Carnegie Medal Winners

It would seem that I'm a bit slow off the starting blocks when it comes to the Carnegie Medal this year; I hadn't realised that the winner had been announced! For shame! I'm glad Philip Reeve took it though, with "Here Lies Arthur" (although I shamefully haven't read it), and for a bit of fun, here's a list of the Carnegie winners from the last 70 years, with the ones I've read in bold.

2008 Philip Reeve, Here Lies Arthur, Scholastic

2007 Meg Rosoff, Just in Case, Penguin

2005 Mal Peet, Tamar, Walker Books

2004 Frank Cottrell Boyce, Millions, Macmillan

2003 Jennifer Donnelly, A Gathering Light, Bloomsbury Children's Books

2002 Sharon Creech, Ruby Holler, Bloomsbury Children's Books

2001 Terry Pratchett, The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents, Doubleday

2000 Beverley Naidoo, The Other Side of Truth, Puffin

1999 Aidan Chambers, Postcards From No Man's Land, Bodley Head

1998 David Almond, Skellig, Hodder Children's Books

1997 Tim Bowler, River Boy, OUP

1996 Melvin Burgess, Junk, Andersen Press

1995 Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials: Book 1 Northern Lights, Scholastic

1994 Theresa Breslin, Whispers in the Graveyard, Methuen

1993 Robert Swindells, Stone Cold, H Hamilton

1992 Anne Fine, Flour Babies, H Hamilton

1991 Berlie Doherty, Dear Nobody, H Hamilton

1990 Gillian Cross, Wolf, OUP

1989 Anne Fine, Goggle-eyes, H Hamilton

1988 Geraldine McCaughrean, A Pack of Lies, OUP (I love this book. I can't recommend it enough)

1987 Susan Price, The Ghost Drum, Faber

1986 Berlie Doherty, Granny was a Buffer Girl, Methuen

1985 Kevin Crossley-Holland, Storm, Heinemann

1984 Margaret Mahy, The Changeover, Dent

1983 Jan Mark, Handles, Kestrel

1982 Margaret Mahy, The Haunting, Dent

1981 Robert Westall, The Scarecrows, Chatto & Windus

1980 Peter Dickinson, City of Gold, Gollancz

1979 Peter Dickinson, Tulku, Gollancz

1978 David Rees, The Exeter Blitz, H Hamilton

1977 Gene Kemp, The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tiler, Faber

1976 Jan Mark, Thunder and Lightnings, Kestrel

1975 Robert Westall, The Machine Gunners, Macmillan

1974 Mollie Hunter, The Stronghold, H Hamilton

1973 Penelope Lively, The Ghost of Thomas Kempe, Heinemann

1972 Richard Adams, Watership Down, Rex Collings

1971 Ivan Southall, Josh, Angus & Robertson

1970 Leon Garfield & Edward Blishen, The God Beneath the Sea, Longman

1969 Kathleen Peyton, The Edge of the Cloud, OUP

1968 Rosemary Harris, The Moon in the Cloud, Faber

1967 Alan Garner, The Owl Service, Collins

1966 Prize withheld as no book considered suitable

1965 Philip Turner, The Grange at High Force, OUP

1964 Sheena Porter, Nordy Bank, OUP

1963 Hester Burton, Time of Trial, OUP

1962 Pauline Clarke, The Twelve and the Genii, Faber

1961 Lucy M Boston, A Stranger at Green Knowe, Faber

1960 Dr I W Cornwall, The Making of Man, Phoenix House

1959 Rosemary Sutcliff, The Lantern Bearers, OUP

1958 Philipa Pearce, Tom's Midnight Garden, OUP

1957 William Mayne, A Grass Rope, OUP

1956 C S Lewis, The Last Battle, Bodley Head

1955 Eleanor Farjeon, The Little Bookroom, OUP

1954 Ronald Welch (Felton Ronald Oliver), Knight Crusader, OUP

1953 Edward Osmond, A Valley Grows Up

1952 Mary Norton, The Borrowers, Dent

1951 Cynthia Harnett, The Woolpack, Methuen

1950 Elfrida Vipont Foulds, The Lark on the Wing, OUP

1949 Agnes Allen, The Story of Your Home, Faber

1948 Richard Armstrong, Sea Change, Dent

1947 Walter De La Mare, Collected Stories for Children

1946 Elizabeth Goudge, The Little White Horse, University of London Press

1945 Prize withheld as no book considered suitable

