James Hamilton Paterson : Rancid Pansies

The third book in the Gerald Samper series finds our hero holing up at his friend’s home in Suffolk after his house in Italy falls over a cliff.

Deborah Levy : August Blue

In the small garden at the back of the cottage three toads had come out to greet the sudden downpour of rain. White butterflies settled on pale orange flowers planted around a fig tree. The air was warm and fragrant.

Wuthering, Wuthering, Wuthering Heights…

Since 2013, The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever has celebrated Kate Bush’s 1978 hit. People dressed in red gather in parks all around the world to dance choreographed steps to her emotional outpouring.

The Gerts of course were well ahead of the trend (as always) in writing about this song in one of their most delightful unpublished works, The Life and Lies of Bella Hatherley.

If you have been reading us for a while you may recall that Pixi, Bella’s mother, went on a spiritual retreat and came home, burdened by Dahabara, her erstwhile guru, who proved very hard to move on.

Read on to see how Bella and her brother Gareth, with the aid of Kate Bush, manage to get her to leave.

One night when she was out in the garden listening to the voices of the spheres I had a wonderful idea. I would make a message telling her to come home, And as soon as I thought that I knew exactly how to do it.

The very next night when Dahabara was going to sleep in the attic she heard a ghostly voice calling to her. She couldn’t hear properly what it was saying, but gradually she could hear ‘Come home,’ in a strange high squeaky voice, then it faded a bit, and then it said, ‘Ooh it gets dark, It gets lonely…’ and again ‘Come home.’

And you know what ? It was me and Gareth up on the roof with his tape recorder playing the Kate Bush song Wuthering Heights. We turned it up and down so it came in waves. When she sang, ‘Ooh it gets dark,’ we turned it up, and when it said ‘Soo cold on the other side’ we turned it up again.

We were balanced very dangerously on the slanting bit of roof with the long cord of the tape recorder plugged into a point in the corridor and with trying not to laugh it was a wonder we didn’t fall down and kill ourselves.We played it for a while. The song was quite long. Four minutes Gareth told me, and we were getting back inside when we heard her come to her window and call out in a booming voice, ‘I’m coming. I’m coming.’…

Soon we heard thumping footsteps coming downstairs, even though it was late and everyone had gone to bed. She knocked on Mummy’s door,

‘Pixi, Pixi, wake up, I must be gone, they’re calling me. The Kindly Forces are calling me home. I must go now. Tell that woman to unscrew my mincer.’

….

Archie Roach

A 1 in 250-year voice

A Life in Music… 1

My favourite word is bleat. Or perhaps it is amble. Or ember. Words that sound lonely. The lost sheep, the dying fire, the slow wandering walk in the twilight. I have been alone for many years now. I was not young when Father and Mother died and they were my truest companions. Their lives were devoted to me. To my music. My talent. A precious God given thing, ‘And a lot of hard work,’ as Father said. After Patrick died there was only me to carry on the tradition. I didn’t have time to make friends.

Birds for Genevieve

Vale – Mikis Theodorakis

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The Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis died last week at the age of ninety-six. A political radical who became a national hero and then came into wider recognition with his scoring of the film of Zorba the Greek (from the book by Nikos Kazantzakis) and other films like Z and Serpico.

Thomas Mann – Doctor Faustus

 

 

 

Reading Doctor Faustus is like trying to read a political and cultural history of twentieth century Germany as told by a rather wordy and digressive narrator, Serenus Zeitblum. He states his task is to tell the life story of his much admired friend, the composer,   Adrian  Leverkühn. That is his declared task, but he cannot resist excursions into stories of odd people, into his views of philosophy and most of all into speculation about the character and genius of his beloved friend.

This is my first time of reading, unlike others who profess to have read this book five times, so I will just give a brief sketch of my first impressions .

Christmas carol for the times

Australia’s magnificent ABC has been a wonderful resource and support for people confined at home over the weary pandemic months. In November ABC Classic invited people to join a virtual choir to sing a new Aussie Christmas carol by Yorta Yorta singer and composer Deborah Cheetham. 1500 people of all ages from all over Australia, and expats all around the world, did.