Blog

Day 15: Sarah Whitaker

This morning, during my 20 minutes sitting in the cemetery before work, I finally noticed a grave right next to where I always sit. I have looked a lot at two headstones that are upright - the Griggses on my left, the Franklyns on my right. I don't know why I hadn't looked down before, though I am usually  looking up and ahead, at trees and sky.

I noticed that this flat gravestone (presumably it too was once upright) is noticeably older than the two upright ones, and reading the inscription it is for Sarah Whitaker, who was born in 1848 and died in 1947. That made me think a lot - she didn't quite make her century, but what a 99 years to be alive. 1848 and 1947 hardly seem possible as part of the same life. And think of all that she lived through in that time... 1848 was the year of revolutions in Europe; 1947 as well as being just after the end of WWII was the year that India finally gained independence from the British Empire - Sarah lived through the Indian mutiny of the 1950s. The industrial revolution, two world wars, and just so much social change...and huge changes in art, music, literature. It's hard to know where to start. 

I feel privileged now to sit next to Sarah's remains and think about her life and all that she saw. The world seems so awful today, but I think it's always been awful, in terms of wars, political difficulties, making ends meet. We just know a lot more about it thanks to the internet and television. Thinking about all that happened during Sarah's lifetime is thought-provoking.

My daily sojourn in the cemetery is giving me a whole new perspective. It's wonderful.

Victoria Mier, 15 October 2024

Day 14: international fiction

Oh, I forgot again, didn't I. Today is the 15th. Yesterday (Monday 14th) was my day off and I tend to switch off... Sorry, Jaki!

I am back on the International Booker Prize longlist in my reading. Huge thanks to Warwickshire Libraries for having most of these books! It also means I have read some as lovely hardbacks, including this one, Andrei Kurkov's The Silver Bone. I have not read his most famous book,Death and the Penguin, but Kurkov is for me at least the best-known author on the list, and the most famous Ukrainian author in the English-speaking world. 

The novel is set in Kyiv just after WWI, and is the story of Samson, who at the start of the novel is attacked by Cossacks. His father is killed in the sword attack and he has one ear cut off. He manages to pick up the ear, and keeps it in a box - and then discovers that he can sometimes hear what's going on in the room where he keeps the ear in a desk drawer, when his flat is requisitioned by two soldiers.

No doubt I will find my three words when I have finished (only about a quarter of the way through), but I have so enjoyed following this list and reading translated literature from around the world. The winner of the prize was Jenny Erpenbeck's Kairos, which remains the most worthy winner for me, but I am loving the Kurkov too. All the books have been very good in their different ways though.

Keep reading, everyone!

Victoria Mier, 15 October 2024 - 8am, meant for day 14!

Day 13: keep it live

Back from an evening of wonderful live music at the Tree House. Beautiful songs, fabulous voice, and a lovely person - Anna Pancaldi. Moving and funny. Go find her on YouTube - but those videos are a shadow of what she is like live.

Music and books - the things that really matter.

Thank you to everyone who came, for supporting live music and for being a responsive, brilliant audience. 

A very busy weekend all together at the bookshop, which is of course what's wanted - but I am ready for my day off tomorrow.

Victoria Mier, 13 October 2024

Day 12: yawn and yarn

If you come into the bookshop in the afternoons, you may see me crocheting. 

A while ago I had reached a point where the relentlessness of bookshop life was pushing me to the limit, and one Sunday I snapped at a customer who really hadn't done much. I spent the next few days feeling bad, and started to think about how I could make things work without me getting over-tired and stressed out.

One thing I have found hard is to do all the admin that needs doing while customers are in the shop.This is a side-effect of the shop being much busier than it used to be over the last couple of years, a situation that is of course excellent! But as a natural introvert - someone who finds constant contact with people draining - and increasingly tired - and therefore struggling with interruptions - I had to find a way to cope.

My solution is to do what admin I can in the mornings - emails, social media, ordering bits and pieces we need, creating Facebook events for live music and art talks, etc - and then after lunch I crochet or read, and do the admin that needs greater concentration - accounts, more complicated emails, bank stuff, etc - outside shop hours.

And it's working. The days are much less demanding, and I am managing to get everything done. I panic less when customers need me because I am rarely doing anything that matters if I am interrupted. It does mean more work outside the shop hours, but I get things done more quickly than I do with customers around, so it's all working out pretty well. Still tired though.

