My aspens dear, whose airy cages quelled,
Quelled or quenched in leaves the leaping sun
There are some connections between different books which on the face of it make no sense, but then looking at a wider context and all comes into focus.
We’ve always found books on trees to be popular – be it Guy Shrubsole’s ‘Lost Rainforests of Britain’, Tristan Gooley’s ‘How to Read a Tree’, Julian Hight’s ‘Britain’s Ancient Forest’ and more recently Ray Mears with ‘British Woodland’. The contribution which trees make to the landscape and the betterment of the environment is beyond doubt, and well-played by those authors who write about and shed the spotlight on the importance of trees. In a completely different (but in this example, connected) vein is the popularity of books about how we, the people, can have a direct impact and influence on making the world a better, and perhaps fairer, place. A fine example of that is the current success of Alastair Campbell’s powerful book ‘But What Can I Do?’.
So what connects beautiful trees with a forceful polemic about the importance of voting and political engagement? A good case might be a council, who under the cover of darkness, cuts down a hundred or so trees without fully engaging with (or listening to) ‘the people’ to whom they are accountable. And then a few weeks later those same people vote out those same councillors who literally took an axe to the wellbeing of the public good. To gauge the public mood, politicians and councillors could do worse than to browse their local bookshop and see which books are important to their voters – their political aspirations could depend on it!
‘Binsey Poplars’ by Gerard Manley Hopkins
(Felled 1879)
My aspens dear, whose airy cages quelled,
Quelled or quenched in leaves the leaping sun,
All felled, felled, are all felled;
Of a fresh and following folded rank
Not spared, not one
That dandled a sandalled
Shadow that swam or sank
On meadow and river and wind-wandering weed-winding bank.
O if we but knew what we do
When we delve or hew –
Hack and rack the growing green!
Since country is so tender
To touch, her being so slender,
That, like this sleek and seeing ball
But a prick will make no eye at all,
Where we, even where we mean
To mend her we end her,
When we hew or delve:
After-comers cannot guess the beauty been.
Ten or twelve, only ten or twelve
Strokes of havoc unselve
The sweet especial scene,
Rural scene, a rural scene,
Sweet especial rural scene.
Sometimes it feels like time is all we talk about – days off for Bank Holidays, communicating with friends who may be sleeping miles away while you eat lunch, and if what we spend our time doing is of value. There’s a simpler way of looking at it; watchmaker and historian Rebecca Struthers details the history, craft, and science of timekeeping. With a glossary, diagrams, and photos of stunning, rare watches, Hands of Time is a jewel for your bookshelf.
Our top fiction pick of the week is Bitter Orange Tree by Jokha Alharthi, a captivating novel that explores social status, desire, and female agency when Zuhour attempts to assimilate in Britain. Through her connections to her past ancestors and land, her dreams and memories merge.
In fiction, young adults are in for a treat with This is the Way the World Ends by Jen Wilde, where protagonist Waverly is witness to a brutal murder in the world of the rich and powerful. For adults, Benjamin Myers introduces us to Calvert and Redbone, a dynamic duo who spend a summer making elaborate crop circles; it starts as a creative project, but morphs into something more heartfelt than that. Western Lane by debut novelist Chetna Maroo wows with its depiction of sisterhood and identity and in Verge, Nadia Attia keeps readers on their toes as we follow Rowena and Halim, two desperate people trying to run across treacherous lands before Rowena’s deadly curse becomes too strong.
One of our non-fiction books this week is inspired by a charming children’s tale I read on Friday, Grumpy Monkey, which teaches children that it’s fine to have bad days. Considering this, we all need to be kinder to ourselves and Dr Alex George is here to help with The Mind Manual, a toolkit designed to guide us through stress, anxiety, and low mood. In sport, Roger Domeneghetti takes us back to the 1980s for a social history of British sport, from battles on the pitches to how politics influenced our great games. Fans by Michael Bond delves into the wild world of fandom and Bob Gilbert uncovers the mystery of The Missing Musk when plants with a certain aroma started disappearing.
For younger readers, Mavis the Bravest features some fashionable chickens on an adventure to rescue Sandra the Sheep, and Jamie Smart is back with Max and Chaffy: Welcome to Animal Island, where readers can help Max find Chaffy’s home!
As always, if there’s a book you can’t find, call us and we will try our best to source a copy for you.
The full newsletter with links to books can be found HERE
