In search of new writers
Archive for November, 2009
Stonehenge by Rosemary Hill
Nov 19th
This is a fascinating account of Stonehenge’s grip on the public imagination. Having recently wandered into The Circus, the circular street designed by John Wood in Bath, I was fascinated to discover that it had been influenced by the ancient monument, and that Wood’s work in turn influenced Oxford Circus and Piccadilly Circus. In addition to this, after recently reading Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol (which explores Freemasonry in depth), I was intrigued to read that Inigo Jones believed that all classical architecture (such as Stonehenge) was derived from King Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem, since this is the building that Freemasons venerate above all others. Since I also lived in Milton Keynes for a few years, I was amazed to find out just how much the building of this new city was influenced by Stonehenge. There are a great many other fascinating revelations to be found within the pages of Rosemary Hill’s Stonehenge, such as the fact that many previous commentators on the site mistakenly came to the conclusion that the momument must have been post Roman, simply because the Romans never mentioned it! Or at least, the Romans never mentioned Stonehenge as far as we know, as they may have written about it in an account which was lost, in the same way that the name of Boudicca was lost in the annals of British history until the rediscovery of Roman accounts during the Renaissance. Rosemary Hill also relates how the story of the Wicker Man became entwined with Stonehenge’s history, along with the Druids. The story of how modern man has tried and failed to replicate the transportation of the stones is most amusing! Rosemary Hill’s Stonehenge is a really great exposition of the monument, and very much stands comparison with Mary Beard’s recent account of Pompeii.
The Dirty South by Alex Wheatle
Nov 17th
This is an excellent novel by Alex Wheatle. Dennis Huggins lives in one of the more bourgeois streets of Brixton, and his parents, unlike many of his peers’, are still together. His parents also have good jobs, especially his mother, who works as a legal secretary. However, his father is crippled due to a violent incident from his youth, and Dennis is fascinated by the idea that his father may have been a gangster. Although Dennis’s home background has set him far in advance of his peers at school, he does get bored very quickly by the very limited lessons that are provided at his school, and mucks around while the other students struggle. Dennis’s father has ambitions of him becoming a professor, although Dennis is put off by his nagging, but it appears that his sister Davinia has picked up the academic gene. Not sharing his father’s vision, Dennis leaves school to become a drug dealer, although he does also work in a garage. He and his best friend, Noel, shun hard drugs, and learn to avoid selling to other black men, as this is too risky. However, it’s not all doom and gloom for Dennis, as he sets his heart on the beautiful and articulate Akeisha. Yet the pervading ghetto culture that surrounds him very much influences the way that he treats women, to detrimental effect… Although Dennis would appear to have more choices than his best friend Noel, he doesn’t choose to leave the path that he has always followed, despite being on the receiving end of a violent beating due to it. One of the main themes in the novel is how the culture in Brixton is very much changing, as the local community gradually transforms from being West Indian in character, to African Muslim. Dennis is amazed to see how many Christian peers from his schooldays have taken up Islam, seemingly as a way of rebelling, even although they don’t appear to be all that popular within the local Muslim culture either. Despite their religious conversions, Dennis’s Muslim peers are just as in thrall to the power of money as he, which sets them on course for a very violent confrontation… Alex Wheatle is a very accomplished writer indeed, although it was a bit cheeky of him to include his MC alter ego, Yardman Irie, in the novel! All in all, The Dirty South is a truly brilliant novel told in the Brixton vernacular. The Dirty South very much makes me want to hunt down Wheatle’s previous books, especially since the events of East of Acre Lane seem to have been referred to.