And I am making nice things that I might be able to sell in the shop! We'll see.

In other news, my three words about Barbara Comyns Who Was Changed And Who Was Dead - which I mentioned yesterday and finished today are: dark, unexpected, very funny. I know the last is two words, but hilarious isn't right, witty isn't enough, and I don't know what other word to use. What a writer.

Victoria Mier, 12 October 2024

Day 11: Three Words

I mentioned the other day that I had been to my book club, and the mixed feelings I have about book discussion. Liz who had chosen the book and led the discussion mentioned an idea of choosing three words to describe a book you have read. That seems both harder and less challenging at the same time than a full-on verbal response!

So for James Baldwin's Another Country, my three words are majestic, humane, challenging.

For Katya Balen's Foxlight, my words are beautiful, edgy, optimistic.

For my current read, Barbara Comyns' Who Was Changed And Who Was Dead...well, I had better wait until I have finished it. What a glorious writer she is though.

Victoria Mier, 11 October 2024

Day 10: Mental Health Day

Apparently it's Mental Health day today. I don't know who thinks these days up, or how they get made official. Every day is a day for something, usually for several things. I mostly ignore them, and am only referencing it here because I had decided to write about something I have been doing recently that has improved my mental health.

A friend posted a meme on Facebook that I have seen many times before, but somehow this time it made me stop and think - something about if you can't find time to sit in nature for 20 minutes every day, you should probably sit for an hour. 

I can't walk far, otherwise I probably would walk every day, but I am very good at sitting. I decided to go and sit in the local cemetery for 20 minutes - a place I have always loved, our house growing up adjoined it, and the wind in the trees is one of the abiding sounds of my childhood, lying in bed and loving it but also being slightly scared.

These days it is my favourite place. Last summer I did a sponsored month of walking to raise funds for Ellis Park and walked there every day, and built up my walking time to around 25 minutes some days. I realise my legs have got worse because I tried it this year and couldn't even do one short circuit (about 5 minutes at my pace). But it's a great place to scoot, with its wide paths to accommodate cars and very few people.

Above all it's peaceful, and I sit usually in the same place, under some beech and chestnut trees. I watch the squirrels - they are a pain, I know, but fun to watch - and listen to the birdsong - there are many different birds there. I put my Merlin app on to make sure I catch them all, and am getting better at recognising them. And I look at the trees, mostly chestnut and birch, mostly quite old, some yews too inevitably. And I set my timer and sit and look and listen and think and occasionally say hello to dog-walkers and others cutting through. There is a lady who comes every day to feed the cat that lives feral there. I love how the cat, out of nowhere, runs across to her then trots beside her to the place where she puts food for him.

It's magical. It makes a huge difference to the day.I feel my mind and body resetting as I sit there.I look up a lot, at the trees and the sky, and that is a great counter to spending much of the day looking down at a computer. Now I feel a sense of opening up and relaxing as soon as I enter the gates on my scooter. (The scooter really is a life-changer.)

The leaves are falling hard now, which is lovely. I am a huge autumn fan.

I would recommend it to everyone. I will see what happens as the weather gets colder! If it rains I can sit in my back garden under a sort of perspex awning, and that's great too - it's good to notice what's happening in the garden. But I don't mind the cold too much, and will do a few minutes at least if I can, through the winter.

Victoria Mier, 10 October 2024

Day 9: hard discussions

This is the real day 9 post!

I have just got back from my book club, feeling as I always do that I would rather not talk about books really. It's why I don't do a proper blog about books either, or write reviews. I should be interested in sharing thoughts and hearing what others think, but I am not. 

We discussed James Baldwin's Another Country, which to me seems an enormous work, majestic, magnificent, a book that is not 'about' racism so much as it is simply about people living in a racist society - not sure I have read any other book that deals with this profound subject so thoughtfully and with such warmth and compassion. Not everyone agreed - that's fine, though I do end up being quite belligerent if I think something important is being misrepresented or undervalued. Not just books, I am always the same in discussions. Part of it is the frustration of not really wanting to talk about books.

But this need to get across my own viewpoint in such situations is something I dislike in myself, I don't need either to labour my own response nor worry about disagreements. It does unsettle me though, that I find discussion so hard. I want to love it - but I am happiest just thinking my own thoughts, and I don't need to share them, it just feels as though it's expected. I never manage to put into words what I want to say, and I end up dissatisfied and wishing I hadn't said anything.

