By Jennifer Ann Davies, NCWQ Arts and Letters Adviser
Lockdown successful!
Virus still with us!
Many BOOKS shared!
The humming of bees a single, pure note!
Bees an ideal society, a small paradise among chaos!
Authors write to change a broken world with their words and truths!
Sapiens savour Simplicity!
‘The Beekeeper of Aleppo’ Christy LEFTERI: Zafre London 2019. www.zafrebooks.co.uk
My busy May report had not done justice to this compelling tale, brimming with compassion, sensual style and vivid and loveable characters. Daljit Nagra. Truly “…this is a novel of international significance. Courageous, provocative, haunting…”Heather Morris author of “The Tattooist of Auschwitz. Esther Freud writes: “This book dips below the deafening headlines, and tells a true story with subtlety and power.”
Nuri is a beekeeper; his wife, Afra, an artist. They live happily in the beautiful Syrian city of Aleppo – until the unthinkable happens and they are forced to flee…..however, what Afra has seen is so terrible she has gone blind. They embark on a perilous journey through Turkey and Greece towards an uncertain future in Britain. As they travel through a broken world, they must confront not only the pain of their own unspeakable loss, but dangers that would overwhelm the bravest of souls.
“…Pedion tou Areos – refugees behind wrought-iron railings stretched along the length of the high street that led to downtown Athens…” p219
“The black woman said: ‘They steal children here…They snatch them’.”
“Why would they do that?”
“To sell their organs. Or for sex…she said this casually, as if she had become immune to such things. I didn’t want to listen to this woman and I wishes I couldn’t see the shadows moving in the woods. I noticed that her breasts were leaking fresh wet patches on her white top.”p222 “I watched the east between the women; the way they interacted with such few words. They knew each other – the old lady had probably been here many times before.” pp225-6
Moving, compassionate and beautifully written, ‘The Beekeeper of Aleppo’ is a powerful testament to the triumph of the human spirit. Brought up in London, Christy LEFTERI is the child of Cypriot refugees. She is a lecturer in creative writing at Brunel University and this magnificent book was born out of her time working as a volunteer at a UNICEF supported refugee centre in Athens. SDGs 1/2/3/4/5/6/8/10/11/16
Sometimes, never letting go is a way of letting in the new….ABC Call the Midwife 9/5/2020
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“Impossible to put down,” says Clare MacIntosh, of Lucy CLARKE’S “Last Seen”. Harper Collins Publishers, London, 2017. Beach huts – two missing boys….Is anybody watching?
Novelist, traveller and fresh air enthusiast, Lucy Clark, has written four novels, is married with two young children and in summers at home, she writes from a beach hut. www.lucy-clarke.com
In a small seaside community, there’s always someone watching. Seven years ago, two boys went missing at sea…a remote stretch of coast dotted with beach huts, was scarred forever. Sarah’s son survived, but on the anniversary of the accident, he disappears without trace. As new secrets begin to surface, there is a hum of tension and unanswered questions. As Sarah’s search grows more desperate, she starts to mistrust everyone she knows…and she’s right to… www.harpercollins.co.uk
“Beautiful, sad and gripping…I couldn’t put it down.” Claire Douglas
“A summer holiday turns into a nightmare; twists upon twists.” Emylia Hall SDGs 3/4/16
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UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND is offering a Podcast: COVID-19 and Finance – What smart money moves should you make during a pandemic? Another discusses Future Tourism. In addition to a potpourri of podcasts, videos, Zoom and Webinars, there is also an interactive Book Club on offer – and the opportunity to enrol online to Learn a New Language this Winter! SDGs 4/10/17
In symbiosis with concerns about mental health and coping abilities throughout COVID-19, the Queensland Brain Institute also offers a Podcast, citing: ‘1 in 7 people in Australia experience depression: QBI’s “A Grey Matter Podcast: The biological basis of depression”.’ I have not watched this Podcast, but hope there are some grand coping strategies offering or suggested, as we become weaker and less resilient sapiens than those who have survived war, famine, flood, drought, fire, economic recessions and depressions, and accompanying stresses. The work of the QBI is well acknowledged and well received. advancementnews@eq.edu.au SDGs 3/4/17
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‘DINNER WITH THE DISSIDENTS’ – John TESARSCH
“A fierce work, worthy of the great Russians who fill its pages.” Jack Serong
Tesarch is the author of the acclaimed novels ‘The Philanthropist’ and ‘The Last Will and Testament of Henry Hoffman’. He has degrees in music and law, and was a cellist in Vienna before he turned to writing. After travelling widely, he returned to Australia, where he lives with his wife and two children; and is also a barrister, lecturing in law at the University of Melbourne. Affirm Press, South Melbourne VIC 2018. www.affirmpress.com.au
1970 – The Kremlin is struggling to quell dissent. Though censored at home, Alexander Solzhenitsyn is lauded in the West for exposing the underbelly of communism. Then the Nobel laureate is rumoured to be writing his most devastating work yet! The KGB turns to Leonid Krasnov, an aspiring young writer, compromising his publishing chances; forcing him to infiltrate Solzhenitsyn’s inner circle to uncover what the great author is hiding. Krasnov becomes enmeshed in a plot that is more sinister than he could ever have imagined. Many years later, Leonid is a recluse in Canberra, living under an assumed name. Haunted by his past, he seeks one last, desperate chance to make amends.’
