The summer holidays are the perfect time to explore new books, writers and ideas. Portsmouth Point asked PGS teachers to reveal what they are going to be reading over this summer. Here, Mr Richardson, Ms Hart and Mr Burkinshaw share their summer selections.
Mark Richardson
Bryony Hart
This summer I am reading
Natalie Haynes's A Thousand Ships, amongst others. I have been following the
Women's Prize for Fiction with Year 11 Book Group and Dr Webb, and this is the
third in the list of six shortlisted titles, which can be found here:
https://www.womensprizeforfiction.co.uk/2020-prize
I have already read Evaristo's Girl, Woman, Other and Cruz's Dominicana, both of which focus on giving voice to the female experience, which I now realise is so much broader than it used to be. A Thousand Ships is a retelling of the events of the Trojan war but from a female perspective . Much like Pat Barker's The Silence of the Girls, Haynes offer 'a much-needed voice to the silenced women' in this famous story.
James Burkinshaw
Lockdown has perhaps given us rather too much time to think about life, the universe and everything, which may explain the success of Professor Brian Greene's Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe. As a non-scientist, I am approaching this book with a sense of anticipation but also trepidation. One writer who was deeply sceptical about any attempt to seek meaning in a chaotic universe was Herman Melville whose novel, Moby-Dick, is one of my all-time favourites. I am therefore looking forward to reading Ahab's Rolling Sea: A Natural History by Richard King, which explains what Melville's extraordinary book can still teach us about our oceans and their denizens in an era of environmental crisis.
In the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests, the world is currently wrestling with the legacies of slavery and imperialism. 75 years ago, Germany was forced to confront its past to an extent unparalleled by any other country before or since. Susan Neiman's Learning from the Germans: Confronting Race and the Memory of Evil seems to have much to teach countries such as the USA and Britain about opening their eyes to their own troubled histories. The brutalities of British colonialism were explored in one of the most savagely brilliant novels I have ever read, Matthew Kneale's English Passengers; I have been eagerly anticipating his new book, Pilgrims, a medieval tale of faith and fallibility, desire and delusion that sounds worthy of Chaucer himself.
Were I to make my own pilgrimage, a prime destination would be 56 Parnassus Lane, West Saugerties, New York, where The Band recorded their iconic album, Music from Big Pink. In common with Mr Wiggins, I am keen to read John Niven's novel of the same name. It was released to mark Big Pink's 50th anniversary, as was this cover version of a much-loved song from the album, 'The Weight', which I came across on the first day of Lockdown. I have been returning to this wonderful version ever since: a soaring affirmation of art's capacity to connect us.
Mark Richardson
The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel. I like writing that
really gets to grips with writing itself, and the way in which turns of phrase
that are crafted and well-tuned (and well-tuned) create something new. Mantel
is just such a writer: the first two instalments of the trilogy each won the
Booker Prize, and this final volume must give the judges real concern, because
to give it to her again would be extraordinary, but to NOT give it to her would
be even more extraordinary.
The Swerve by Stephen Greenblatt. Greenblatt is an amazing writer:
this work is on the discovery of a book that must be regarded as one of the
jewels not only of the classical world, but also of Renaissance and the present
world with which we are only too familiar. He explores the book from such a
range of perspectives, he teaches you about history, language, science and
religion, and always is so readable, making complex ideas seem so easy and
accessible. I plan also to read more by him this summer too: just depends on
what I can get my hands on, but I suspect it will be about one of his central
obsessions: Shakespeare.
De Rerum Natura by Lucretius. This is the book Greenblatt's
dazzling work is about. I will never have the skill to read it in its original
Latin, but I love the presence of a number of translations, and I plan to read
a Penguin edition, because Penguin is the publisher central to my academic life
and dominates my shelves. It is a book that contains so much modernity, and is
so challenging in its principles, that I cannot wait to read something that I
really should have read decades ago. Never too late.
Montaigne's Essays. I am becoming more and more alert to how
writing is part of my own life. I am a poor writer compared with all the
others, but I enjoy the tussle and the graft. Montaigne's approach seems to me
to provide a model, and I want to explore more.
Small Hours: the Long Night of John Martyn by Graeme Thomson. I
await this with some trepidation. I only really like books about musicians if
the books themselves are worth reading, and they rarely are. But Martyn is one
of my favourite characters in music (there are many, though), and I hope that
this will enthuse me even more about his work.
Bryony Hart
https://www.womensprizeforfiction.co.uk/2020-prize
I have already read Evaristo's Girl, Woman, Other and Cruz's Dominicana, both of which focus on giving voice to the female experience, which I now realise is so much broader than it used to be. A Thousand Ships is a retelling of the events of the Trojan war but from a female perspective . Much like Pat Barker's The Silence of the Girls, Haynes offer 'a much-needed voice to the silenced women' in this famous story.
James Burkinshaw
Lockdown has perhaps given us rather too much time to think about life, the universe and everything, which may explain the success of Professor Brian Greene's Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe. As a non-scientist, I am approaching this book with a sense of anticipation but also trepidation. One writer who was deeply sceptical about any attempt to seek meaning in a chaotic universe was Herman Melville whose novel, Moby-Dick, is one of my all-time favourites. I am therefore looking forward to reading Ahab's Rolling Sea: A Natural History by Richard King, which explains what Melville's extraordinary book can still teach us about our oceans and their denizens in an era of environmental crisis.
In the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests, the world is currently wrestling with the legacies of slavery and imperialism. 75 years ago, Germany was forced to confront its past to an extent unparalleled by any other country before or since. Susan Neiman's Learning from the Germans: Confronting Race and the Memory of Evil seems to have much to teach countries such as the USA and Britain about opening their eyes to their own troubled histories. The brutalities of British colonialism were explored in one of the most savagely brilliant novels I have ever read, Matthew Kneale's English Passengers; I have been eagerly anticipating his new book, Pilgrims, a medieval tale of faith and fallibility, desire and delusion that sounds worthy of Chaucer himself.
Were I to make my own pilgrimage, a prime destination would be 56 Parnassus Lane, West Saugerties, New York, where The Band recorded their iconic album, Music from Big Pink. In common with Mr Wiggins, I am keen to read John Niven's novel of the same name. It was released to mark Big Pink's 50th anniversary, as was this cover version of a much-loved song from the album, 'The Weight', which I came across on the first day of Lockdown. I have been returning to this wonderful version ever since: a soaring affirmation of art's capacity to connect us.
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