David Hughes (1)Critiques

"Lent Jewels" has at its centre an account of the death from scarlet fever of five daughters of Archibald Campbell Tait, when Dean of Carlisle. The children died in quick succession in 1856, an event recorded in a stained glass window in Carlisle Cathedral, a few steps from where the lives of the children had ended.Tait and his wife's response to their tragedy is contrasted, in a slightly weird way, with the story of a London pornographer. Tait would later become Bishop of London, and then Archbishop of Canterbury. Along with exploring the history of this family tragedy. the book is an essay on the author's lack of faith, his awakening sexuality and experiences, and his love of pipe organs.

The personal is political in this short but intense novella which invites comparison with Handke's The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick, although Hughes is a more traditional novelist who gives us plenty of insight into the Major's inner life, unattractive as it is, tinged with a certain dark humour. But in both cases the main character reflects his post-war society and its discontents.

An anthology of 22 short comedic pieces, I picked this up on impulse at a UBS, because I'd never read any of the authors before (correction: I've read Wodehouse) and there were more than a couple names here that I'd often felt like I should have read, but hadn't; I was afraid they'd be weighty and, you know, deep. So here was my chance to read their work without a lot of emotional commitment.

Almost all of the stories here were excellent. As in any collection, there were a few clunkers: I found the ending of V.S. Pritchett's piece abrupt and nonsensical. Elizabeth Bowen's and Muriel Spark's pieces left me flat.

The really great stories out-weighed those though: Wilde's The Model Millionaire was my favorite of the book, with Saki's Byzantine Omelette and Robertson Davies' The Xerox in the Lost Room close behind. Oh, and A Piece of Pie by Damon Runyon had me laughing at the truly cunning ending. Stories by Dorothy Parker and James Thurber had more of an emotional edge; the humor from these stories came from a darker, cynical view.

All in all a truly excellent collection; I've already bought a collection of Saki's work based on what I've read here, and I'm looking forward to reading more by some of these authors.½

Quick, intense novel about a man with no redeeming features, an ex-army chap who after an unexpectedly early retirement comes home with a burning itch to grind everything around him under his heel. This finds its outlet partly on his long-suffering wife and teenage daughter but primarily on the elderly couple who had taken his home on a long lease shortly before his retirement. He sets about driving them out of the place (and if necessary out of the world) by any means available within the law and some without it. There are some funny duet scenes with the Major's dimwit batman as we soon realise he is not just bad but completely mad. He falls into a strange and rather touching relationship with a neighbourhood widow, is recruited by the police to drive some locals out of their homes and develops an obsession with the Swedish au-pair which leads to his demise. Great novel!

Redundant journalist attempts to acquire all available pieces of the eponymous china. Each piece, created in 1914, shows a different English landmark, and the exercise is clearly a recherche du temps perdu, personal and national, as well as attempt to salvage the narrator's self-esteem and failing marriage. Symbolism of quest is far from subtle but the settings are varied and the descriptions vivid. I was attracted to this book because it concerned fine china, and I was not disappointed.

This is a brilliantly written tale about guilt and reconciliation. Ernst Kestner, a pork butcher in Lubeck, is driving back to the small French village where he spent the summer of 1944. For 40 years Kestner has kept secret his memories both of janni, his French lover,and of the atrocity which brought his time in Lescaud-sur-Marn to an end. But now, in view of the state of his lungs, there is no need for secrecy any longer... Highly insightful, sensitive and lucid writing.

This is a biography of Gerald Durrell written by a friend of 40 years. David Hughes was born in 1930.

The first in a series of paperback anthologies taken from William Heinemann's "Best Short Stories" series. Fiction by such leading writers as William Trevor, Deborah Moggach, Patrice Chaplin and Marina Warner has been augmented with the work of new talent.