I persevere with book club because the people are wonderful and the general chat is fun. But I am trying to get to a point where I don't worry about the discussion, where I just let it flow.

James Baldwin is, for me, one of the greatest figures of the 20th century, a man of profound intelligence and wisdom, with a superb skill for writing great English and conveying ideas, while retaining an equally profound sense of humanity. He doesn't need me to defend his corner.

Victoria Mier, 9 October 2024

Day 8: Katya Balen

Well strictly speaking - or any kind of speaking - it's day 9, but I forgot again yesterday so am writing day 8 this morning and hoping to write day 9 tonight. Time is relative, let's not get too hung up on the details. Life is very busy at the moment, last night I was stewarding at an online gig with Mark Radcliffe and David Boardman and that finished way past my usual bedtime... Was marvellous though, organised to the fabulous Live toYour Living Room - check them out for excent online gigs!

This morning I read another chunk of my latest read, Katya Balen's Foxlight. I love reading children's books, but tend to shy away from the ones that are too fantasy-oriented. I did love some of the fantasy stuff as a child - Narnia, Earthsea especially - but my favourites were books like Lizzie Dripping, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Anne of Green Gables. Katya Balen's books are amazing - written about and from the viewpoint of children facing hard things in life - hard family situations and dealing with relationships - but with a strong connection with nature and the imagination and other beautiful things. Foxlight is about two sisters, Fen and Rey, who live in a Foundling home. It's not a cruel place, they are safe, cared for, well fed (despite mouse stew, as they call it, for dinner). But they want to find their mother, who abandoned them there as babies, and one day they pack a bag and follow a fox, believing the fox will lead them to their mother.

They are learning that the stories they have always imagined about life and their mother may not match reality. The safety and warmth of the home they have grown up in are replaced by hardship, hunger, vulnerabiity, even death, and their own very close relationship is strained.

I don't yet know where it will end, but will find out tomorrow. My friend Himadri recently lamented how many blogs and reviews describe a book as 'beautifully written', and he is right, it's an overused phrase with no meaning, unless you explain what you mean by that. I do think Katya writes beautifully, and it's all to do with her choices of words, they way she can evoke both beauty and fear, adventure and vulnerability, in the same phrases. Crafted sentences, carefully-chosen and used words, an ability to put into words both the inner and outer world of children. I hope it ends well for Fen and Rey.

If you haven't yet read her book The Space We're In, I would recommend anyone to read it. It would be a wonderful book to read with a child who has lost a parent, or anyone close. Her writing is the sort that children can absorb it is just as enthralling for adults.

I am also grateful to my local library, where I get many of my books from, especially current things that haven't yet found their way to the bookshop second-hand - but I'll write about libraries another time!

Victoria Mier, 9 October 2024 (8am - meant for 8 October)

Day 7

As well as selling second-hand books, we host live music gigs at the Tree House. A couple of times a month we have professional musicians on national tours sharing their latest music with us - mostly folk/acoustic/singer-songwriter musicians. We also work with the lovely United Reformed Church as a bigger venue - the bookshop only holds around 35.

It's hard work organising live music, for all involved, but amazing when it happens - live music really is a wonderful experience, and we love bringing these excellent musicians to Kenilworth. Ellie Gowers - herself a fabulous singer-songwriter - now does all the booking and artist liaison, I just attempt to sell tickets! We are supported by Kenilworth Arts Festival in all of this.

It is very hard selling tickets. I never quite understand why people rush to spend £150, sometimes a lot more, to see Oasis and other stadium bands but aren't interested in paying £15 to see live music in an intimate venue on their doorstep. But that's how it is, and we just keep trying! It's a problem across the country.

Musicians have a very hard time making a living, and touring and selling their music at gigs is crucial to their livelihoods. Someone once said they were surprised to discover that the ticket money we charge went to the musicians - they assumed it all came to the bookshop and the musicians played for nothing. That is uncommon as a response, but it is the sharp end of a general perception that music should be free. People hear it in pubs, musicians are often asked to play 'for exposure' when no one else involved in an event is unpaid, and somehow still people don't see music as a paid profession.

