Women in England

I bought this book years ago from a charity shop and to be honest it never really appealed to me. Maybe the title and the ugly book cover put me off, but last month I finally picked it up and I have been mesmerised ever since. most evenings I just dipped into it and I found it fascinating. It's weird I never studied history past the age of 13 at school but it's something I find more and more fascinating as I get older. Anyway this was social history at it's best and all from a woman's perspective. Lots of topics were put into context. How different classes of woman lived and worked. I particularly enjoyed the working class section ,of which over 75% of women belonged to in the 19th century. All women were industrious at doing piecework and running their own businesses from their homes, but everything was recorded as money earned by their husbands. My god, their lives were hard. Running the house, toiling from sunrise to sunset, doing hourly paid work when you could, looking after the kids, being constantly pregnant, not being able to say no to your husband when he wants sex,   The industrial revolution bought lots of changes, where children and women, were treated as cheap slave labour.  Unmarried women were often given boring , laborious tasks and men were often given more interesting work. This resulted in women often having different entrances and departments in jobs so they couldn't actually see what men did ( this carried on in the post office until the 1950s!) as soon as women married they were ordered to leave their jobs and women in service to the gentry had to remain single. 

The section on sex and sexuality was really interesting. Premarital sex before 1760 wasn't really looked down on at all and lots of women got married pregnant as people were far less judgemental.  but after this time more and more women got jilted as people were beginning to live away from their families and they didnt have to live under the watchful eyes of their families anymore. 

English law codified what 'full sex 'actually meant in the 18th century.( before this time I think anything was permissible!!)  From this time adultery in the eyes of the law had to be full sex with a person of the opposite sex.  Penetrative sex was now seen as the only ' correct' way and I believe after this time English society became far more prudish and the rights of women became less as society became far more judgemental and less pragmatic. After this time being single or celibate or married without kids was looked down on and the result was a huge population boom and lots more vulnerable women.

 The word lesbian didn't even exist at this time and there are no real historical records of lesbians because it wasn't a crime , but even so many women lived happily with other women and they were often just left in peace. Lots of men died in wars during this time so the over spill of too many 'independent' minded woman was smoothed over by not minding if women lived together, but these women had to be rich and financially capable of not needing a husband.  Lots of middle class women at this time( both lesbian and straight I presume!)  often went to the colonies at this time too because of the lack of appropriate husbands here. True independent travel for women was born!  

The section on religion was all about how women's political roles were filled by belonging to a church. And my god, lots of churchs were created in England at this time!!  Far more women than men went to church and this was how women could really get involved with local and worldwide issues. Many women were involved in fighting against workhouses, Jamaican slave holdings and Indian women living in purdah through belonging to a church. Church was often a legitimate way for women to feel involved in the society and it really made me rethink what the role of churches played in women's lives then. 

The fear of syphilis and VD was rife at this time. Nearly a half of all soldiers had a sexual disease. The clean streets act resulted in all prostitutes in England having to be subjected to violating checks by the police and doctors. Unlike other European countries the majority of prostitutes here were self employed(no madam or huge brothel to protect them/control them.) 

  The Poor Law Acts of the 1830 s really took the country backwards for about 15 years. Lots of vulnerable and poor women were picked off the streets and dumped in workhouses. The government stopped giving money to local authorities to fund poverty on a local level and money was centralised around workhouses. Here all your dignity was stripped away and husbands, wives and children were separated and lived a life of abject poverty and fear. The word 'undeserving poor' had been invented and the country turned into a place of even more fear, crime and corruption until the reform acts later in the century. 

The sections on education and suffrage were also brilliant. An interesting fact I learnt was that some educated middle class women hated it when working class men got the vote before them. They got involved with voting rights after this law was passed. They weren't really that bothered about voting rights for all women, just that farm labourers and uneducated men shouldn't be treated better than them!  Women were often more entrenched in their class than fighting for their rights as women. 

Infact the whole book was a complete gem and I recommend it, (if you are into this kind of thing. ) It was never dull, really well written, easy to follow and very interesting It made me realise that women have not just been passive victims or spectators in history but true players. It is just that their voices are more likely to get lost in the passage of time. 

the Forgotten Waltz

A well written book. Yes, I liked it but god, it was dark. Based around the adultery of two married people. Anne Enright is a great writer and the character of Gina is really well described and you really get into her head but hey, I really didn't like her.  She is one of those woman I would just not get on with, so for a few days it's been really weird to be in her head. Normally I need to like a character to get on with a book but this time I didn't.  everyone was just obsessed by money and things and having stuff. but Gina is incredibly honest. As her life falls apart she knows exactly what she is doing and she doesn't give a damn.  

This book is so honest it almost feels like it isn't a book.  The writing style is like you are in the head of this incredibly lonely and selfish 34 year old woman. A grim book about nasty people. To be honest I'm glad it was short and that I can move onto something else soon.  i have to stop reading depressing books.  Summer is here!

The Luminaries

HELP ME!!!!!     I just can't take it any more. I'm over half way through this book but I have to STOP. Life is too short to read this pretentious junk. Yes, it's clever. Yes, it's well structured. But for me it's just dull, dull, dull. The characters are just paper thin, the story line is  turgid and it just goes round and round like the planets. All of the links to astrology, planet movements and stars and all that nonsense don't compensate for a boring story. It's so bloody full of itself that the first chapter is 360 pages long, (360 like the  angles in a circle.  get it? wow! how 'clever' , yawn.) the waning of the chapter length from here is meant to be important but  for me it is just bloody irritating and each of the 19 characters are either linked to static planets or star signs with weird planetary pictures before each chapter, which I have had to google to understand. 

