4 out of 5 stars

Where the Euphrates and Tigris rivers meet used to be a Marsh. Mostly these places are uninhabitable, but in the case of Iraq, there were people there who had developed a way of life that fitted and suited their environment almost perfectly. They had lived this way for around 5000 years, absorbing changes that suited them but keeping their culture and spirit very much alive. That was before Saddam Hussein drained the marshes and did all he could to wipe them out.

Thankfully before their life disappeared completely, it was documented by various people, including the author of this book, Wilfred Thesiger. The middle east was a particular passion for him and his book, The Arabian Sands is his account of crossing the Empty Quarter. He has an affinity with the people of the region and this area of Iraq fascinated him. He visited many times between the years of 1951 and 1958 staying for extended periods of time and got to know the various tribes and people of this marsh.

Memories of that first visit to the Marsh have never left me: Stars reflected in the dark water, the croaking of frogs, canoes coming home in the evening, peace and continuity, the stillness of a world that never knew an engine. Once again I experienced the longing to share this life, and to be more than a mere spectator.

He visited on the native people’s own terms, sharing their meals, staying in their reed constructed accommodation. He was a modest guest, but the people of the marshes grew to trust this man and to a certain extent rely on the medicines that he bought with him. He tried to treat as many cases as he could, from cleaning wounds and treating illnesses and he came to realise that some of what he was seeing was caused by a total lack of hygiene. At one of the villages he was asked to circumcise a lad and he took more care than was usual and he healed quickly with very little paint. It would be the first of many hundreds that he would do.

He engaged some lads to help him get around the marshes in their long slim canoes called taradas. He didn’t employ them, a sensible precaution as it could have sparked jealousy with other members, but he did ensure that they were generously supported in lots of ways. Their intimate knowledge of the waterways was such they would be heading to a wall of reeds and as the almost touched them the narrow passage through would be revealed. If he were alone, he would never have spotted it. He bought himself a boat one year to find out soon after that one on the tribal leaders had had had one made for him.

He documents all layers of the life of these people, from the intertribal rivalries and the disagreements that sometimes happened, to the crops they grew, how they sealed the Taradas and the way that they built their homes. There is a substantial section of the amazing photos that he took of the people. I did find his writing a little cold and matter of fact, probably an effect of his upbringing, but you do get an underlying sense of how fondly he saw the people. It is an important historical document of a way of life that can never exist anymore since the Marshes were drained. Well worth reading.

3 out of 5 stars

One of Special Circumstances’ foremost agents, sometimes known as Cheradenine Zakalwe was known for doing the overt and covert Culture’s work. He had been plucked from relative obscurity by the woman that is often known as Diziet Sma. She thought that she knew him, but she had only been looking at a shadow of his character.

The drone known as Skaffen-Amtiskaw know both of these people and he has been asked to contact Zakalwe for another job that needs his expertise. He agrees to take on the work, however, his payment for doing so is to be told the location of an individual called Livueta. Livueta is also present in the other storyline that runs in reverse throughout the book which tells of Zakalwe’s other Culture-based jobs he was involved in all the way back to his pre-Culture childhood and where we learn of a boy called Elethiomel. It is the very personal battle between Zakalwe and Elethiomel that is the lynchpin of the plot of the book.

Apart from Excession, I have loved all of the Culture series that I have read so far. Banks is a magnificent science fiction writer who could weave complex plots in amongst the universe and populace that he created all of which is underlaid by his dark humour. This though I didn’t like as much sadly. It had lots of elements that make the other books so good, the character with a back story, galaxy-wide storyline and the ever-present ships that form the backbone of his books.

Even though it had all of that, there were some things that didn’t work for me, part of it was the ending that was supposed to be a shock and yet felt more of a letdown and part was the intertwined and reversed storylines. I prefer my books to take a more logical timeline and this very much didn’t. It is such a clever plot though and I think it could have been so much better laid out.

3 out of 5 stars

There is something quite magical about orchards. The most impressive that I have been to is the one at Brogdale in Kent. Not only is it vast, but the work that they do on fruit varieties benefits us all. My favourite orchard is the little community one in Bridport tucked away behind the houses and alongside the church; you’re not far from the road, but it is still a little haven of tranquillity. I would love to have enough land to have space for one, but I have to make doo with the half dozen or so trees that we have at home.

