I just needed to have a laugh and two books recently have listed my spirits and taken me beyond the state of the world, the suffering of those I know and love and the difficulties of life in general. Personally, we had such a good 2023, which kind of counter-balanced the shocking state of the world, but 2024! Well! We don’t know whether we’re coming or going.
This is why, when I picked up Guy Browning’s little book of my bookshelf, with its amusing chapters reflecting on the absurdities of the situations we get ourselves in in life, how we think is such odd ways and our subsequent actions, have made me laugh out loud at times and smile most of the time.
It is written in chapters of How to … but not in anyway the conventional suggestions for Life’s smaller challenges.
A perfect ‘pick up’ or mood enhancer, especially to pause my mind from racing just before going to sleep.
I’m taking time out to repost a review of another Eventispress author’s debut novel.
I asked Ian to describe his novel now, in the light of feedback he has had so far and he said:
“If I am asked about my book now I always tell people it’s a satire on liberalism. I’ve sort of convinced myself that it in part is, and I get a massively more interested response now. It’s a tale of a serious of blunders made by leaders faced with bizarre challenges. That kind of thing.’
Here’s an excellent 5 star review:
“I found this an excellent read, engaging, humorous and interesting and I soon realized I had to be disciplined as it was something that was difficult to put down. It is no good reading as much as you can as you will miss so much, be disciplined, read a chapter or two, think about it and you will enjoy it all the more. The dialogue is speech and Jack’s thoughts, a man with a droll sense of humour who will have you smiling and nodding in agreement at his observations. The beauty of this book is that it has a definite rhythm, the narrative varies in pace and the reader, unconsciously , will be carried along as the story progresses. However, when I was reading about life in ‘Eden,’ this book’s greatest quality ‘hit me,’ it is a satire on liberal society and we even have a quote from the great liberal thinker himself, John Stuart Mill. It is all here, the generalities of liberalism, the subtleties and nuances that guide everyday society and make it work, the moral idealism and vision for a better world, whilst conveniently ignoring the awkward issues and inconsistencies. As I said previously, read too much and you will miss all this. Finally, I will leave you with this thought, in Orwell’s ‘1984’ the definition of power was ‘a boot stamping on a face forever,’ here it is the much less obvious, ‘wearing a watch with a red and green light’ to control, how much more civilized and consensual, a more liberal solution! This novel deserves to be read by a much wider public, it has got so much to offer.”
In my opinion this is a book well worth reading. It is fast paces, challenging, a life drama of the possible consequences of not looking after the world and what we are doing to it, but with real characters who you get to know and care about.
For my Riduna Series I chose Riduna and Ancasta for the titles of my first two books. My understanding at the time was that they were probably of Roman origin.
Fond memories of family holidays on the island of Alderney, the birth place of my Great Grandmother, made a wonderful backdrop for my first novel, but snippets of Harriet’s life, dropped into conversation by my father, sowed the seeds of a story which began to form in my head. But why ‘Riduna?’
I was so aware of recent World War 2 history of the island, when its inhabitants were evacuated and the island itself was used as a concentration camp. I wanted to distance my novel from this time, after all it was set in the Victoria era. The name ‘Riduna’ could be seen on shop signs, on their crest (below) and the islanders called themselves Ridunains (and still do when talking of rugby teams for example, in interisland matches)
At the time it was believed that Riduna was the Roman name for the island of Alderney. A few historians have disputed this since I released my novel, but, nevertheless, it would be really hard to sever the ties of Alderney to this, its most romantic of names, which is deep in the psyche of true islanders.
My understanding has crystalised since, by reading a Wikipedia post on Ancasta, which shows her originally as a local Celtic Goddess, probably of the River Itchen in Southampton (from which my novel ebbs and flows.) She was almost certainly adopted by the Romans at their large settlement at Bitterne, up the water, called Clausentum. See the Philosophy Now Forum for clarification.
Diana Jackson's Muse, Views and Reviews 