Rose-tinted memories, mis-remembered by some, forgotten by others

A few years ago a university friend attempted to reunite our old gang. The response was somewhat unenthusiastic. Rose-tinted memories resurfaced, mis-remembered by some, forgotten by others. Thank goodness it didn't go ahead, unlike the reunion of The Old Devils in Kingsley Amis's novel.

The book begins with the news that Rhiannon and Alun Weaver have decided to retire to Wales, where their old chums live. Gwen Cellan-Davies, remarks ominously to her husband Malcom, "You know, I don't think that news about the Weavers is good news for anyone." I had to agree.

Many reviewers find the story humorous, but on reaching the end you may consider the satire to be often cruel, sometimes overdone, even tragic. Wales and Welsh culture often bear the brunt, as when Rhiannon and Alun arrive in South Wales by train. They "went outside and stood where a sign used to say Taxi and now said Taxi/Tacsi for the benefit of Welsh people who had never seen a letter X before." There's a lot of dislike for fictional poet Brydon (supposedly based on Dylan Thomas who was a particular bugbear for Amis). After a time this became tediously repetitive.

You have to laugh about some things tho', especially if, like the characters, you've reached the age of 60. Certain problems begin to manifest themselves, and life is best borne by chuckling at them. Malcolm's daily ritual of going to the loo for instance, when success is a "signal for him to sit to attention and snap a salute". As for Peter, we discover he prefers to cut his toe nails in the garden, where "he could let the parings fly free, and fly they bloody well did, especially the ones that came crunching off his big toes, which were massive enough and moved fast enough to have brought down a sparrow on the wing..." Both these descriptions made me smile.

For this reader tho' the portrayal of excessive drinking and alcoholism was depressing rather than funny. The majority of the senior characters have no other interests than spending most nights in the pub downing beer and spirits (men), or at a friend's house polishing off a few bottles of wine (women).

There's a happy ending of sorts, but I've enjoyed other humorous books much more. For loveable characters I preferred Three Men in a Boat's laugh-out-loud antics, and Good Behaviour's complicated yet funny older woman was more intriguing. Still, if you're a middle-class Brit who's nearing retirement age you might read the book as a cautionary tale.

How to enrich your life

I love libraries. Unlike the online world, they don't limit your horizons to something an algorithm suggests because you've taken an interest in it before. You can be looking for books about travelling in Europe, and before you get to the shelf, you see something far more interesting that you didn't even realise you wanted. Which is what happens to me today.

I have to vacate the apartment for a couple of hours, the weather looks like rain, so I think I'll go to the library. The catalogue is online and maybe the 910 shelves will be interesting. I see there might be some books on travel. That'll do.

Before I reach the relevant shelf, I'm scanning book spines and spot a slim, white, hardback. In red lettering it says 'How to Enjoy Poetry', written by the English comedian Frank Skinner. So I take it off the shelf, settle myself in one of the library's comfy chairs, and read it cover to cover. It took about an hour.

What a brilliant book. It's Skinner's personal interpretation of a poem called 'Pad, pad' by Stevie Smith, who I'd never heard of before today. The poem is short, just nine lines, two stanzas, and somewhat tragicomic. Just the sort of thing I like.

Skinner explains that you cannot read a poem just once and hope to understand it. You need to read again, and again, and again. Think about how the words create rhythms, what images are conjured up in your mind, and with each reading you'll discover something new in it.

To conclude, Skinner exhorts us to "Read more poetry. I honestly believe it will change your life as it continues to change mine." I'd like to add to that, visit your library more often, it may not change your life, but it'll certainly enrich it.

Cheating at cards... it's about the only crime that can still finish you

Last year the screen persona of James Bond turned 60. He made his debut in 1962 with Dr. No. I must have seen all the movies. I groaned at the awful punned names of heroines like Pussy Galore and cringed when Sean Connery forcibly kissed her. I rolled my eyes at Roger Moore's cheesy humour and cheered when Piers Brosnan met his match with Onatop. But in all this time I've never, up to now, read a single one of Ian Fleming's James Bond novels.

It's Friday, it's Fontvieille, and it's fish and chips

We don't do too badly for fancy fare in Monaco. The 2023 Michelin Red Guide for France was published at the beginning of March, awarding a total of 9 stars to restaurants in the Principality. If something quick and simple is required the humble pissaladière and barbagiuan are delicious and can be bought for a few euros in my local boulangerie (or for a lot more in a starred restaurant in England, but that's another story). Sometimes tho', only a taste of home will satisfy, something from my native land: British ale, Tunnocks Tea Cakes, and of course, that staple of the working class, fish and chips.

Virginity: the sum of a girl's worth

In the early 1970s Mum's American pen friend and family paid us a visit on their way home from Iran; the husband was something in US diplomacy. We wore our best clothes and had to be on our best behaviour. Our visitors had straight teeth and spoke with movie-star accents. They brought with them a small souvenir for each of us from the faraway, fairytale country about which I knew nothing. I still have my gift, a little mirror mounted behind small doors in a hand-made, hand-painted frame. I'd never owned anything so exotic, and for many years this was my only image of Iran. So when I picked up Jasmin Darznik's Song Of A Captive Bird I thought it might give me some insight into the country.

Alice's Adventures in Blackpool - a poem for children that's best read aloud

Writing Magazine's recent competition was to write a poem inspired by Lewis Carroll's Alice adventures. If you've been following my book reviews, you'll know that last year I read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland for the first time. The competition asked for "a poem on any aspect of the Alice stories, from a re-imagining of their contents to the facts and myths that surround their writing, illustration and publication." I imagined Alice transported to Blackpool to see her distant working class relatives, the Ramsbottoms. You might recall that Albert was swallowed by Wallace the lion after poking the big cat's ear with his stick with an 'orse's 'ead 'andle. The story was immortalised in verse by Marriott Edgar.

Well, I wrote and I wrote, and by the time I'd finished, my poem was too long for the competition. So here it is for you, dear reader. I hope you enjoy it.

Alice's Adventures in Blackpool

It'd been such a very long journey
to Blackpool, and right after tea
young Alice was feeling quite drowsy,
so declined to go paddling in t'sea.

Now, I realize that accounts differ... My account you can trust

Did you know that Macbeth was a real Scottish king who died nine years before William the Conqueror fought the battle of Hastings? Shakespeare put his own spin on the real man to big-up the ancestry of James Sixth of Scotland (and First of England). The playwright relied on an English chronicle, but there are at least four alternative Scottish histories. And have you seen Braveheart, Mel Gibson's kilt-clad, woad-faced portrayal of the 13th century struggle for Scottish independence? One historian said of the movie that it was "one of the most historically inaccurate films I have ever seen. It bears almost no relation to historical fact". Now I'm not suggesting that everything we think we know about Scotland might be made-up for some nefarious purpose, but maybe we should take a step back and reconsider what we've been told, especially if it's based on the work of a couple of blokes in the entertainment industry, both of whom had businesses to run.