This meeting marked our 20th anniversary. Yep, 20 glorious years of Hove Book Group. Needless to say all current participants receive commemorative badges
Theme: I Travel
Nick said with me spending more time away from home over the next year, I thought that Travel and Journeys would be an interesting departure point for Hove’s premier book club. And as you will now be aware, it is journeys and travel in a few different senses. It looks like I will miss most meetings this year, but hope I can continue to be involved from a distance.
READ: Conundrum (1974) by Jan Morris
Nick: I’ve been meaning to read this book for a while - I’ve read a few articles about Jan Morris and saw this book recommended in numerous places as an important early description of trans experience. I was looking forward to it. . .
I think it is impossible to read this book without at least a nod to the very different world of the 1970s in which it was written - the BBC documentary I shared is very good at displaying how a lot of Britain felt about ‘others’ be it homosexuals, transvestites or the ‘coloureds’. And this is indeed a period piece, which is a flawed, egocentric, anti-feminist monologue, whilst being touching, pro-choice and empowering. It has all the qualities of great reportage whilst being as unreliable as any autobiography must surely be (thanks Nigel for sharing the article about some of the family context).
Jan as we all are, is a mess of contradictions, fantastically self obsessed and mean; her description of the “true transsexuals,” against “the poor castaways of intersex, the misguided homosexuals, the transvestites’ is outrageous - taken against her touchingly wondering whether and how to come out with young children in the house, and “the fear that I might in some way harm them by revealing the truth too soon. Besides they had a marvellous mother already.”
Or her extremely conventional idea of women as the weaker sense whilst living a very unconventional life herself through her non-stop travels and her admiration for successful women such as the Queen.
Whilst I found the story of her journey interesting the book really excels through the travel writing by which she rightly became famous. Her descriptions of Everest bring it vividly to life - “within the bowl everything is brilliant white and blue. It is silent in there. The mountain walls deaden everything and cushion the hours in a disciplinary hush,” or of a Venice as mysterious as that revealed in ‘Don’t Look Now’.
So whilst I enjoyed reading the book and about Jan’s journey from James, and the novella size of it certainly helped, I much preferred the travel writing, which I will delve into more. Jan’s story is Jan’s story and it is not a wider story about the trans experience. It doesn’t claim to be that, but coupled with some alarming ideas, I did find it at time difficult to find good things through my wincing eyes. I wonder if an updated version with some fresh interpretation as an introduction, warts and all, is overdue.
A brave and flawed book.
Keith: unsatisfying
Hamish: Lacked Elizabeth, lacked solidarity with women and minorities
Tristan: Interesting but dated, and interesting because it is dated
Roland: endearing and genuine
Nigel: interesting but unreliable
Robin: engaging and thoughtful
Nick 6.5 / Tristan 6 / Nigel 6 / Keith 5 / Roland 8 / Robin 7.5 / Hamish 2
LISTEN: Minimum Maximum by Kraftwerk
Nick: Kraftwerk are great and I particularly like this slightly updated version of them from the early 2000s. The music somehow manages to capture the sheer monotony of being stuck on the motorway or stretched out in the peloton for an interminable amount of time with the sheer joy of escape or as the bike hurtles down the hill. Possibly the most important band of all time.
Roland: Mediocre and simplistic
Tristan: Meh
Hamish: Iconic, exceptional
Nigel: Fabulous update
Robin: love Kraftwerk
Nick 9 / Tristan 2 / Nigel 9 / Keith - / Roland 4 / Robin - / Hamish 7
WATCH: Before Sunrise (1995) dir by Richard Linklater
Nick: I’d never seen this film even though it has been lauded as a classic. I’m not generally taken with romantic films and it does feel pretty dated now, albeit with themes that never seem to go away such as a war not very far away or a media controlling our minds.
I also don’t think a film like this could be made now. Boy meets girl on a train and asks her to give up her plans to spend a day in a strange European city with her. There are some supremely naff things like the early morning harpsichord player and some of the dialogue feels quite stilted. But it does have two convincing performances and it is great to see two actors who though without doubt are very beautiful, don’t have perfect teeth or abnormal muscles. The scene in the listening booth is handled with panache and you do get the sense of them falling in love. Vienna looks beautiful.
I wouldn’t have gone to watch that play either.
Keith: painful
Hamish: Middling
Tristan: loved on first release, now feels long and tortuous
Nigel: loved on first release, still packs a punch but now distracted by aftermath of lack of sleep
Roland: still love it second time round
Nick 7 / Tristan 10 (1995 score) / Nigel 6 / Keith - / Roland 8 / Robin - did not watch / Hamish 6
HBG endorse it: 15 November 2024 - 9 January 2025
Lucan (BBC iPlayer)
The Quiet Girl (Channel 4)
After The Party (Channel 4)
Turning Point: The Bomb And The Cold War (Netflix)
Mad About The Boy: The Noel Coward Story (BBC iPlayer)
The Boys (Prime)
Prima Facie (National Theatre)
Orbital by Samantha Harvey (Book)
Dinosaur (BBC iPlayer)
