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The Librarian – Salley Vickers

April 15, 2021 by penny Leave a Comment

From one book that talks about the benefits of libraries, amongst other things, to a book set in a library and with the benefits of libraries and learning at the core of the story: The Librarian by Salley Vickers.

In 1958, Sylvia Blackwell takes up a new job as the children’s librarian at East Mole library. As a child she had a love of books and she wants to share that with other children. To enthuse them about the written word.

She moves into a small end of terrace cottage and tries to settle into village life. She gets to know the family that live next door but one very well, and starts to try to reach out to local children and their families via both the WI and the local primary school. In doing so and through inviting them to the library, she ends up making friends with three young children in particular – her neighbour’s son, her landlady’s grand daughter and the daughter of the local GP.

But things are not straight forward. She ends up having an affair with the married GP and the neighbour’s son, caught between the attentions of two girls, ends up getting himself into all sorts of trouble. In doing so the children’s library is dragged into a local scandal, and the results of it threaten Sylvia’s own job there.

Part one of The Librarian is set in the late 1950s and as it’s a period that I really enjoy I found myself loving Sylvia (even if I didn’t agree with all the choices she made in life!) and I became incredibly caught up in her life in East Mole and everything that was going on around her. I was intrigued to find out what would happen next and was looking forward to seeing where the story would go, when suddenly part one finished and part two of the book began.

Without much by way of an introduction part two of the book is suddenly set in modern day and it’s a good few pages before you actually realise which of the book’s characters you are again following. You’re left assuming that it’s Sylvia, but then rather disappointingly in my opinion you find it’s actually another of the people that you first met in East Mole.

Part two of the book really does demonstrate the benefits of libraries as centres of communities and as places for both learning and escapism. It also shows how events of childhood can really shape a person – both for the better and sometimes the worse. But, and it is quite a big but, part two just really seemed to jar against part one for me. Yes it picks up some of the ends of what happens to some of the characters, but it seems to only give Sylvia a passing comment. I wanted to know so much more about what happened next to her and I was left almost feeling a bit let down. I’d become so invested in her in part one of the book that moving the focus almost seemed disloyal. I sort of understand why, even if I can’t explain why here as it would give away some of the story, but it left so much hanging in the air that I didn’t really feel satisfied when I finished the book.

Despite all this I did take away some good things from The Librarian. As a lover of libraries, and in particular children’s libraries, I could see what the character Sylvia was trying to do and wanted to support her in doing it. There were quite a few nice mentions of children’s books from the time and a very useful list of recommended reading from East Mole library at the end, which fits well with my aim to read some of the children’s classics that I missed as a child (a separate post on that soon). Having also just read Tom’s Midnight Garden as my daughter was studying it this term whilst I was helping with her home schooling, I was interested to read some of the references to it in the text and that too helped my understanding of some of the theories about it that were discussed in The Librarian. I’m just sadly still left feeling a tad disappointed at the end, and wishing I knew properly what happened to Sylvia when she left East Mole.

The Librarian by Salley Vickers is available to buy online here.

Filed Under: Fiction

The Nanny State Made Me – Stuart Maconie

April 14, 2021 by penny Leave a Comment

It’s actually quite hard to know where to start with all the things I want to say about The Nanny State Made Me. To put things in context though, The Nanny State Made Me was published just before Covid hit, in March 2020. I read it during the third lockdown here in the UK in early 2021.

The sub-title of The Nanny State Made Me is “A story of Britain and how to save it” and whilst the first part of that sums things up well, the second part is now somewhat out of date following Covid. I understand that an updated paperback version has now been published, which takes account of some of what happened in the last 12 months, but there is so much in the book that I read and wanted to ask more questions about after everything that has changed since. It’s not Maconie’s fault that the book is in places now out of date, after all he wasn’t to predict a global pandemic and how the country had to cope with it!

If you’re read any of Stuart Maconie’s previous work you’ll have to accept that this is quite different. It’s very much a political book, and possibly not what you’d expect from a man who spends his weekend mornings eating crisps on the radio. But it turns out that Maconie writes about politics excellently.

You might guess from the title which way Stuart leans politically and The Nanny State Made Me certainly is very critical of various Tory governments and politicians, but in a measured manner with plenty of evidence backing up why Maconie feels the way he does.

Just the term ” the nanny state” can cause anger with some people who don’t believe that it is the state’s role to look after its citizens, but as Stuart himself points out “those who complain about the nanny state are most likely to have nannies”. I think if anything the last year and some of the decisions made by the Government really echo that sentiment. The simple lack of understanding by some in power of how the consequences of lockdown and restrictions impacted some people in society more than others suggested a vast lack of knowledge about how the state is relied upon by many, and the support that it should be providing.

