Just Finished Reading: People of Abandoned Character by Clare Whitfield (FP: 2020) [419pp] 

London, 1888. It was almost a dream come true. Susannah had secured her future with her marriage to up-and-coming young surgeon Thomas Lancaster. If only the clouds on the horizon would clear, she could be happy. But the honeymoon in Brighton is well and truly over. The new household is cold if not actively hostile to her presence and her new husband is no longer the loving man she married so recently. His mood has begun to change, sometimes aloof and at others frighteningly violent. But worse, much worse, are his unexplained absences he calls 'work'. But seeing clients should not involve staying away for days on end, nor coming home covered in blood not his own. Then there are the stories in the press, stories of women being murdered in the streets of Whitechapel, women mutilated in depraved ways. Slowly, reluctantly, Susannah begins to wonder, begins to suspect – could her mercurial husband be 'Jack the Ripper'? 

As soon as I saw the location and the date, I immediately knew what this novel was about, even before reading the rest of the blurb. The year 1888 is famous for the short spate of gruesome murders that have fascinated generations since then. This was a nice twist on that story that revolved around the wife of the potential mass killer and has an equally nice explanation of why the killing stopped. I'm sure that more than one woman living in London at that time suspected a husband, brother or father of the crimes that horrified and entranced the city at the time. Of course, it has been long suspected that 'Jack' had some medical training, so it made sense for the novels prime suspect (of Susannah rather than the police who honestly didn't have a clue who he was!) should be someone who was, in fact, being trained to cut people open. The sense of time and place was very strong here and very well done. I liked the way that Susannah became obsessed with the newspaper reports surrounding the murders and investigations which, no doubt, came from actual reports (although it doesn't say so in my paperback copy they certainly 'feel' authentic). As always, I have to highlight the characterisation throughout the book, which was very good especially Susannah who I liked a lot (although this was tarnished somewhat late on as we learnt more about her past). Other characters, even her horrible husband, were very well drawn and totally believable with their own credible backgrounds and motivations. Not a single eyebrow was raised in question throughout the novel. But... 

Despite being very well written from beginning to end I did have a few problems with this novel. It suffered from what I'm calling First Novel Syndrome (FNS). I can well understand the fear that an author's first novel will also be their last and, because of that, they want to get everything that they've imagined in there – be it plot, characters, observations and so on. If they're not going to get another chance to shine, then its ALL going in. That's the major problem I had here. There were several sub-plots and flashbacks that added little or nothing to the overall narrative except (probably) that they were part of the original imagining. A case in point is Susannah's journaling during the murders where she imagined the deaths of each victim in order to help her 'understand' what was happening – despite knowing nothing more than the press reports she read each day. Considering that the rest of the novel was purely from her PoV this was both jarring and honestly pointless. Another more minor niggle was when she was explaining something to a major sub-character which was almost word for word what we had already been reading in the novel. An 'explanation' that took 2-3 pages could very easily have been completed in 2-3 lines. That, I think, was just an example of bad/insufficient editing but still...  

Overall, this was a good (and often very good) read. If the editing had been a bit more aggressive and the 'side quests' removed or much reduced, it could have been a very good book indeed. I certainly haven't been put off reading her subsequent work as hopefully she's calmed down a bit and no longer feels the need to include all of her ideas along with the kitchen sink. Better than reasonable but could have been much better.

[Highest page count of the year so far: 419pp][+13pp]

Happy Birthday: Sir Athelstan Joseph Michael Eavis (born 17 October 1935) is an English dairy farmer and the co-creator of the Glastonbury Festival, which takes place at his farm in Pilton, Somerset.

Eavis was born in Pilton, Somerset, on 17 October 1935, and grew up at Worthy Farm in the village. His father was a dairy farmer and a Methodist local preacher, and his mother a school teacher. Eavis was educated at Wells Cathedral School, followed by the Thames Nautical Training College in Greenhithe, Kent, after which he joined the Union-Castle Line, part of the British Merchant Navy, as a trainee midshipman. His plan was to spend twenty years at sea, and return with a pension to help subsidise the income from the family farm.

After his father died when Eavis was 19, he inherited the family farm of 150 acres and 60 cows. He worked at Mendip Colliery at Nettlebridge or New Rock colliery at Stratton-on-the-Fosse on the Somerset Coalfield for a couple of years to help supplement the income from the farm.

Eavis and his first wife, Ruth, had three daughters, but divorced in 1964.[3] He married Jean Hayball, with whom he had a son and a daughter, Emily. Jean died of cancer in 1999, and Eavis has since married his third wife, Liz. In common with his parents and second wife, Eavis remains a practising Methodist, although he has also stated that he is "not really bothered" about the existence of God. He is a teetotaler and does not smoke.