1944 Eric Linklater, The Wind on the Moon, Macmillan

1943 Prize withheld as no book considered suitable

1942 'BB' (D J Watkins-Pitchford), The Little Grey Men, Eyre & Spottiswoode

1941 Mary Treadgold, We Couldn't Leave Dinah, Cape

1940 Kitty Barne, Visitors from London, Dent

1939 Eleanor Doorly, Radium Woman, Heinemann

1938 Noel Streatfeild, The Circus is Coming, Dent

1937 Eve Garnett, The Family from One End Street, Muller

1936 Arthur Ransome, Pigeon Post, Cape

Update the second - don't say I never do anything for you.

There's some crazy double-negatives going on in that title. But that's just the kind of girl I am. A girl on the edge! In a, er, double-negative sort of way.
Anyhow, I thought I'd do a quick update with the books I've been reading lately. They've all been Dorothy L Sayers books. There are no words for how wonderful these books are. Seriously, the progression of Peter from "Whose Body?" to "Busman's Honeymoon" is -insane-. He's REAL. Because he's so real and you love him so much, the relationship between Peter and Harriet Vane is really emotionally affecting. I can't explain what I mean, you'll have to read the books. So, in no particular order..

"Murder Must Advertise" - Dorothy L Sayers

I read this in one delicious sitting. I was initially unsure, but fell in love a few pages in - here is Peter at his witty best, undercover as his disreputable cousin Death Bredon at an advertising firm, trying to solve the murder of one Victor Dean. The actual crux of the plot, the device used (I'd elaborate, but I'd spoil it) is just genius and did actually make me shout "aha!" But we also see another side of Peter as the Harlequin, perhaps hinting at his shady (relatively speaking) past (the opera singer, anyone?!) as Sayers tackles head-on the problem of drugs. Fascinating.

"Gaudy Night" - Dorothy L Sayers

Harriet Vane is back. I think that the most remarkable thing about "Gaudy Night" is that whilst so much character progression occurs in the space of one novel, both for Lord Peter and especially for Harriet, it's believable. It's not strictly a murder mystery, there's no murder, but there's so much more for that...Harriet and Peter are so human and almost infuriating at times because you like them both so much and want them to find happiness with each other, and when they finally do.....*sigh*

"Busman's Honeymoon" - Dorothy L Sayers

The beginning of "Busman's Honeymoon", charting Harriet and Peter's engagement is told through letters and diary entries, an unusual and often amusing form and one that Jill Paton Walsh later utilises in "Thrones, Dominations". This is "a love story with detective interruptions"; the murder isn't even discovered until halfway through the novel, but in some regards it's not -about- murder, it's about so much more than that, and Peter and Harriet become even more real. The closing chapters of "Busman's Honeymoon" are absolutely tragic, but also Sayers on the top of her form. Quite simply, they're perfection. You'll weep. I did.

"Thrones, Dominations" - Dorothy L Sayers, Jill Paton Walsh

More Peter and Harriet! Whilst it's not strictly Sayers, Jill Paton Walsh has done a pretty good job with the characters. She's definitely understood Harriet; Harriet is brilliant here, and although unsure about the character development in Bunter, I'm glad that a little more is said about him. As for Peter, it's a trifle hit-and-miss in places, but it's a good effort, an enjoyable read and, at the end of the day, it's more Peter and Harriet.

I must away to work, where hopefully a copy of "A Presumption of Death" will be awaiting me.