In the book Stuart takes the reader through the various ways that the state has made his life better. He starts with the NHS, an institution that now people happily declare their love and admiration for. Was that really the case pre-Covid though, or were many of us just taking it for granted? There’s absolutely no doubt that the whole country certainly appreciates the NHS now more than ever before, but can the same be said for some of the other elements of the state that he covers?

Anyone who is familiar with Caitlin Moran will know how she credits her local library with educating her and shaping her life, but she is not alone in that sentiment. Before Amazon and the internet a local library was the obvious way of helping the nation read, but even now libraries (when they are open!) open doors for people’s imaginations and knowledge. They can help provide internet access for people who don’t have it at home, and also act as a safe haven for so many that want to escape into a book. Their opening hours and staff have been decimated over the years and yet many provided an amazing service for many isolating at home over the last year. We’ve heard of libraries offering click and collect services, but also delivering books to people shielding after taking phone calls to help understand their reading preferences. Some libraries even took it upon themselves to act as a telephone befriending service to people living alone, with librarians making calls to talk about books and even recording their own audio books for those who struggled with print but wanted to read a specific title.

It’s not just the NHS and libraries that get Stuart Maconie’s praise though. He also talks about council housing, schools, buses and trains, leisure facilities, the benefits system and even his employer the BBC. Whilst you might not necessarily agree with everything that he has to say, he makes his points eloquently and very convincingly, with everything incredibly well researched. I’ve always been a fan of libraries, thought that the railways should be renationalised and a firm believer in using places like council run leisure centres so that the powers that be don’t decide not enough people do and hence move to close them. On top of all that The Nanny State Made Me has also given me so much more to think about, and also more to research too. The idea of universal benefits for instance was something that I had always just instantly dismissed, but now I really want to follow up on some of the writing that Stuart used as his research and make a better informed decision on it myself.

In addition to my further reading what I also need to do is get my hands on a copy of the updated paperback version, although that may require me to find a copy in a bookshop (or library) first so that I can make sure I’m actually getting an updated version. The Nanny State Made Me left me shouting in frustration at time about how things have changed over the last year, but also realising just how little I know about certain issues in society. My reading challenge for this year includes alternating between reading fiction and non-fiction titles where possible and thanks to Stuart the number of non-fiction books and articles on my to read list is growing quickly.

The Nanny State Made Me by Stuart Maconie is published by Ebury Press and is available to buy online here.

Filed Under: Non Fiction

Ladybird Tuesday – Royals in Ladybird-land

April 13, 2021 by penny Leave a Comment

After last Friday’s sad news about the death of the Duke of Edinburgh this is the point that I should be pulling out his book to cover on Ladybird Tuesday, but there isn’t one!

Back in the 1980s Ladybird featured HM The Queen, HM The Queen Mother, HRH Prince Charles, HRH Princess Diana and then The Royal Princes William and Henry as titles in the Famous People series (slightly strangely alongside Indira Ghandi and Pope John Paul II) but Prince Philip never merited his own book. In subsequent years HM The Queen, HM The Queen Mother and Diana Princess of Wales (as she became known post divorce) all received updated versions, and Ladybird also produced a souvenir book for HRH Catherine The Duchess of Cambridge that I understand to be in the familiar hardcover format.

Royal Weddings

When it came to Royal Weddings in the 80s Ladybird went all out. When Charles and Diana married in 1981 Ladybird knew that they wanted to publish a souvenir book marking the occasion and in these pre-internet days they wanted to be the first to do so. After the wedding took place on the 29th July 1981 Ladybird had 500,000 copies of their Royal Wedding book available to buy just 4 days later on the 3rd August. Military planning went into this book and the night before the wedding the editor Audrey Daly met with the Royal Photographer. On the day of the wedding she made copious notes which then enabled her to write the text on the car journey back to Loughborough afterwards. I remember watching about the production of the book on children’s TV at the time (probably Newsround or Blue Peter I’m guessing).

When you look at the book on the second royal wedding of the decade – Andrew and Sarah – it seems the book had a similar turn around time. The wedding took place on the 23rd July 1986, with the souvenir book being first published on the 28th July. Both these books were part of series 100 which was a whole series devoted to Special Publications which covered Royal Weddings, Olympics, World Cups and a book about Loughborough Past and Present (Loughborough being the home of Ladybird).

Further back in history

So, back to the Royals. Obviously above I’ve been talking about the modern day members of the Royal family. It goes without saying that plenty of Kings and Queens feature in the Adventures from History series (series 561). In addition to two books about Kings and Queens. Book 1 covers Kings and Queens of England from Alfred the Great to Richard III whilst Book 2 covers Henry VII right through to Elizabeth II. This latter book was first published in 1968 and I’m guessing that at the time no one could have imagined that by 2021 Elizabeth would still be on the throne.

