Last November our Library and Information Manager, Christine George travelled to South America. Here, she tells us about her holiday reading.
I recently read Bruce Chatwin’s “In Patagonia” while I was travelling in Chile with my daughter. Like many people I enjoy a holiday read which adds to or expands the flavour that you get from foreign travel. Chatwin’s book follows his travels through Argentinian Patagonia but the landscape extends beyond that country into Chile.
With over 90 short chapters it’s an ideal travel companion, offering great pleasure and many insights. A sort of South American “On the road”, describing the bleak but fascinating landscape and the communities and individuals - often associated with various waves of immigration, who populate this unforgiving but heart stirring land. There are Welsh and German expatriates who have settled and live a frontier life style.
Chatwin is in search of adventure – stirred by the idea of a lost city, a sea captain ancestor and a brontosaurus. He roams widely by any means possible, receiving hospitality and stories from those he meets. His subjects range from the treatment of the indigenous peoples to the story of Butch Cassidy, the Wild Bunch and their time in South America and to everyday portraits of the lives of people living in these sparse and remote communities. A lovely book, with much to offer.
Pontypool Book Group’s latest read was “The Watchers” by Neil Spring. This is a chilling tale based on true events surrounding a secret investigation into the supernatural conducted by the Ministry of Defence during the Cold War, and what happened when the files were released, thirty years later.
This is what the group had to say about it.
We had mixed feelings. Some loved it, some thought it was rubbish.The book is loosely based on ‘true events’ that happened in and around Broadhaven, Pembrokeshire in the 1970s (there is a huge amount of information on the internet if anyone is interested) namely various sightings of ‘UFOs’ and men in shiny silver suits wandering around the area! Yes I know….
The writing is not the best and the characters are full of clichés, nonetheless, it is quite an enjoyable read if you just let yourself go with it! I would say Spring doesn’t really know when to stop throwing plots into the book, we have for example, UFOs, men in silver suits, Russian spies, a possible nuclear catastrophe, clandestine satanic cults in underground caverns and a village reminiscent of the ‘league of gentlemen’. Some of the group found laugh out loud moments throughout, although I am not sure it is supposed to be funny.
We all finished it and it was a bit of a page turning daft romp, but it’s unlikely to win any literary prizes. A good, quick read for a dark, rainy night.
Next time you visit The Havens, watch out for men in silver suits!
Last November our Library and Information Manager, Christine George travelled to South America. Here, she tells us about her holiday reading.