Another man who has dreamt of having his own orchard, is Raymond Blanc. He has fortunately been in a position to be able to do just that. At his award-winning hotel-restaurant in Oxfordshire, he has been able to just do that. He currently has about 2500 trees planted there, including ancient and forgotten varieties of British apples and pears, as well as 600 or so French varieties as well. On top of that, he has walnut trees, quince, medlars, apricots, nectarines, peaches, plums, damsons and cherries. It provides him with over 30 tonnes of fruit each year.

In this book, he has picked a number of his favourite varieties to write about and to cook with. There is a page on each type with a little history, some growing notes. He has also cooked each apple variety in three ways, puree, baked and in a Tarte Tatin. For the other fruits, he has chosen other cooking methods as well as tasting them raw.

It is really nicely produced book, full of black and white sketches and a smattering of colour photos. He is selecting a lot of the varieties that he is picking on the basis of their flavour, he is a cook after all. He quite often would be grading the apples and saying that he had picked them at the wrong time, and would be wondering of they would be better if picked at the correct time. Well, yes they probably would… I would have liked to have seen more photos of his orchard. Not a bad book overall. If you want to read more about orchards, I’d recommend, The Apple Orchard by Pete Brown and the Common Ground Book Of Orchards.

3.5 out of 5 stars

It is 2008 and the rise and fall of the beast that was the Celtic tiger has left devastation and recession in its wake. One family that has been affected by it are the Blacks. They live on a farm in County Roscommon and the investments that they made while the markets were on the up have gone sour, whilst the people that they have invested with seem to have survived, they are holding the losses.

The family are Manus or Chief as he is better known, his wife, Nora and their sons, Cormac and Hart. There is a tension between the brothers as they both have affections for the same girl. Cormac has managed to escape to the city and university and Hart is seen as the natural successor to take over the farm. That moment is approaching soon though as Manus falls ill. He knows he is dying and springs a request onto the brothers that will place them in an untenable position…

In amongst all the bleakness and tension of the story though there is dry humour. I think that some of the subtleties of the plot washed over me, it harks back to the time when the Irish were oppressed and had to flee from their homeland, but set in the context of a small family facing a challenging time. She has a beautiful way of writing though, and even though it covers some challenging plot tropes, it was a pleasure to read.

4 out of 5 stars

The British have always had a strange relationship with food, if you don’t believe me have a look here. There are smells that just the whiff of can bring the memories from childhood rushing back, whether it is nail varnish and the hint of pear drops or the sulphurous odour of cabbage from school dining rooms. Gone are the days when food is seen as fuel only and we have passed through the celebrity chef phase, the growth of farmers markets and are now at a point where we have a small, if slightly elitist, food culture.

Slater has some strong opinions on all things to do with food, from the buying, preparing, eating and observations on how others consume the things that they eat. He has selected over 200 subjects that are as wide-ranging as fudge, mustard, toast, after eight mints and spangles and written either a couple of paragraphs or a short passage on each.

These short sharp essays are all food-focused and are full of bone dry humour and razor-sharp insights. We have been getting better at foodie related things than we ever were, but there are still some habits that are utterly unique to this country such as rhubarb and custard, Fray Bentos and midget gems.

Curly, golden brown, not unlike a hobbit’s toenails yet so obviously of the pig, scratching have a following all over the Midlands that could almost be described as fanatical.

There were several times that I found myself laughing at his pithy observations. It did occasionally feel a bit repetitive, I am not sure how many musings I read about toast in one form or other, but As ever his writing is a joy. It there was one flaw, I personally would have liked them grouped into themed sections rather than scattered all over the place.

4 out of 5 stars

A copy of this was provided free of charge from the publisher in return for an honest review.

Evie has a comfortable life in the luxury penthouse flat that she lives in with her husband, Matthew. She is fortunate to have a garden on the roof too otherwise after it would have come too oppressive. They have a live-in assistant called Daniels who helps in all sorts of ways around the place. They have been married for 40 years now and yet Evie still looks around 21 years old. This is because she is a near-perfect bioengineered human. This android type was declared illegal many years ago and if it was to become known that she still exists, then there are plenty of corporations that would want to use her to learn how she is made.