‘A multilayered and gripping novel. Tesarsch sheds light on one of Russia’s bravest and most brilliant writers as well as on Australia’s uneasy present…’ Lee Kofman
‘A lively, charming and confident evocation of communist Russia and Australia, and a portrait of a particular writing life, meticulously composed and masterfully told.’ Alice Robinson
“What about you, Alexander Isayevich? Why have you put yourself through such hell?” (The mysteries, zest, Messianic zeal of Solzhenitsyn puzzled, baffled and ‘distanced’ him from his peers). “His unassailable self-belief could so easily be mistaken for hubris, but surely it wasn’t. Rather, he saw everything clearly – or had the courage to look when others turned away.” pp176-7 SDGs 3/4/8/10/11/12/16
Have you read Solzhenitsyn?
and discovered how one man can
remain so human so pure – and free
and expressive when his body was locked
away in putrid jails and cancer wards for
so much of his life – while he witnessed
every barbaric atrocity noted by one yet
living – yet can still write with love and joy
of life and people and laughter and fear and
puppies just romping for the sheer exhilaration
of tasting freedom….
tasting freedom….
take a peep sometime!
Come Share with Me:1982-83 Jennifer Ann Davies
Botanical ARTIST and intrepid female explorer, ELLIS ROWAN was once a household name. Now, a new biography is bringing her neglected paintings to new generations. Rosemary Neill Weekend Australian Review May 2-3 2020 6 Feature In 1880, botanical artist, Ellis Rowan, submitted 18 watercolours to the Melbourne International Exhibition, a global showcase for art, science and technology, comprising 30 countries and 6 Australian colonies. Rowan took out a gold medal, along with another female flower painter, Caroline PURVES. Leading male artists could not contain their fury, and cited the women’s works as “…little more than artistic fripperies….not worth being compared with some of the landscapes and genre paintings displayed by male artists.”!!!
A long, wonderfully interesting history, this will be welcomed by all at lovers and supporters of women in the arts. How should we remember this painter and explorer whose astonishing feats have largely faded from public consciousness? Morton-Evans…says: “We should remember her as a woman absolutely outside her time. She took great risks to do something for the benefit of Australia, and she left a great legacy.” (125 of the prized sketches of this woman artist were purchased by the Queensland Museum, where I worked for some time.) Rosemary Neill SDGs 4/5/10/12
A LIFE IN PICTURES – Ellis ROWAN
Christine MORTON-EVANS NLA Publishing 2020
QAGOMA continues to offer virtual tours, advice of virtual events, including #HOMEWITHQAGOMA EXHIBITS and GO BEHIND THE SCENES, with painting conservator, Anne Carter, to step through some delicate and beautiful works! Then turn up the volume to Art Inspired Music!! enews@qagoma.qld.gov.au
COVID-19 Lockdown – Seeing the World Afresh!
Nikki GEMMELL
“It’s as if Nature is thrown into vivid relief”
“We let the sky in. Stars clearer than we’ve ever seen, the smell of beautifully cleansed air, racing clouds, the sudden rustle of the possums or foxes….Nature feels vivid and close and pregnant with possibility yet it’s as if a blanket has dropped over the human world; it’s never been so quiet here, we feel very alone, and it’s wondrous.” nikki.theaustralian@gmail.com
COVID-19 Lockdown – Tasting the World Afresh!
Bernard SALT
“Looking back, there was a delightful innocence in the narrowness of how life was lived in the time before avocado, zucchini, multiple varieties of lettuce and different coloured teas.”
