Best books I never wrote
REVIEWS BY ELIZABETH SMITHER Elizabeth Smither is a finalist in the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards Poetry category, for her collection Night Horse.
THE WIND IN
THE WILLOWS BY KENNETH GRAHAME
I sit very close to my granddaughter Ruby and we plunge, with Ratty, into the Wild Wood with all its sounds and rustlings. The language is so sonorous and Ratty’s fear so palpable until he stubs his toe on Mole’s boot scraper. And then there’s Mr Toad with his Trump-like disasters and bombast, the programme he writes to celebrate his restoration to Toad Hall in which every item features himself.
PERSUASION BY JANE AUSTEN
Anne Elliot is the most delightful heroine, as thrifty and practical as Eleanor Dashwood and possessing a slightly lower wattage of Elizabeth Bennet’s spirit. But she triumphs in the end, despite having reached the near-fatal age of 27 and supposedly losing all her bloom. One of my favourite scenes is the few hours she spends alone in the Musgrove’s house, looking at the falling rain.
THE FORMATION OF VEGETABLE MOULD THROUGH THE ACTION OF EARTHWORMS BY CHARLES DARWIN
One of the most delightful books I know. Did you know earthworms will eventually take Stonehenge under? Darwin’s last book (1881) proves “the immensity – in size and over time – of the accumulated tiny movements of soil by earthworms”. Darwin’s children were engaged in nightly experiments in the garden at Down House, Kent. How much better to mess about worms than computers.
THE FRONTENAC MYSTERY BY FRANÇOIS MAURIAC
My favourite among all the Mauriacs. The Frontenacs are small landed gentry in the sandy soil and pine forests of Bordeaux. Blanche, their widowed mother, lives entirely for her five children, one of whom, Yves, goes to Paris and becomes a writer. Mauriac combines harsh truths – Yves is displeased and abrupt when his mother visits – with the enduring sacramental nature of family life. I only need to turn to the first page to smell the scent of pines.
DON FERNANDO BY SOMERSET MAUGHAM
I found in Maugham’s picaresque novel about Spain one of the secrets of being a writer. What a writer must have, according to Maugham, are two things: empathy for the human condition and a way of looking at the world that is unique. Neither is sufficient by itself, they must combine. Perhaps he meant that empathy should not override style nor style empathy. Maugham’s love of Spain and its golden age – Loyola, St Teresa, El Greco – is also full of surprising facts and details. The copy I had came from the stack room and was very dusty but it packed an amazing punch.