I’m sorry to say that my knowledge of Kings and Queens is pretty sketchy so maybe I should be concentrating on series 561 and working my way through history and educating myself a bit. Whilst I know a few key facts about Henry VIII and Queens Elizabeth I and Victoria after that I’m very patchy. Time to ensure my series 561 collection is completed and use it to fill in my gaps.

About Ladybird Tuesday

Ladybird Tuesday is a regular feature here on Penny Reads, where I delve into my Ladybird book collection and choose a title to share with my readers. The weekly series originally started on my old blog, Being Mrs C, and this post originally appeared on there. I’m now in the process of moving all those posts over to Penny Reads and also adding titles that I have acquired since then. A list is currently being compiled here of all the titles I have in my collection.

Filed Under: Ladybird Books

Ladybird Tuesday – Exploring Space

April 6, 2021 by penny Leave a Comment

As I stood infront of my Ladybird collection this morning trying to decide what to write about today I paused for a moment to think about which of my Ladybird books has been most relevant lately based on what we’ve been up to and what we’ve been watching and reading elsewhere. It’s hard when we haven’t really been anywhere, but also because much of what I’ve been reading and watching has been set post-Ladybird. Modern dystopian fiction, a book about the “nanny state” (more about that excellent book by Stuart Maconie later) and also America during the Vietnam War (The Trial of the Chicago 7 – an excellent film that’s well worth watching and available over on Netflix). There was one film that we enjoyed with the kids though that did fit in perfectly with one Ladybird title: Hidden Figures.

Now, if you haven’t seen the film Hidden Figures then I urge you to do so. It beautifully tells the story of three of the black women who worked for NASA in the 1960s and their key roles in the race for space. As well as helping to educate the kids about the roles America and Russia had in exploring space, it also shows what it was like for black women in a mainly male white work environment in a segregated American state. It had both kids (now aged 8 and 10) asking questions about segregation, why it happened, how it was overthrown and racism today.

Ladybird Exploring Space

Ladybird certainly didn’t publish any books about racial segregation, their Achievements series (series 601) did include a title about Exploring Space. Published in 1964 this book includes mention of John Glenn who we saw in Hidden Figures, as well as mention of the Russians launching the first earth satellite in 1957.

Ladybird Exploring Space

Exploring Space concentrates much more on the technology behind man’s attempts to explore space than the politics and the “race” between the two countries. It was also of course written before man went to the moon, and that omission really makes it feel very of its time as we look back at it. The book talks about why man would like to visit the moon, and what it might be like, but of course this was all based on theories at the time.

Ladybird Exploring Space

With so much more known about space now, it is almost strange to think back to when we knew so little. When everyone would have to go round a neighbour’s house to gather round their TV (or one in a shop window) to follow launches and NASA’s progress. Now there are YouTube live feeds of pretty much everything, in amazing quality and with multiple camera angles. It’s lovely though to be able to show the kids what it was like and what we did know and understand at the time. If we were still home schooling you could say that Exploring Space would have hit perfectly together with Hidden Figures as part of a science lesson about the race for space.

Exploring Space was first published in 1964 as part of Series 601, the Achievements Series. It was written by Roy Worvill MSc with illustrations by B. Knight.

About Ladybird Tuesday

Ladybird Tuesday is a regular feature here on Penny Reads, where I delve into my Ladybird book collection and choose a title to share with my readers. The weekly series originally started on my old blog, Being Mrs C, and this post originally appeared on there. I’m now in the process of moving all those posts over to Penny Reads and also adding titles that I have acquired since then. A list is currently being compiled here of all the titles I have in my collection.

Filed Under: Ladybird Books, Non Fiction, Vintage books

Ladybird Tuesday – How it works… The Computer

March 9, 2021 by penny Leave a Comment

Trying to keep up with Ladybird Tuesday whilst homeschooling defeated me. Quite simply not enough hours in the day. My eldest two were waved off back through the school gates with a big smile yesterday morning though, so today I’ve finally had time to breathe again and spend some time looking through my Ladybird collection.

The most appropriate book to write about this week would probably have been Going to School, from Series 563. If only I’d had it in my collection.

Ladybird The Computer

Instead I’ve gone for a title that is wildly out of date, but one that covers what we’ve all been depending on for the last few months of homeschooling – The Computer.

Part of the How it works series (series 654) The Computer was originally published in 1971, but the version I have is actually dated 1979 inside. Whilst the book was written by David Carey, there is also a note inside my version stating that new material in this edition was prepared by James Blythe. Bearing in mind how many Ladybird books were previously changed in some way or reprinted without any further dates on them than the original copyright date it’s interesting to see this title treated differently.

