Three super speedy reviews

The pile of books to review has been getting very high and threatening to topple into my fireplace. Which has an electric heater in it, so it wouldn’t be the end of the world – but, nevertheless, here are my quick thoughts about three books I read last year. All non-fiction, in fact. [Pun intended]

Shakespeare’s Library (2018) by Stuart Kells

I got this as a review copy, for which many thanks to Text Publishing. As witnessed by Paul Collins’ The Book of William being my favourite read of last year, I love reading about William Shakespeare. More particularly, I love reading about his cultural reception. And so I did enjoy reading Kells’ book, however flawed it might be.

The main issue about a book called Shakespeare’s Library is that this isn’t really about Shakespeare’s library. Supposedly it’s about the hunt for any books Shakespeare used to own, and this comes up every now and then, but it gets rather muddled with more metaphorical interpretations of the word ‘library’ and a baffling amount of anti-Stratfordian theories. I.e. the idea that somebody else wrote Shakespeare’s plays. This seems to be given more credence than necessary here, and Kells quotes books like James Shapiro’s Contested Will without addressing all the pro-Stratfordian arguments that Shapiro neatly condenses.

There is a fair amount of overview of the reception of Shakespeare, and the authorial question, over the years – but, to be honest, nothing you can’t find done better elsewhere. It was a nice idea for a book but I don’t think it really worked.

Book Girl (2018) by Sarah Clarkson

Clarkson is one of the few authors I’ve mentioned whom I’ve seen – and seen quite often, as she used to walk her pram near my office quite often. I would have said I was enjoying her book, but once I started reading it I never saw her again, and now I work somewhere else.

Anyway, Book Girl is one of those books about the joys of reading that I can never resist. A couple of people had recommended it – Elizabeth was one of them, I think, so thanks – and my parents got it for me last Christmas. It’s aimed at girls and women, as the title suggests, but I’ve never been one for respecting gender divides when it comes to reading – and I’m glad I read this, as it’s a lot of fun.

Clarkson is a Christian, so a lot of what she writes includes that perspective. And, indeed, a lot of Book Girl consists of lists of books and why you should read them – which I’m certainly not going to complain about. So there’s ‘Books about Imagination: why you’re never too old for Narnia’, ‘Novels that kindled my delight in existence’, ‘Novels that helped me cope with a broken world’, etc. etc. There’s a lot of faith-based suggestions and a lot that aren’t, and I certainly made a little list – even if Clarkson’s taste runs more to fantasy than mine does.

My only issue with Book Girl is that Clarkson is obviously a much nicer person than I am. I often feel similarly when podcasting with Rachel. Clarkson, like Rachel, talks a lot about how reading can enrich you, can teach you, can help you appreciate the world. There’s not any space in Book Girl for reading that is snarky or savage or dry. The sort of book that lets you laugh at how absurd and sometimes unpleasant the people around you might be. I sense that she’d read Austen and see the benefits of self-growth rather than the take-down of pomposity. Both are there, of course, but I think I lean towards the latter.

Margaret Rutherford: Dreadnought with Good Manners (2009) by Andy Merriman

Who doesn’t love Margaret Rutherford? What a wonderful performer she was, and how amazing it would have been to get to see her on stage. Thank goodness she put a fair few performances on screen.

Wanting to find out more about her life, I tracked down Merriman’s biography. I’m usually a bit bored by the childhood stories of famous authors and actors, and just want to get to the bit they’re best known for – but even I was a bit dazed when Rutherford was 40 by page 40. We see some tragic childhood experiences – or tragic experiences that impacted her childhood, because she didn’t learn the truth of her father for some time – and the we rush into her career.

This is a great book for giving a thorough overview of all of Rutherford’s plays and films, though it’s pretty apparent which films Merriman has seen and which he hasn’t. I’ve come away with a long list of films to track down, and can recommend ‘Castle in the Air’ [which you can find on YouTube]. And naturally I loved reading about Rutherford’s THREE portrayals of Miss Hargreaves – on radio, TV, and stage. How I wish I could see/hear any of those.

But somehow the whole thing felt a bit like an extended magazine article. I’m not sure quite what was missing, I just know that someone like Claire Tomalin or Ann Thwaite would have written something deeper, somehow. An invaluable resource, but perhaps in the way that a Wikipedia article is, rather than a work of art.