‘May is the month of expectation, the month of wishes, the month of hope.’ Fingers crossed that Emily Bronte can prove to be right and spring (our theme) will bring cheerful gardens and inspiring books.
Ali Smith embarked on an ambitious project of writing a Seasonal Quartet, each a refashioning of a Shakespeare play. The third in the sequence, Spring, (pub 2019) is an explicit adaptation of Pericles. It’s a play of migration and family separation, brought into contemporary times, with themes of hope, renewal and political division in post-war Brexit Britain. The main characters – a grieving filmmaker, a guard at a migrant detention centre and a mysterious young girl – lives intertwine, offering a hopeful outlook despite a harsh climate of crisis. The book was universally acclaimed as a powerful, dazzling, astonishing accomplishment.
And it is.
Post Brexit, a further devastation was visited upon us – Covid. Contrarily, many saw the enforced isolation as an opportunity to be seized. Among them was 80-year-old David Hockney, who had sought out rustic tranquillity for the first time in his life and settled into a centuries-old Normandy farmhouse with four acres. When lockdown struck, it made little difference to life there. The aptly-named Spring Cannot Be Cancelled is a fascinating collection of conversations and correspondence between David and his long-time friend and collaborator Martin Gayford, richly illustrated with Hockney’s Normandy iPad paintings, together with works by van Gogh, Monet and others. Whatever turmoil and madness occurs in the outside world, art always has the capacity to divert and inspire.
An equally powerful element in our lives is that of nature. A moving acknowledgement of that power is the theme of Marc Hamer’s Spring Rain. He coped with a difficult childhood by finding refuge in his tiny back garden, watching plants and insects and exploring the world through a stack of old encyclopedias he found in the shed. Now an old man, he creates a garden for himself in a neglected plot. To quote his publisher: ‘if you want to be inspired, or you’ve lost your belief in the goodness of this world, this is for you. A book of great but tender power.’
So to one of my all-time favourite authors, Susan Hill. Her range of works is mind-boggling, and she’s exceptional across so many genres. After 40 years of hugely successful fiction, non-fiction, children’s and ghost stories, she produced an equally impressive series of detective novels. Oh, to have such talent! And it was apparent very early: In the Springtime of the Year was published in 1973. Inspired by the sudden death of her fiance, the emotional content is semi-autobiographical. The novel opens with Ruth Bryce alone in her garden, and it is slowly revealed that her husband of just a year has been recently killed by a falling tree.
All the horrendous aftermath of everyday life, relationships and how to deal with the reality of being alone is quietly explored. It is, rightly, considered a touching, subtle masterpiece on the subject of love, loss and the stages of grief.
Antonia White’s Frost in May is a book way ahead of its time in the themes it explores. It is told solely from the viewpoint of our 9-year-old protagonist who is about to enter a Catholic convent for her education. She attempts to come to terms with the requirements of convent daily life, where everything is absolutist and heavily controlled. The major theme is the many ways in which patriarchal authority is exercised: by her father, the priest and the nuns themselves. Published in 1933, the issues raised have resonated ever since. In many places, nearly 100 years on, they still do.
Finally, please do admire my restraint for not plugging The Darling Buds of May by my favourite favourite author!
To track down your own copy of any of these, pop in to visit Victoria Sturgess in her Black Pug Books shop in Wimborne – look for it opposite the Tivoli Theatre.
