Category Archives: Books

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Life at Full Tilt – I love the title for a start

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This arrived in the post today, and I am so looking forward to reading it.

I opened the front cover of the book and discovered a map of the world with arrows racing out from various points on different continents, each arrow ending in a book written by Dervla Murphy. I counted 24 in total, and those may be just the ones from which extracts have been taken for this book. That’s a lot of ground to cover.

There are just two titles that I recognise, and have read, from those listed on the inside map. The last one I read was Wheels within Wheels in which Dervla describes her family and early life, and the circumstances that led to her setting off on her bicycle – the trips getting longer and longer.

It must have been quite a task to choose a selection for this book. I hope to have the time to savour them slowly.

Thank you Eland.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023

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A book full of pictures and hope

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I was given this book at almost the same time as I finished Demon Copperhead.

Demon Copperhead, as long as a battle, wound me in beside its main character to witness the traumas of his growing up, while The Last Tree – A Seed of Hope, by Luke Adam Hawker, is very different.

This book spun me like a leaf through its roots, allowing me to drift along with its young protagonist Olive when she loses touch with her classmates on a visit to the Tree Museum. There she becomes absorbed by a picture of The Last Tree. She sits in front of it, imagining how it would have been to climb trees and to live amongst them. At the end of the visit, when the class leaves for home, she is eager to see her father, and is clutching a seed that they will plant together for the generations to come.

That’s the story, but it’s the illustrations – pages of lovely drawings in black and white – that really pull the narrative wide, exploring and imagining through the eyes of a small child in a big world, and using only a few lines of text to do so.

I loved this book. It’s gentle but intense, and hard to resist flicking through again and again.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023

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Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

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I’ve finished! Longest book I’ve read for a while (546 pages) … and I didn’t abandon it.

I read the novel a chapter at a time, and occasionally not even that. The reason was the lack of minutes in my day, but each time I picked the book up, I was surprised to find myself engrossed again.

The reason I think is the voice. Demon Copperfield’s voice. It is fascinating, trapped like a stone in a barrel rolling down a hill, the barrel being the Appalachian community that Demon finds himself born into. Both his personal circumstances and the community are potholed with hardship, and his own path through them as dysfunctional as any.

Orphaned as a young child Demon is reliant on the damaged hands of others – foster carers, relatives, guardians. He bounces from one difficult situation to the next, always hopeful that things will get better. But they don’t seem too.

In his late teens his body shows real sporting potential, but when that too suffers breakdown the cracks in his life split wide open. Vulnerable and willing they are soon stuffed with drugs, some prescription and some not, all available and seemingly everywhere.

“I stopped caring around this point because the little white submarine-shaped pill he’d given me to swallow was starting to sing its pretty song in my head.”

And down Demon goes, taking us with him, and showing us why through this book. Its pace is as fast as a young child growing, its tragedy as restless as Demon as he searches for a way out.

I found the story engrossing, and feel richer for having read it. If you have the time, and like a strong voice, I think you’ll enjoy this.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023