Jim Reeve

Guest: Jim Reeve, ‘Wickford Memories’ and ‘Basildon Memories’. Ex-Chairman if the Brentwood Writer's Circle. 
Date: 30 November 2007

Vile Bodies- Evelyn Waugh
Evelyn Waugh's second novel, VILE BODIES, is his tribute to London's smart set. It introduces us to society as it used to be but that now is gone forever and probably for good.
Improbably, this is a love story in which Adam Fenwick-Symes, a destitute young writer, hungers for Nina Blount, daughter of an eccentric aristocrat. But at the same time, it is a satire that plays against the social whirl of a class doomed to extinction as certainly as the dodo.

The Reason Why by Cecil Woodham Smith (Courtesy of Rambles.net)
The heart of this book concerns the relationship between society at large and the military. Military leaders feared nothing so much as public scrutiny, for widespread discontent could lead to political interference and, indeed, political control of the army. Whether in dealing with the incorrigible personalities of Lords Lucan and Cardigan or in covering up the series of blunders that resulted in the sacrificial ride of the Light Brigade, the military leadership acted with the overriding principle of preserving the army from governmental control.

The embarrassments of the Crimean campaign proved uncontainable. A great source of difficulty was the incompetence of the army staff; rank and privilege were held to be superior to actual experience. When these difficulties led to humiliation and defeat, the commanders' concern was not with the men they had lost nor the future of the war effort;to the exclusion of these, their main concern was that bad publicity would appear in Britain, that the public would hear of the lack of success, that the House would begin to ask questions of the military leadership, that the press would begin to criticize the army.

This great fear of political interference was realized in the aftermath of the Crimean War. The author portrays this as the one positive effect engendered by the war effort. A new era of military reform was born in Britain, Europe and America. Experience now became a prerequisite for command, and officers were trained in staff colleges. The author's final point is that, above all, the treatment of the private soldier changed as the military system was humanized to some degree. Her assertion that at the end of the Crimean War the private soldier was regarded as a hero seems rather bold, but it is clear that he was no longer seen as a nonhuman tool of his commanders' designs.

Other woman’s shoes- Adele Parks
Eliza is envious of her sister's life - Martha has it all - the loving husband, the adorable children, the mortgage,the pension plan... When she dumps her musician boyfriend Greg to find a more appropriate grown up man and comes to cry on Martha's shoulder, she discovers that Martha's husband Michael has left her.

The house in shambles, and Martha in shock, Eliza moves in the help her sister make the transition to singledom. But Martha assumes this is just a phase and that Michael will be back. When the sisters venture out on the dating scene,Eliza has a hard time finding a new relationship, while Martha jumps right into one with charismatic Jack Hope.

Join me next week for more book talk!!