What PGS Staff Are Reading This Summer 3

Sarah Stewart

My summer reading will most likely start with:

Cry of the Kalahari by Mark and Delia Owens: When this book was recently recommended to me I jumped at the chance of reading it. I absolutely loved Delia Owens’ Where the Crawdads Sing, which was such a beautiful and poignant read. As a geographer I am always fascinated with other places and love to travel to as many as I can, but to read such well-crafted descriptions means I can almost feel like I am there with them instead. This book, I think, will transport me back to a time well before travel and tourism became a common occurrence and particularly to the continent of Africa. I am lucky enough to be travelling to the same continent this summer, albeit several decades later, but this book will therefore be a very suitable travelling companion!

 The Evening and the Morning (prequel to the Pillars of the Earth) by Ken Follett: Having so enjoyed the Pillars of the Earth several years ago and the ensuing sequels, I have just discovered this prequel and am looking forward to finding out how the fictitious village of Kingsbridge was founded. This author has fuelled my interest in human settlements, architecture and behaviours (from feudal systems to religious control), as well as providing vivid descriptions of some of the key historical events that happened during those periods of time. I am keen to find out more about what life was like in Britain in the Dark Ages enduring viking raids and other challenging circumstances.

The Power of Geography, Tim Marshall: This has been sitting waiting for me to read it ever since I read Tim Marshall’s Prisoners of Geography and is highly recommended for anyone who has an interest in geopolitics today. Prisoners of Geography considers the many geographical factors which contribute to the evolution of the political map as we see it today, from physical features creating natural boundaries to demography separating or binding groups of people to natural resources providing great wealth and power for some places. In this book, Marshall considers how these factors will dictate political tensions and problems in the future in ten places which include; the United Kingdom, the Sahel, Australia and outer space. This is a must read for any pupil studying A level Geography or Government and Politics.

Emma Kirby

I intend to read Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper and other Stories: I read ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ at university and have been haunted by its memory ever since. It’s very short, narrated in first-person by an American lady suffering from ‘nervous illness’, and is completely shocking! It’s only really started being championed for its unorthodoxy towards the end of the twentieth century and had become something of a cult favourite, a ‘must’ on many a reading list today. However, I’ve never read another short story by Perkins Gilman, so I’ve picked up the Oxford World Classic collection and tend to get stuck in over the summer. Sticking with the Gothic/Classic theme, I’ve also picked up some short ghost stories by Elizabeth Gaskell and Edith Nesbitt. Not very seasonal, maybe, but I’d imagine I’ll still be going by autumn!

John Sadden

As an archivist I live largely in the past and so Mr Burkinshaw's recommendation of Ulverton, which tells the story of a Wessex village over three centuries, seems up my street. What sets this apart from the usual sweeping dramatic historical saga is the author's approach. The novel is made up of twelve accounts told in the language and style of the time in which each is set, connected by the location and its landscape. I am intrigued by how the author reflects the age in which character lives and speaks, and how these connections are made. This, and the truth that many debut novels are the writers' best, help make this a welcome recommendation.

Dan Frampton

It's an LGBTQ history kind of summer for me.

First up, I plan to read The End of Innocence: Britain in the time of AIDS by Simon Garfield. Recently republished with new fore- and after-words; this should be a useful complement to the perhaps more well-trodden path of the American experience.

Then, I am looking forward to Outrageous! by Paul Baker, which traces the history of Section 28, Before We Were Trans by Dr Kit Heyam, a global history of gender non-conformity, and The New Life, by Tom Crewe, which has just won the Orwell Award for Political writing, about the struggle for civil rights in Victorian England.

Finally, I'm also going to try to read Logical Family by Armistead Maupin. Last summer, I worked my way through his wonderful ‘Tales of the City’ Series, so it will be lovely to learn a bit more about the man behind it.

I have managed to get all of these books through the local library service. Do support your own, if you can.