Tower and Town, December 2021

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A Good Read

As I work in the bookshop no-one thinks to give me a book for Christmas; it's sad, if understandable. I suppose it could be worse, if I worked for Cartier it wouldn't occur to anyone to buy me a diamond bracelet. Heigh ho.

Anyway, as we all know, books are the best presents, and at Christmas a particular kind of book comes into its own. I mean the little compilations of essays, collections of newspaper columns, or anthologies. Usually attractively produced they are good stocking fillers, last minute emergency or dinner party gifts, or guest-room bedside table books. They usually manage to be both undemanding and mildly stimulating, ideal for this time of year.

The Joy of Small Things by Hannah Jane Parkinson, a collection of her Guardian columns is funny, honest, warm and mildly cynical. Deceptively light, it's one of those 'companion books' to be dipped into regularly. Parkinson says she was inspired by J B Priestley's 1949 book Delight, and from about ten years earlier than that comes Personal Pleasures by Rose Macauley (published by Handheld Press). Subtitled Essays on Enjoying Life, it was reviewed on first publication as demonstrating 'wit made subtle with learning, and learning dissipated with wit'. Couldn't have put it better myself, and for those less learned than Macauley, there's a useful 'Notes on the text' appendix just in case your memory needs refreshing on the Photinians, or who was Jack Hulbert? From roughly the same period comes Happy Half Hours by A A Milne, in some ways very much a period piece and in some of the pieces coming perilously close to (aargh!) 'whimsy'. But there are many more serious sections, criticisms and self-examination. His essays on his pacifism are heart-felt, strongly and clearly argued and, as with the rest of book – and as one would expect – immensely readable.

Back to the 21st century, and I'm enjoying the late Jan Morris's last collection, Allegorizings which looks back over her long life and travels, both physical and emotional. A kind and thoughtful book. And if you don't want too many words, do look at Nests by Susan Ogilvy, it's absolutely beautiful.

I'm closing with a shameless plug for the White Horse Bookshop's own effort Platzen, Pineapple & Peas, our 'newsletter' collection of reminiscences and recipes, which we're selling to raise money for the Marlborough Christmas Lunch, held in the Town Hall for anyone who might otherwise be alone at Christmas. It's awfully good. (The book, I mean. And the lunch.) 

Debby Guest