Monday 21st July, 2008

A long-overdue update! For shame! In my defence (I always end up saying this), I have been quite busy lately with a writing project that I have finally completed. So, what have I been reading?

Disgrace - J.M. Coetzee

I really enjoyed this. To be honest, I was surprised that I did, because apartheid isn't normally a topic that interests me in a novel (to clarify, it's not that I don't care about or am not interested in apartheid itself, rather that it's not the first subject that I look for in a novel), but I liked the fact that the book wasn't overly moral; in many ways, it was the fact that the novel's protagonist was to some extent an antihero that made me enjoy it. It reminded me of Achebe's "Things Fall Apart", but I'm not a hundred percent sure why...perhaps I'll reread the Achebe to try to figure it out. It was a difficult book, and an often unsettling one but in many ways that's right, that's what a novel about apartheid should be I suppose. So, a recommended read - I was disappointed that it didn't scoop the Best of Booker. I loathe Salman Rushdie. I can't read "Midnight's Children". I tried.

Hotel du Lac - Anita Brookner

God, I loved this. It was such a perfect read, such wonderful writing and such a compelling character in Edith Hope that I read it in one delicious sitting. I've just been reading the Amazon page, however, and I seem to have interpreted it differently to the other readers on there. Edith's actions at the end of the novel seem to me to suggest that she chooses her life with David despite the scandal and distress it causes over marriage with the loathsome Mr Neville, but other readers seem to have interpreted the ending of "Hotel du Lac" to mean that Edith chooses a single life. Interesting. Anyway, a wonderful, wonderful novel and one that I will cherish for a long time to come.

Unfortunately, I haven't got any further with the other Booker books yet (although I picked up a few in the excellent Black Gull Books of Camden), although from the blurb I can't honestly say that I'm looking forward to Keri Hulme's "The Bone People". Maybe I'll be surprised.

The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

I found this book disturbing in the extreme, horrifying, grotesque and yet compulsively readable. I've just said in my review of the Coetzee that I liked the fact that the characters weren't likeable, but the characters of this novel disturbed and disgusted me...they were more the overblown cariacatures of Dickens' Mrs Joe than believable human beings. I think that the novel is a successful achievement of what Banks evidently set out to write, but whilst that makes the novel a success on a stylistic novel, I didn't find it successful on a higher level, the level of meaning if you will. It appealed more to the side of human nature that causes us to gawp at Channel 5 documentaries about children with birth defects ("Half Man, Half Tree"!) than any level of compassion.

On the academic side, I've been reading

"King Lear"

"King Lear" was one of the Shakespeare plays I hadn't read for reasons which I am not entirely sure of - I think that I thought it would be dense, impenetrable and difficult to follow. How wrong I was. Tell me I'm stating the obvious, but there's something about the Shakespeare plays that makes them come alive on the page - even if you haven't seen a production, you can hear it in your head. Shakespeare always writes such wonderful villains - I have a particularly soft spot for Iago...yes, the less said about that the better - and I found Edmund such an interesting character. He differs greatly from Iago though (thank you Captain Obvious for that dazzling insight), I think because Iago is driven by jealousy and perhaps desire, but Edmund just wants power and sees those who stand between him and power as mere obstacles, a desire that is beyond the trappings of human affection.

"Shakespeare's Doctrine of Nature" - John F Danby

I found this quite a challenging read in that it asked me to consider things that I had not previously considered about the nature of mankind and what nature really means. I can't honestly say that I followed all of it, but what I did understand was very interesting; I especially liked the way that Danby considered the characters of "Lear" in the context of Shakespeare's other plays, particularly when he was discussing the Machiavel and the killing of kings.

