I am good’ etc. It wasn’t until entering the party stage of Girl Lacer’s life did I realise that (at least round here) the mummies get alcohol to, I’ve drunk more champagne related drinks recently at 4 year old parties than I have done in the last three years in total, nice but not particularly brilliant when all you’ve got to line your stomach is 4 year old party food, but still I don’t often get a chance to drink at 11 o’clock on a Sunday morning. There was an entertainer, the first party me and Girl Lacer have been to with one (nowt such things as entertainers in my childhood), quite good, he bored me within about five minutes and the four year olds within about half an hour, I was worried that Girl Lacer may now want an entertainer for her next birthday party (7 months away but I’m already thinking about it as this, considering it’ll be her fifth it is likely to be big) but I think she’s still quite the fan of traditional party games parties.

Finally onto books, I did have a chance to read this morning, using my Mother’s Day prerogative to have a long and leisurely bath with the Lush bubble bath thingies the kids got me (aka Mr. Lacer’s default present buying shop for any female relative, including me) and the bath is my favourite place to read. I had finished this week’s Richard and Judy read yesterday, the rather good non-fiction read Blood River about a seemingly impossible attempt to travel down the Congo. Normally I try and keep pace with the Richard and Judy schedule and not jump ahead, but I decided to start reading the tenth and final book, The Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davies, as I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of another book which I am hoping to receive soon and I wanted to clear the decks a bit first. Even though I started The Welsh Girl just today I am nearly a third through it and so far it seems like one of those books where if I actually had the time I could just sit down and read all of it in one sitting, it’s a reasonably easy, interesting read, invoking the atmosphere of war time North Wales and the beaches of Normandy. I am particularly enjoying the North Welsh setting as I know that area well, almost made me wish I had kept the book to read until I’m up there next in April. I am going to read some more now and you never know (Mr. Lacer is doing the kids bedtime tonight) I may actually finish it today, so I may be back later with a full review, if not I confidently predict there will be one in the next few days.