I was looking for inspiration on this cold, wet, October afternoon, when along came the ever astonishing Edna O’Brien. At 82 she is girlish, exuberant, edgy and wise. Her hands dance as she speaks, creating the impression she is using them to help rake up exactly the right word. She leaves the impression that for […]
Two random thoughts collided today to result in a revelation which I hope may bring you some fleeting joy. Having never read any JK Rowling, I decided it was high time I took a look at The Casual Vacancy. This was how I discovered that, not only has the stupendously wonderful Tom Hollander done the […]
There were literally teams of photographers here last weekend for the Big First Shoot with the wet plate camera. They have documented the whole process far better than I could possibly hope to with my measly iPhone. I’ll post links to their blogs when these appear. But in the meantime, here are some results which […]
This passport, issued by the Foreign Office on the 21st of May 1919, belonged to my Grandmother. It records her name as Jacqulin, but I rarely ever heard anyone use it. She was always Mum or Gran or Granny by the time I arrived on the scene. She once told me her husband, the grandfather […]
From a clapped-out Kenwood Chef, bought by my mother-in-law sixty years ago in Aden, comes Nigella’s new instant coffee ice cream. It turned out to be even easier than it looked on the telly. I’d bought the wrong size of condensed milk, so ended up with enough to double the recipe. No real hardship as […]
Meet Luca, the son of close friends of ours. He can’t yet quite get the word ‘Melanie’ out, so he cheerfully calls me ‘Lemony’ instead. The rest of us find this funny, which only encourages him. Last weekend I was up in Scotland staying at Luca’s place, and when I left he went into the […]
As I type this, my husband is standing in a doorway, waiting for the rain to stop so his first wet plate shoot can start. Being married to a photographer, I am well used to things going missing from the house without warning. Recently I went to turn on the World At One and it […]
I’m restless today. I know I need to sit still and just work, and yet I keep remembering one more thing which absolutely must be done before I can really knuckle under. A little while ago it got so desperate I found myself contemplating actually dusting the furniture in the bedroom – with a damp […]
You’ll be thunderstruck by these warring cellos…
The Faithful Couple by A.D. Miller
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
If you’ve read Snowdrops, then you already know A.D. Miller writes beautifully, and The Faithful Couple very much shines in this realm. However, while dazzling prose of this order is normally sufficient to please in itself, here it is the least interesting part of the book. Yes, it’s beautifully written, but what’s far more enjoyable it how exquisitely the whole thing has been thought out. Every page shows traces of big thinking, verbal fingerprints as it were, evidence of a genuine fascination with the questions being tackled which, in turn, makes for compelling reading.
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