For pure pleasure (not that I don't always read for pleasure), I have been reading

"Whose Body?"
"Clouds of Witness"
"The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club"
"Strong Poison"
"Have His Carcase" - Dorothy Sayers

I had never read any Dorothy Sayers before and picked them upon the recommendation of a friend at work. The Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries are absolutely wonderful; I am in love with Peter Wimsey, of course, but there's so much more to the novels, especially now that Harriet Vane has been introduced and the relationship between Wimsey and Harriet is starting to develop. Just brilliant. I haven't found an author who's made me want to read everything they've ever written in a long time.

As an aside, I met Simon Armitage yesterday. It was fantastic! He read at Latitude (he read my favourite poem, "The Shout") and I was right at the front. Hurrah. I also was right at the front for Adrian Mitchell (whom I also met), Carol Ann Duffy (love her, love her, love her), John Hegley (ditto), Elvis McCormack (thank you thank you thank you for the wonderful epithet, "Sting, where is thy death?") and Luke Wright (so good that I saw him three times and bought the CD). I saw lots of other really good poets perform as well - notwithstanding some really excellent theatre (with the exception of the RSC production which was terrible) and of course some genius bands. I've got to say, the poetry tent at Latitude really did make me think about doing more with my poetry. I currently post it on a really lame poetry site and have one fan. He's very nice, though.

Pics for the pic god!

A slightly dodgy cameraphone shot of my bookpile for your viewing amusement.

29th May 2008

Here's a quick update as to what I've been reading:

"Wilkins' Tooth" - Diana Wynne Jones
"Eight Days of Luke" - Diana Wynne Jones
"The Little World Of Don Camillo" - Giovanni Guareschi
"Don Camillo and the Prodigal Son" - Giovanni Guareschi
"Don Camillo's Dilemma" - Giovanni Guareschi
"The Traitor Game" - Bridget Collins (picked this up as a proof - would recommend!)
"Sir Robert Peel: Statesmanship, Power and Party" - Evans (revision, groan.)

Not very cerebral, I'm afraid! In my defence, I've had my AS Levels left right and centre, so have been slightly preoccupied. However, I am determined to read more and have decided to embark upon a Booker Challenge, wherein I read all of the Booker winners (yes, all 41 of them), largely for kicks. I already possess ten or thereabouts of the winners and have already read "Life of Pi" and "The Remains of the Day" (although I intend to reread them in the fullness of time), so here's my list of the ten I'll be starting with.

"Oscar and Lucinda" - Peter Carey. I've already started this, and it's very enjoyable thus far.
"Paddy Clarke, Ha Ha Ha" - Roddy Doyle.
"Hotel du Lac" - Anita Brookner
"Possession" - A.S. Byatt
"The God Of Small Things" - Arundhati Roy
"Midnight's Children" - Salman Rushdie
"The Blind Assassin" - Margaret Atwood
"Rites of Passage" - William Golding
"Schindler's Ark" - Thomas Keneally
"Vernon God Little" - DBC Pierre
"Moon Tiger" - Penelope Lively

I don't think that I'll read them in any particular order, to be honest it depends upon what's happening in my life and how much time I have to read. Nonetheless, I'm looking forward to it. Onwards and upwards!

2nd May 2008

Recently, I've read four fantastic books -

"The Private Lives of Pippa Lee" - Rebecca Miller

A strange, unputdownable debut, beautifully and bleakly written with a twist in the closing pages that made me want to weep with frustration but at the same time was absolutely fitting with the rest of the novel - read it and you'll see what I mean. Wonderful.

"The Cutting Room" - Louise Welsh

I bought this on a whim after seeing the word "Rilke" on the back cover (impulsive, moi?!), but am thoroughly glad that I did so. I hadn't read anything like it before and, to be honest, in theory it's not my kind of thing - a crime novel, set in Glasgow. However, I loved its gritty realism, its beautifully human (and, by association, flawed) protagonist and cast of characters that are great because they aren't conventionally -good- characters, if that makes any sense. The plot is a trifle convoluted and there's an awkward sex scene or two, but it's a thoroughly enjoyable read and one I plan to reread in the future. Her novella "Tamburlaine Must Die" is also well worth a look.