In June 1970, Eavis and his second wife Jean visited the Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music. Inspired by seeing the performance of Led Zeppelin, Eavis hosted the Pilton Pop Folk & Blues Festival in 1970. The following year a free festival, Glastonbury Fayre, was organised by Andrew Kerr and associates. It later developed into Glastonbury Festival.

[I was at Glastonbury in 2000 with some friends. It was definitely an *experience* and I enjoyed some very good music - the tent & the toilets not so much!!]

SaLT @ 21 

It was 21 years ago today that I finally gave into the gentle pressure from my friends to get a Blog up and running. Over two decades later most of my friends Blogs have gone inactive but I'm still here. I never thought that I'd last this long, not even close. At first, it was just something new to explore and a way, by and large, of posting comments on other people's Blogs until they inevitably asked: "Where is YOUR Blog?" 

The style and content have changed over the years – evolved more than anything as I thought some things worked while other things didn't. Although I certainly like 'hits' and especially comments I've never really felt the need to 'chase' either. I try, as much as possible, to be true to myself and post what I like, what I find interesting or what is energising me on a day to day, month to month basis. If other people like my content so much the better, but I've long been less inclined to follow trends than to cut my own path – however unpopular that sometimes is! 

A shout out to those who have been 'with' this Blog since the early days. I appreciate that greatly. It's nice to know that people (not always like minded!) have decided to stick around as I seek my little truths over the years. A welcome and hello to my more recent regulars. I hope that you're here for the long haul as I'm really not planning on going anywhere any time soon (I hope!). A quiet nod to my lurkers and an appreciation of the times you surface to leave a comment when I post something particularly profound or just funny. 

I don't know how long 21 years is in Internet Years, but it's a fair stretch. I'm not sure if I can manage ANOTHER 21 (not at MY age) but I'm willing to go for another 5-10 if the Universe is OK with that. We'll see... I do hope that you continue enjoying the ride. I'm pretty sure that I'll have something that will interest, amuse (or annoy!) you from time to time so.... Forwards!  

Just Finished Reading: The Good Ancestor – How to Think Long Term in a Short-Term World by Roman Krznaric (FP: 2020) [245pp] 

According to the author, short term thinking will kill us all. He's not far wrong. Certainly, in the West, few politicians or governments think much beyond the next election or the one after that – 8-10 years at most. They certainly wouldn't want to start something that only comes to fruition years later if there's a possibility that the opposition party might be in power to take the credit. Likewise, business tends to think of quarterly profit forecasts and shareholder meetings. Why would they possibly put something in train that might not turn a handsome profit in 3 months rather than 3 decades? Short term thinking is reasonably adept at dealing with immediate problems and the unexpected out-of-the-blue disasters, but it's also very good at laying the groundwork for perpetuating or even creating the very conditions from which disasters emerge. 

So, what's stopping us from long term (or at least longer term) thinking? Part of the problem is that, generally, we're not very good at it. Planning 5 years out seems long term to many and planning further out seems pointless especially if circumstances are prone to regular and rapid change. Then, of course, there is little incentive for either governments or business to plan for decades or even generations ahead. They would be criticised for 'blue sky thinking' and wasting money. Yet, at the same time, there are calls to fix some fundamental problems that cannot be resolved in 5, 10 or even 20 years. We KNOW that ongoing climate change is going to cause MAJOR problems – and is already doing so – but little if anything is being done about it by people or organisations with the power, ability and money to actually accomplish things because of short-term thinking. If any solution is predicted to take more than a few elections or shareholder reviews to bed in... forget it. 

The author proposes a range of options to help us (and those in power) to think about things beyond what we can see right in front of our eyes. My favourite, and probably most practical, is Cathedral Thinking. Our ancestors built cathedrals and other structures that still have the power to amaze us hundreds if not thousands of years after they were completed. What many fail to take into account is that many of these structures took generations to complete with their construction being handed on to the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the original designers/builders to complete. We seem to have lost that focus, that projection into the future, that OUR ancestors seem to have. It might be a very good idea to rediscover it. 

Although I found the author to be somewhat over optimistic and some of the ideas presented to be rather wishy-washy and vague, I thought that his heart was in the right place (and not just in his chest). Despite all of our technology and imagination we, as a culture, seem to have lost the ability to think big and project ourselves into the DEEP future rather than 5 minutes down the road. Short term thinking will not save us from many of the problems – which have honestly been building for decades or longer – we KNOW are coming our way. This book, flawed as I think it is, is a small step looking to correct that. Worth a read. Reasonable.