  Well, enough is enough, I've tried to get into it but I can't. The story is just too lame because of the structural constraints, which is a shame because I think she is a good writer and could have done so much better. Reading is meant to be fun and this isn't. Oh dear, I'm not having much luck with my reading lately. Freia thanks for the birthday present but I have to finally admit defeat! PS Freia, would you like to have my copy?! 

Empress Orchid

I really need to sort my reading choices out. I thought I would like this book with lots of intrigue and sexual politics inside the Forbidden City but nah, it's dross. But dross I have devoured over the past few days and been addicted to! 

 It's so badly written I sometimes thought it was translated from Chinese by a Second Language student but it wasn't .  I loved Memoirs of a Geisha but this is a poor cousin.  The characters are bland, one dimensional puppets and the first half was pretty dull. 

Plus my cheap, naff copy was badly printed and some of the pages were just pages of blackness, so I had to just guess the content. All in all just a tad unsatisfying! 

My family and other animals

Due to rubbish traffic over the last few days into and back from work I have been stuck with this book club choice for many hours. OK, I know it's a classic and all that and a puffin book (sorry, but the language is so outdated there are not many kids who would enjoy this unless they are beetle loving freaks...but beetle loving freak kids would rather be hunting for beetles than reading this I guess.) but my god, it has bored me rigid and infuriated me. maybe that is because 40 something women with no pets ( and no children) are not really its target audience I suppose.

It annoyed me because there is not enough about his family, it's all about Gerald's love of beetles, pigeons, turtles, dogs and general creation as seen through his 8 year old eyes in his run down villa in Greece. 

The descriptions are lovely I suppose ( but not that great) and ultimately dull if you don't get off on natural history. Plus my annoyance comes from the language . I dislike all this privileged, upper class, rather batty British literature nonsense. Durrell's family, his mother, his sister and two older brothers are all obvious eccentrics with weird ways but local Greeks are the ones who are called 'mentally defective'. Somehow over a couple of pages the Durrells seem to pick up almost perfect Greek, how do they manage that?  Who is supporting their hippy like existence in 'romantic' 1930 s Corfu and why does no one seem to work or do anything apart from waft around in lots of capes and cloaks, sunbathe a lot and let Gerald run lose to collect beetles with Roger the dog? 

I haven't finished this book. I can't, I've had enough and will donate it back into the charity system. But reading this has made me realise that I am a lover of people and plot in my books. Daft individuals and whimsical characters, with a heavy dose of animal antics and barely veiled British superiority just doesnt do it for me. 

God, I sound awful slagging off a puffin book. But hey, it's the truth!   Come to think of it I never liked Wind in the Willows as a kid. How I felt reading that ,so long ago, is probably similar to how this book made me feel; bored and irritated! 

The Various Haunts of Men

 This book was awful. A total waste of time. The only joy I have in writing this is that this copy cost 9p from Help the Aged Charity shop. A bloody ridiculous price. I didn't help the aged much did I? but they had the last laugh because I was dragged down into a grim, surreal 'Little England' reading this nonsense. I was forced to finish it because I needed to find out who the murderer was. I think Susan Hill cast an evil spell over me and forced me to waste valuable hours reading this tripe. I got dragged down into a totally unsatisfying, boring and badly plotted story. Don't ever read this!!

I think my love of decent crime series on TV like the Bridge and the Killing have set my standards really high and books like this are just a total disappointment. I'm going to give it back to Help the Aged!!  Ha. 

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

 I have just realised that I have just read two books about French men on the trot.  This has been on my bookshelf for years and I've never read it and I fancied a short read. (One of my friends became inspired after reading it to become a speech therapist.)

Well what can I say really, I can't be negative about a book written by a guy with locked in syndrome. A man who dictated this book letter by letter to his speech therapist via the blinking of his one eye. This being the only part of his body which still moved after his stroke. What dedication and commitment by the pair of them to write this.
Of course it is a short book and a totally unsentimental account of how Jean feels in his cocooned  prison.  He has no ability to communicate but feels everything.  All he can do is blink and look out of his one, functioning eye. To see how people in the care system treat him is heartbreaking.  When he wakes up to see a doctor sewing his left, unworking eye up it's awful. Not once did this doctor interact or communicate with him about what he was doing and his total, abject fear that this Stasi like doctor might routinely continue on and then sew up his other eye, the only opening left to him on the world around, was absolutely terrifying. Just thinking about this part of the book makes my heart race.

This book makes you feel incredibly grateful for all the little things and also how resilient people are but the dream  like sequences make it a bit of a dislocated read.  I suppose this is what Jean Bauby wanted us to feel, as close to the truth of what it is like to be completely locked in and unable to do anything apart from swivel your head and look through one eye. It is also a lesson in humility. This guy was the editor of Elle magazine one minute and 'locked in' the next. I loved how unsentimental he was and also so observant. I loved the way he described how different friends tried to communicate with him via his alphabet board , it being the ones who liked scrabble who fared the best. Jean Bauby died in 1997, one year after finishing this. What a testament to leave behind.