"Gawain And The Green Knight" - Simon Armitage
"Tyrannosaurus Rex vs The Corduroy Kid" - Simon Armitage

I'm going to stand up and admit it. I love Simon Armitage. You may scoff. You may show me his cliches, his difficult turns of phrase, you can mutter darkly about his inclusion on the -horror of horrors- GCSE syllabus...and I won't care. I think that the way that he uses words is nothing short of masterful, and I know it's cliched and I know that all the reviewers have said it, but his translation (if that's the correct term to use - it's not a straight academic translation by any means, as Armitage is at pains to point out in his very interesting prologue) really does breathe new life into the original. Just look at this -

And the wars were one thing, but winter was worse:
clouds shed their cargo of crystallised rain
which froze as it fell to the frost-glazed earth.
With nerves frozen numb he napped in his armour,
biouvacked in the blackness among bare rocks
where melt-water streamed from the snow-capped summits
and high overhead hung chandeliers of ice.

I've read several translations of "Gawain", but Armitage's stands apart - he preserves the ring, the thumping cadence of the original and even the alliteration. Highly recommended.

"Tyrannosaurus Rex..." is an interesting collection. It addresses the requisite political issues (KX) but there's also more of a focus on the emotional side of Armitage's poetry that we've previously seen in the 1993 collection "Book Of Matches" - and, personally, the side that I value most. Some of these poems are really moving, especially "The Spelling" and "Fisherwood" in which Armitage discusses his grief over his father's death and the lack of communication between them -

And I am all grief, staring through black space
to meet his eyes, trying to read his face.
(The Spelling)

I'll sit for a while and I'll weep;

under my eyelids, northern lights
and solar flares shimmer and rage
(Fisherwood)

- a lack of communication previously explored in "My Father Thought It Bloody Queer.." As a final note, included in the collection is an extract from Armitage's translation of "The Odyssey" which is very good indeed...and is currently sitting on the shelf in the bookshop, just screaming for me to buy it. Must curb insatiable book-buying habit! And just to further expand upon my deep and somewhat disturbing desire for aforementioned Simon A, I bought a ticket for Latitude festival earlier, at which he is reading. Hurrah!

What I'm Reading At The Moment

The Bullet Trick - Louise Welsh

A little too-self conscious, and disappointing thus far. Hmm.

Any Human Heart - William Boyd

I'm enjoying this! I'm a huge Evelyn Waugh fan, and I love the way that Boyd skillfully weaves real authors and artists in and out of the fictional Logan Mounstuart's life, and the way that Logan is so believable as a character. I look forward to reading more.

Book review of the year thus far

Thus far this year, I have read

The End Of The Affair - Graham Greene
Anything Goes - John Barrowman
I Am Legend - Richard Matheson
The Game - Diana Wynne Jones
The Gum Thief - Douglas Coupland
The Duchess of Malfi - John Webster
Then We Came To The End - Joshua Ferris
On Chesil Beach - Ian McEwan
The Outsiders - S.E. Hinton
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You - Peter Cameron
Persuasion - Jane Austen
The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
Terrier - Tamora Pierce
Fairest - Gail Carson Levine
It's Kind of A Funny Story - Ned Vizzini
My Side Of The Story - Will Davis
The Realm Of Possibility - David Levithan
Collected e.e. cummings
King Dork - Frank Portman
The Magician's Nephew - C.S. Lewis
Wild Magic - Tamora Pierce
Wolf Speaker - Tamora Pierce
Hamlet - William Shakespeare
The Waste Land - T.S. Eliot
In Memoriam A.H.H. - Tennyson
Pearl - The Gawain Poet
Thyrsis - Matthew Arnold
No One Belongs Here More Than You - Miranda July

I am currently reading:

Watchmen - Alan Moore
I Capture The Castle - Dodie Smith
The Private Lives Of Pippa Lee - Rebecca Miller