Salt remembers when his mum used to dink him on her bike to do the family shopping at the grocery store. Then there was a real butcher, for a leg of lamb and chops and fruit and veg from a fruit shop; most households already having unwashed potatoes and onions under the sink. He writes of porridge, pudding and toast made by hand on a long toasting fork at the door of a slow combustion stove. Mums bought just what was on the important shopping list and if things didn’t last, then they didn’t last! “The supermarket back then wasn’t an extension of the pantry dipped into several times a day, breeding a laziness of thinking and a looseness of spending in the pursuit of convenience and a sophisticated cuisine.” magazinefeedback@theaustralian.com.au p.26 May 2-3 2020 SDGs 3/4/11/
Visual and Performing Arts and Music is impossible for a time, however, many BOOKS have emerged throughout the COVID-19 lockdown crisis. Some which I have reviewed are up to ten years old – however, there is a predominance of writers and characters retrieving our own social histories, or the world’s. There is equally a predominance of exciting boldness, resilience and courage exhibited by writers and by their characters. The vital element of humour inserts itself or pervades many texts and sheer simplicity abounds. For the wonderful sharing of such books, I think we are all very grateful!
KATE ATKINSON
‘Started Early, Took My Dog’
…interesting, eccentric perhaps, dives into the depths of Truth.
“Everybody should read her.” Telegraph
A day like any other for security chief Tracy Waterhouse, until she makes a purchase she hadn’t bargained for. One moment of madness is all it takes for Tracey’s humdrum world to be turned upside down, the tedium of everyday life replaced by fear and danger at every turn. Peopled by curious characters, the primary three of whom learn that the past is never history and that no good deed goes unpunished!
Kate Atkinson dovetails and counterpoints her plots with Dickensian brilliance in a tale peopled with unlikely heroes and villains. ‘Started Early, Took My Dog’ is freighted with wit, wisdom and a fierce moral intelligence. Atkinson opens her text: “All mistakes are mine, some deliberate. I have not necessarily kept to the truth…” and closes it with Emily Dickinson! I love her depth, eccentricity, unusual intelligence and her writing!
“Sixteen, never been kissed by a boy, never drunk wine, not even Blue Nun. Never eaten an avocado or seen an aubergine, never been on an aeroplane. It was different in those days.” p.14 “There was no photographic proof of their furlough as none of them had ever owned a camera. The rich had always commissioned portraits of themselves but the poor moved invisibly through history.” p.255 SDGs 3/4/11/16
Transworld/Random, London 2010 www.rbooks.uk Other publications: Behind the Scenes at the Museum/Human Croquet/Emotionally Weird/Not the End of the World (Short Stories)/Case Histories/One Good Turn/When Will There Be Good News?
Maggie JOEL is a British-born writer currently living in Sydney. She has been writing fiction and non-fiction for over ten years and has had shot stories published in Southerly, Overland, Canberra Arts Review and Westerly. She is the author of The Second-last Woman in England.
The Past and Other Lies
‘The really explosive secrets are saved for the end’. Sydney Morning Herald
Yet another unusual, ‘though captivating novel about sisters, faded memories and long-hidden secrets spanning three generations. Brimming with vivid detail of London past and present, ‘The Past and Other Lies’ is full of warmth, atmosphere, subtle wit and exquisite surprises. Highly commended by the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Weekend Gold Coast Bulletin and Booksellers: ‘The tension is sustained with all that is left unsaid rather than what is revealed, and this is where the strength of the book lies….riveting reading for even the most discerning booklover.’ Bookseller + Publisher. Murdoch Books Australia 2010. www.murdochbooks.com.au SDGs 3/4/16
Recommended Reading: Behind the Scenes at the Museum: Kate Atkinson 1995/ The Remains of the Day: Kazuo Ishiguro 1989/ The Go-Between: L.P.Hartley 1953/ The Shooting Party: Isobel Colegate 1980/ The Hours: Michael Cunningham 1999/ The Night Watch: Sarah Waters 2006/ The End of the Affair: Graham Green 1951/ Last Orders: Graham Swift 1996/ The Skin of a Lion: Michael Ondaatje 1987.
People are out and about again! Some libraries are open; others are not.
Friendships are always precious – yet how wonderful to laugh together again!
NOW
We can go back to the places where we have lived and loved
And worked and played and laughed and cried
And it feels so GOOD to float, again, in a bustling
Sea of people
Bubbling, alive, colourful, wonderful conglomeration of sapiens
Remembering the Simplicity
The Natural World
The Friendships
Without the bustling!!
