Silent in all of the gardens and the bees going backwards and forwards,
For to-day we have naming of parts.
This weekend we’re on military manoeuvres – the Coles pop-up bookshop is in a barn amongst some fields between Stowe School and the race circuit at Silverstone. Our hosts are our friends from the We Have Ways podcast, the wonderfully popular community of World War II history enthusiasts.
The lessons learnt from studying and understanding war are many, particular wars which are (just about) in living memory. But I think the standout for me is the absolute contrast between what we would think of as the ‘normal’ vs the tragedy of having to fight for your liberty and life – and even whilst war rages a holiday flight distance from here, that contrast is difficult for us to comprehend. The British poet Henry Reed, born in 1914, served in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps and subsequently Bletchley Park as a translator. His literary and linguistic skills produced several poems based on his experiences of the Second World War and this one, Naming of Parts, beautifully reflects the contrasts between a normal world and a world at war.
Naming of Parts by Henry Reed
To-day we have naming of parts. Yesterday,
We had daily cleaning. And to-morrow morning,
We shall have what to do after firing. But to-day,
To-day we have naming of parts. Japonica
Glistens like coral in all of the neighbouring gardens,
And to-day we have naming of parts.
This is the lower sling swivel. And this
Is the upper sling swivel, whose use you will see,
When you are given your slings. And this is the piling swivel,
Which in your case you have not got. The branches
Hold in the gardens their silent, eloquent gestures,
Which in our case we have not got.
This is the safety-catch, which is always released
With an easy flick of the thumb. And please do not let me
See anyone using his finger. You can do it quite easy
If you have any strength in your thumb. The blossoms
Are fragile and motionless, never letting anyone see
Any of them using their finger.
And this you can see is the bolt. The purpose of this
Is to open the breech, as you see. We can slide it
Rapidly backwards and forwards: we call this
Easing the spring. And rapidly backwards and forwards
The early bees are assaulting and fumbling the flowers:
They call it easing the Spring.
They call it easing the Spring: it is perfectly easy
If you have any strength in your thumb: like the bolt,
And the breech, and the cocking-piece, and the point of balance,
Which in our case we have not got; and the almond-blossom
Silent in all of the gardens and the bees going backwards and forwards,
For to-day we have naming of parts.
If you’re anything like me, you love watching Kenneth Branagh solve murders in a questionable french accent – so it’s very exciting that the new Poirot film is out in cinemas next week. Our top fiction pick of the week is the ingenious inspiration behind the film, Agatha Christie’s Hallowe’en Party; which has been rejacketed as a beautiful hardback, with gold foiled details. Our non-fiction pick of the week goes to Tim and Emma Flannery’s new non-fiction, Big Meg. The ancient Megalodon, also known as ‘Bigtooth,’ make our sperm whales look like ants. You can learn all about them in this fascinating exposé.
We have a bumper pack of exciting new fiction this week. Natalie Haynes’ 2014 novel, Amber Fury, has been reissued due to the success of her other Greek novels. This book tells the story of Alex, who takes a job in an adolescent psychiatric unit. When she tells the patients stories of Greek tragedies the teenagers begin to weave the threads of their own tragedy into the stories, with devastating effects. Benjamin Labatut’s The Manic is a historic fiction, telling the story of the Hungarian-American mathematician John von Neumann; it’s a kaleidoscopic book about the destructive chaos lurking in the history of computing and AI. Sebastian Faulks is back with his new novel, The Seventh Son, the story of a surrogate mother who gives birth to a son via experimental means. This book looks at ethics in the face of human scientific advancement. The literary sensation, Zadie Smith, is back with her first historical novel, The Fraud. Based on real historical events, The Fraud is a dazzling novel about how in a world of hypocrisy and self-deception, deciding what’s true can prove a complicated task. Nights of Plague by Orhan Pamuk, is a fiction about the plague coming to the Ottoman Empire. Lastly, Toshikazu Kawaguchi is back with another installment in his cafe series: Before Your Memory Fades. Full of Kawaguchi’s trademark wistful storytelling, this tale asks the question, what would you do if you could go back in time and make a different decision in your life?
New in non-fiction, Birds: The Art of Ornithology by Jonathan Elphick tells the story of birds, from their evolution to their behaviours, accompanied by beautiful illustrations. In An Everlasting Meal by Tamar Alder, we are given lessons on instinctive cooking, poignant culinary philosophy, and how to make the most out of everything in our cupboards. The Coming Wave by Mustafa Suleyman – one of the co-founders of DeepMind, an Artifcial Intelligence company based within Google – gives us everything we need to know about the coming Artificial Intelligence revolution. Finally, in Hysterical Pragya Agarwal looks at how we interpret emotions and act on them has been heavily gendered, as far back as Ancient Greek and Roman times, and – despite improvements in societal equality – continues to be today.
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.
From Amber
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