What I've been reading

The Mitford Girls: The Biography of an Extraordinary Family
by Mary S. Lovell

"Even if the six daughters, born between 1904 and 1920, had been quite ordinary women, the span of their lives - encompassing the most traumatic century in Britain's history - and the status to which they were born, would have made their story a fascinating one. But Nancy, Pamela, Diana, Unity, Decca and Debo were far from ordinary."

I now know a lot more about this interesting and privileged family. There was a son as well, Tom, who was killed towards the end of WW2; Nancy was unlucky in love, made her home in France and became an author, Pamela married happily and seemed to act as a bridge between politically opposed sisters. Diana's second husband was Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists, and they both spent many of the war years in prison; Unity was a close friend of Hitler and shot herself when war was declared because of her divided loyalties (she died a few years later). Jessica's politics were on the other end of the scale to her older sisters and she ran away to the Spanish Civil War with a cousin whom she married, and then made her life in America and joined the Communist Party, and Deborah married a man who became the Duke of Devonshire when his older brother died and devoted herself to the upkeep and running of Chatsworth House.

Why We Dream: the Science, Creativity and Transformative Power of Dreams
by Alice Robb

"Dreams aren’t just random events; they have clear purposes. In essence, we cannot learn without them, nor can we overcome psychic trauma. the author draws on fresh and forgotten research to show why dreams are vital to our emotional and physical health."

I bought this because dad has long been wanting to read about dreaming, plagued as he is by dreams that are often unpleasant. I didn't come away with much memorable information except what I suspected: that the brain carries on working while we're asleep and sometimes resolves issues that we were tussling with while conscious. The author is a little obsessed with lucid dreaming - it has clearly given her a lot of pleasure - and spends a little too much time trying to convince the reader to try it. I look forward to seeing what dad thinks when he's had the chance to read it.

Christmas Pudding
by Nancy Mitford

narrated by Kristin Atherton

"The formidable, fox-hunting-obsessed Lady Bobbin has put together a Christmas house party at Compton Bobbin, including her rebellious daughter, Philadelphia; the girl's pompous suitor; and an aspiring writer whose deadly serious first novel has been acclaimed as the funniest book of the year, to his utter dismay."

I've been trying to work out why I find Nancy Mitford's books so satisfying. She has a style slightly similar to others who were writing of the same period, whom I also like - P. G. Wodehouse, Evelyn Waugh - so maybe it's the period that I like? The principal character in this book is of humble birth placed among the upper class under false pretenses, but where Wodehouse would use this to build a tower of cards that threatens to topple at any moment with disastrous consequences which somehow are averted, here the character is happy to confess his status as a normal person would, which makes the plot much more realistic and her characters more relatable. Her books are not too long (less than 7 hours for this one), and she has a characteristic way of building the plot until there seems no time to straighten everything out, but she then ties off all the loose ends and winds it up in a single chapter. It was one of her early books and not as good as The Pursuit of Love or Love in a Cold Climate, but still well worth the time.

Gastrophysics: The New Science of Eating
by Charles Spence

"Why do we consume 35% more food when eating with one more person, and 75% more when with three? Why are 27% of drinks bought on aeroplanes tomato juice? How are chefs and companies planning to transform our dining experiences, and what can we learn from their cutting-edge insights to make memorable meals at home?"

The book promised more that it delivered, due to the slightly smug writing style and the strangely unengaging content. For example, I was interested in the idea of tomato juice being popular on aeroplanes, not least because that's my preferred choice on a plane, but despite having read the chapter I can't even remember what the conclusion was. It was all so forgettable that I can't remember anything at all of the contents a day later, except that the author is mates with Heston Blumenthal and likes to make sure we know it.