These are highly skilled people who have put years into perfecting their skills in both music and performance, and we need to respect that. Touring can't be a continuous thing, so even though it might sometimes seem as though a gig is well-paid, the money does not go far in terms of an annual income. 

The bookshop at least is not relying on gigs to provide us with an income - we get that from selling books. But we do put a lot of unpaid hours into organising and promoting gigs, as do many small venues, ensuring that musicians have good places to perform. We would find it much harder if we needed to pay ourselves too - and grassroots venues face a constant struggle with high street overheads.

So if you see live music locally, support it. If we don't sell enough tickets, gigs get cancelled, because musicians often travelling from distant places need to be paid enough to make that worthwhile. And live music is so brilliant. Even Oasis were a small band playing in a pub or club once. 

Our next live music is this coming Sunday, 13 October - the wonderful Anna Pancaldi. Here is a link to her YouTube account for you to hear some of her songs. Go have a look at our Live Music page for all the info on our upcoming gigs and the ticket links. We are putting together another fabulous programme for next year!

Support live music. Support small venues. Buy music, don't just stream it. Your local live music scene needs you!

Nick Cave

I was talking to someone today about music - their tastes are very broad - I admitted that mine are very narrow. It was sparked by Nick Cave and Kylie Minogue singing Where the Wild Roses Grow, and I said I found Kylie's voice too weak in comparison with Nick's, good song though it is. The friend likes many, many genres of music; I like very few, but am passionate about the few I like.

Nick Cave. Bob Dylan even more, as he has been with me since I was 13 and is the greatest songwriter ever, and the most brilliant singer. Then stuff around those - some folk, some Americana, some country, bits of post-punk, lots of 70s stuff, classical.

It's all I need. I know it seems better, morally, to like a broad range, but I just want to listen to what gets under my skin, into my heart and soul, and not much does that. Bob, my soulmate. Nick, who sits at his right hand.

They met once, at Glastonbury in 1998, and thankfully someone took a couple of pictures - someone being the great Bleddyn Butcher. Much respect between these two - would love them to do a duet.

I mentioned them both in the post about rock stars reading. Both are great readers, both are magicians with words, with lyrical depth and poetry and craftsmanship that sets them apart from most others. Goodness I love them both.

Victoria Mier, 6 October 2024

5 October

I have already failed! I completely forgot write a blog post yesterday. Ah well. Perfection is overrated.

I thought I would write a little bit about how much I love an audiobook. I used to be a bit dismissive of them as an alternative to reading, but during lockdown I discovered BorrowBox through the library, and have been listening daily ever since. I listen for about an hour lying in bed at night, my bedtime story! I go to bed early, and look forward so much to listening to books in bed.I have always loved being read to, even as an adult - I remember getting home after a Christmas with my family one year and lying in the bath on Boxing Day listening to Stephen Fry reading Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (they gave a whole day of R4 to it) and thinking that was the best part of Christmas.

I listen to a range of things as my bedtime story, but cosy crime is my favourite. Or any crime that is not too violent. I am currently listening to my first LJ Ross - Ryan's Christmas - and loving it. I get asked for her books a lot at the bookshop, and can see why she's popular - I'll definitely be borrowing more.

I also like character and relationship-based novels - Clare Chambers, Rachel Joyce. 

Susan Hill writes both, to a very high standard - her Simon Serrailler books have been among my favourite audiobooks, and her non-crime books are equally wonderful. I have yet to explore the ghost stories,I don't want anything too spooky at bedtime!

I love children's books too, especially children's crime.

And I love classics - especially Dickens.

I will make a list at some point, including the narrators, because they make or break an audiobook.

BorrowBox is a wonderful thing. It's free and there is a huge range of books, all unabridged. I love the library generally - that's for another blog post! - and this is a fabulous part of it.

Hurray for libraries, hurray for audiobooks.

Victoria Mier, 5 October 2024

Reading the newspaper

My Pa would have been 96 today. He died in 2018, a few days after his 90th birthday - he badly wanted to make 90 and he made it. I miss him a lot.

One of the things that always amazed me about him was that he seemed to know everything. I had arguments with him about things when I was convinced he was wrong; he was always right. A while back, my sister made the comment that perhaps it was because he read the newspaper every day of his adult life, and he certainly did - cover to cover, every day. The Daily Telegraph, but it was less tabloidy once upon a time! And reflected his political stance, which was very different from mine. But whatever your political flavour, serious newspapers do give you a window on the world. 