The world that they live in is very different from our own, it is after climate change has savaged people lives and the post-apocalyptical Britain is much colder after the Gulf Stream stopped, there has been a collapse in the birth rate, the food chain has been decimated the very fabric of the society that we know has been shattered. The police force is there to protect the wealthy from the poor and if you have money, you live in your own bubble away from the misery outside.

Her comfortable world comes to an abrupt end one day, a hova car drops down into her garden with the intention of capturing her and taking her for the reward that is offered. She resists capture, but she knows that she must flee to evade capture. She and Daniels head to Cambridge where there is a cottage that they can stay in while they decide what to do next. It is while in the city that she becomes aware that there is another of her kind around, but he is imprisoned behind glass. The authorities are on their tail though and they have barely been there before it is time to move on and see if they make it to Europe. The race to evade capture is on…

Braddon has written a fast-paced science fiction thriller with a fully believable plot. The main character, Evie feel fully developed, but the others that she interacts with feel a little two dimensional. I really liked the world that he has created in this book, his dystopian future, 100 years on from now, is utterly different to our own and feels both plausible and utterly terrifying at the same time. I thought that there were a couple of inconsistencies in some of the tiny details, but that was not enough to stop me from enjoying this book.

4.5 out of 5 stars

The title of the book takes its name from the vast Kyzylkum desert that is spread between the rivers of Amu Darya and Syr Darya. It crosses the boundaries of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. The five states that make up the Central Asian region used to be swallowed up by the red opaqueness that was the USSR and now are separated into Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Whilst there are formal borders between them, there are regions that still flow across these man-made lines that follow customs, food and culture. It was whilst stopping at a café for a memorable lunch of shashlik, bread, onion and melon between the cities of Burkara and Khiva that the idea for this book formed.

Her journey starts in the spring on the shores of the Caspian Sea in the town of Aktau. It feels slightly lawless being located a fair way from the capital. She didn’t want to eat where the monied people head too rather she wanted to discover for herself the more homely food available in the town. The food was superb and the bill was small; it was a good start to her culinary travels in the region. She heads out to the dark oily hear of Kazakhstan passing nodding donkeys that bring wealth to the country and onto an underground mosque that people stop in on a pilgrimage to Beket-Ata. She leaves her donation of food and they get back on the road to continue their journey. She finds the kitchen and questions the chefs about what is bubbling in the cauldrons.

This sets the tone of the books. She moves from place to place, drinking tea whilst meeting the locals. She shelters from the rain in and shares food in a home dripping with heirlooms, watching café owners spraying water over courtyards in the vain hope of suppressing the relentless dust. The architecture is as bleak as the desert at times, but she is really here for the food. She is fortunate to be asked to a wedding, heads to what sounds like an amazing forest in search of walnuts, she swims in a lake alongside a military sanatorium and admires the plov platters in the workshop that they are made.

Inside the walls of the clay tandoor were roundels of non bread, each one slowly baking and expanding until golden on top, chewy in the middle and crispy underneath. What smell in the world is more innocent, more primevally reassuring, than that of bread? No smell. Nothing is more soothing than the scent of bread.

This is a wonderful book, it is a sumptuous and heady mix of food, travel and reportage and it just works perfectly all together. She is a sensitive and curious traveller, seeking to tease out the stories that normal people have to tell her about the lives that they lead. Not only can you read about the places, but the recipes that are scattered liberally throughout mean that you can bring some of those flavours and smells into your home. Like Black Sands, the cover on this is just gorgeous and the photos taken in the locations are stunning too. Another fantastic book from Eden.

4 out of 5 stars

A copy of this was provided free of charge from the publisher in return for an honest review.

Being born into a very traditional Italian family where her father was in charge of making all the decisions and the money. She grew up being told that everything her brother did was always right and that she was good when she followed her father’s wishes and bad when she dared to criticise or go against his wishes. She was fortunate that she wasn’t born in Southern Italy where it was stricter again.