Ladybird The Computer

So much of what is included seems historic now, but actually the book contains some excellent basics physics and also some information that I covered in my first year of a computer science degree course. Elements like shift registers, address systems, machine code and compilers are all basics that haven’t fundamentally changed, no matter how complex computers have since become.

Ladybird The Computer

The page on how magnetic tapes is perfect example of how the technology is no longer used at all, but it’s still one of those fundamental bits of physics that anyone working with computers should probably still learn about.

Ladybird The Computer

It’s almost comical to read the section talking about the different industries that computers are used in with no mention at all of education after millions of school children around the world have used it daily for their schooling for a large part of the last year. Also, the page that covers teleprocessing is as close as they got in 1979 to imagining how the Internet might be formed. Quite how we would have handled a global pandemic without the Internet is a sobering thought.

Ladybird The Computer

There’s a story that says that the Ministry of Defence ordered several hundred copies of The Computer to give to staff in the 1970s to help them understand this new technology. Apparently they were issued with all mentions of Ladybird removed so that staff weren’t upset about the idea of being given a children’s book to learn from. As far as I know, no versions have ever been seen. Does that mean it didn’t exist? Or maybe it’s sat in an MOD store somewhere?

About Ladybird Tuesday

Ladybird Tuesday is a regular feature here on Penny Reads, where I delve into my Ladybird book collection and choose a title to share with my readers. The weekly series originally started on my old blog, Being Mrs C, and this post originally appeared on there. I’m now in the process of moving all those posts over to Penny Reads and also adding titles that I have acquired since then. A list is currently being compiled here of all the titles I have in my collection.

Filed Under: Ladybird Books, Vintage books

Around the World in 80 Trains – Monisha Rajesh

February 22, 2021 by penny Leave a Comment

The idea of being able to dive into a book and so escape on a trip around the world by train sounds like my idea of heaven. Especially when we’ve been stuck at home for months and the furthest I’ve been since early December is the supermarket and to collect the kids from their Dad’s house. Monisha Rajesh’s story of her trip on 80 separate trains around the world is a lovely travel fix, but at the same time left me feeling strangely flat.

Around the World in 80 Trains - Monisha Rajesh. A photograph of the book cover.

The whole train twist on Around the World in 80 days is nice but I sadly had a gripe as soon as I opened this book. No where do you get a map showing the journey taken. How is that even possible???

The kids and I have been recently enjoying MG Leonard and Sam Sedgman’s Adventures on Trains series, and when they’ve spoken about the books and the wonderful work of their illustrator Elisa Paganelli one of the things that they focus on is the value of maps at the start of each book showing the train journey. The fact that Around the World in 80 Trains misses this out seems like a major omission. I spent quite a while whilst reading looking at my big world map on the wall and trying to plot the route on it myself.

I understand that Rajesh is a journalist by background and I have to say that some of the chapters in the book did feel quite journalistic in style. They contain fantastic information, and some lovely stories, but they didn’t absorb me in the way that some travel writing does. It just didn’t quite feel like I was always there with Monisha, and her now husband Jem, which is what I need right now during lockdown.

There is no doubt that the journey undertaken was fascinating, and there are certain parts of the book that have me wanting to find out so much more about where she went, the history (both ancient and modern) of some of the places, and also to find more travel writing about them. The 10 days that they spent on an organised train tour of North Korea make me want to do similar, but I’m also intrigued to learn more about Tibet and also Xinjiang and Kazakhstan. Any recommendations of follow on books gratefully received if you an leave them in the comments down below.

There were also parts of their journey that I wish more had been written about. I was hugely disappointed with their time in Russia. It was as if they didn’t really want to be there and hence hardly anything was written about Moscow in particular. One review I have read online (since finishing the book) talks about how it only really comes alive in the North Korea and Tibet chapters and I have to say that I totally agree. If there had only been the same level of detail about Russia and other places that they visited it would have been so much better. I was amazed that in some places she just wrote about how they got there and went straight to their hotel and watched a film on Netflix. I know the book was about train travel, but I just felt that saying nothing about some of their key destinations was wrong.

Around the World in 80 Trains was Rajesh’s second book after a first in which she travelled Around India in 80 Trains. With her family having previously moved from Sheffield to Madras for two years in hope of making India their home, I’m keen to learn not only about the trains of India, but also about how she describes the country and the experiences she has en route. I hope that the places she visited have the North Korea and Tibet levels of detail rather than that on Tokyo or Moscow!

Around the World in 80 Trains is available to buy online here.

Disclaimer: The links in this post are affiliate links and if you use them to buy anything I will receive a small commission whilst it will cost you no more than usual. Thank you for any purchases made. Your support is very much appreciated.

Filed Under: Non Fiction, Travel Books

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