I used to love a Sunday paper, but admit that even then I only really read the culture bits and the magazine...rarely read much of the rest! I have an online subscription to one paper, but hardly ever read it. I use Wikipedia a lot. I don't watch the BBC news because it's awful, but I do read their website, and sometimes follow up stories elsewhere, but I remain quite ignorant about much of the world. My sense of geography has always been awful (I was mocked for ages by my brother when we were children for not knowing whether we lived (in Kenilworth) north or south of Birmingham...

Seeing the horrors in the world unfold, I know that someone with my social advantages and education should know a lot more about the countries involved and take more interest in politics. I often think of the writer Henry Miller, who didn't see any point in being politically engaged, as it made no difference to the world. Is that right? I don't know - things do happen because people make them happen, but perhaps not everyone needs to be an activist. I am drawn to Miller's stance, but I do also have strong political opinions (which perhaps he did not) and always get involved in discussions and spend a lot of time thinking about how to solve the country's and the world's problems.

These are musings. I admire my Pa for being interested enough to read the newspaper every day, to have that command of history, geography, culture and more. I am much more like my mother, who also read the paper a lot (it used to infuriate me, the two of them hidden behind the broadsheets for hours and showing no interest in us - I was always a selfish person!) but who loved art, music, literature, the things that are the bedrock of my life.

So on his birthday I remember a man who knew so much and whose knowledge died with him, and will attempt to make myself better informed. And also support journalists by paying for the news! 

Victoria MIer, 3 October 2024

Blogtober day 2: rock stars who read

Some of you know that I do a weekly radio show on Radio Abbey, our local community radio station in Kenilworth that broadcasts online from the Kenilworth Centre. It's mainly about folk music, the kind of musicians who come to perform at the bookshop, but really it's genre-free, I just play things I like. But I like folk music! 

Today on the show I paid tribute to Kris Kristofferson, who died at the weekend. I learned - and should have known - that he was a Rhodes scholar at Oxford University, studying English literature. He wasn't interested in academia though, and knew he wanted to be a singer and songwriter. I should have known this about him because I have loved him for a long time.

But I love a musician who reads. My two greatest heroes Bob Dylan and Nick Cave are both great readers and it shows in their songs. David Bowie was another avid reader, Kris Kristofferson's lyrics are beautiful, and it makes sense that he had an interest in literature. 

Knowing someone reads always makes me find them more interesting, and I always want to know what they are reading. I have a friend who instead of asking how you are, etc, asks, 'What are you reading?' I love that.

Anyway, here's to rock stars who read. They are beacons of hope in a difficult world, creating art that their reading takes to another level.

[My radio show, Shakespeare in the Alley, is on Wednesdays, 6-7pm, and available later on Mixcloud. Radio Abbey is at www.radioabbey.com]

Victoria Mier, 2 October 2024

Reading the world

Living in a small town, not a driver, with fairly severe mobility issues (over any kind of distance), I feel the world getting smaller. I have spent half my life in cities - Bristol and London, with lengthy stays in Paris, Florence and a month a year over several years some time ago travelling the Continent as a teacher - and I am not a city girl (hence moving back to Kenilworth) but I miss the cosmopolitan diversity and all that goes with it. Friends are just back from Rome and I now long to go and visit places, mostly to see art I haven't yet seen - Madrid, New York, Amsterdam, as well as revisiting places I love.

There is a way to experience the world from home though, and that is through reading. This year I have been reading the longlist for the International Booker Prize, and that's been wonderful - visiting Venezuela, Argentina, Italy, Germany, Korea, Soviet Russia and more. Each book has been a wonderful insight not just into a different culture but into the way literature can evoke and explore aspects of those cultures.

For book clubs I have recently been reading Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (set during the Biafran war) and James Baldwin's Another Country (half way through this). And a while back, Antal Szerb's Journey by Moonlight was wonderful for taking me through a number of European countries.

I want to say more but this is the start of Blogtober, aiming for a blog post every day this month, so I will try to be more detailed in future posts! (And I will make sure I include images - none of the photos I took of these books come out well here!) The posts won't all be about what I am reading, but I have been thinking a lot lately about the need to experience the wider world. It's one of the things literature can do so well, but I still feel the need to be among people, buildings, food, climate different from my own.

One day I will travel again!

Victoria Mier, 1 October 2024