It was this upbringing that made her a feminist from an early age; she abhorred the injustice of the discrimination against her purely because of her gender with no logical reason behind it. It would be the driving force that gave her a degree in political science and the desire to study the history behind the oppression of women.  It is that same drive that has given us this book about how she thinks that women should and can take over the world.

In justifying her arguments she takes us on a whirlwind tour through the area that she thinks that women can make a significant difference. Beginning with diplomacy, an art that is often subject to much animosity and posturing between men, she tells us some of the stories where women have been appointed to these roles and the success they have had. Not being afraid of controversy, her second chapter is on religion and how the myriad of rules and regulations have been used to repress women over time.

Women have long been expected to do the most tedious and menial of jobs for the home and at the workplace. In here, Diana argues that women need to gain more control of their lives through work by pushing for their rights and getting more economic independence. The way to do this is to ensure that all girls have equal rights to education and these things will follow in due course. She also says that we need to get more women into STEM careers. Not only do these pay better, but we as a global society need their perspective on solving technological problems in the coming years.

Whilst women have more rights and freedoms in Western countries, in other parts of the world they still are suffering from oppression. She writes about women who suffer in Albania, how New Delhi in India is the rape capital of the world and how in China a lot of pregnancies are terminated when they find it is a girl. She includes a list of some of the cruelties that women suffer across the world. In parts of Africa, genital mutilation is still carried out. She writes about how women across the world must support those that are still seen as minority or second class citizens. There is a chapter about how far we have come in the UK, but also how far we still have to go.

Gender equality is starting to move higher up the agenda in some places, but in a lot of the world, it isn’t even on the agenda. In this book, Diana argues that we need to make it a priority to help those that aren’t even enjoying the benefits that some of their compatriots are. It is an interesting book and I must say that I agree with a lot of what she had to say. The writing is plain and straightforward if a little clipped at times, but she wants to get across her points as efficiently as she can. Definitely worth a read.

4 out of 5 stars

A copy of this was provided free of charge from the publisher in return for an honest review.

The decorator was going to be there in a few days and she had to clear and tidy the study. The tiny box room had just enough room for a desk, a bookcase and an armchair, but it was the room where things that never had a proper home ended up. The plan is to decorate, change the carpet and after making an effort to keep it tidy and usable. As she is removing the books from the top shelf her hand touches something at the back that is nestling among the dust. It has the texture of dried leather and the seeds within rattle as she picks it up.

It is a mahogany pod and the memories of Arif, who gave it to her just before he died of cancer, crash back into her mind like a tsunami.

She has found it a few days before the anniversary of his death and decides to pay his grave a visit. Soon after she is settling into a train seat as it leaves Paddington, off to Oxford. It has been twenty-three years since she saw him. Her grief overwhelming means that she only remembers fragments from the day of the funeral and standing here again opens that raw emotion once again. Her fingers are going numb in the cold and she knows that she has spent enough time there today. It is time to head home. Sitting at the dinner table later, she has no words for her feelings.

The following morning find finds the shoebox of letters and photos tucked away in the loft. The dust makes her cough, but on lifting the lid, there is a hint of the aftershave that he used from the bottle in there and she begins to sift through the letters from their shared past. It takes her back to the time that she lived on the island of Osney, a place a stone’s throw from the centre of Oxford and a watery place of tranquillity. It bought back memories of the happy times spent in the house there. She was renting a house and had some rooms spare for others to rent and this was when she first met Arif.

She still had a boyfriend at that point, but the relationship was starting to founder. Kevin, Kate, Arif and herself all got on really well as housemates, sharing chores, going to the Watermans Arms and cooking for each other. After she splits with her current boyfriend, they realise that not only do they have lots of common interests but they also have feelings for each other. As the relationship intensifies, there is bad news, the cancer that he thought was cured of, is back.

This is a heart-wrenching account of her relationship with Arif and its tragic ending. But there is much more to it than this, it is also her story of finding answers to questions that at the age of twenty-three, she didn’t know she needed answers too at the time. It is a very personal journey that will take her to plant hunting at Kew Gardens and back to Oxford to make peace with the grief of her past. Most of all this is Jill’s fitting eulogy to Arif’s brief but intensely full life.