MUSTREADS Out now in paperback
GOODBYE PET & SEE YOU IN HEAVEN by Bel Mooney
(Biteback £9.99) TWO years ago, in the autumn of 2015, Bel Mooney bade farewell to her beloved companion of 13 years.
Bonnie, a diminutive white Maltese, had been far more than a pet. She had been Bel’s faithful friend and companion through divorce and family break-up.
Wearing a featherbedecked purple lead, she even acted as bridesmaid at Bel’s second wedding. But she grew old, her heart failing, and at length she died quietly in Bel’s arms.
This touching memoir describes the process of grieving for a beloved animal — from deciding what should become of their remains, to the sense (familiar to anyone who has lost an animal with which they had a special bond) that while they may no longer be physically alive, their spirit remains a vivid presence.
Perhaps Bonnie even led Bel and her husband, Robin, to their new companion, Sophie — another small dog with a great heart.
THE WATER KINGDOM by Philip Ball
(Vintage £9.99) ‘WATER is one of the most powerful vehicles for Chinese thought,’ writes Philip Ball in his intriguing account of the ways in which water has influenced China’s history.
‘It has governed the fates of emperors, shaped the contours of Chinese philosophy and left its mark throughout the Chinese language.’
The book begins with a history of the great east-flowing rivers, the Yellow River and the Yangtze, where Mao Zedong ceremoniously swam in 1956 to demonstrate his mastery over nature (repeating the feat in 1966 to scotch rumours of ill-health).
Ball explores the role of water in Chinese art and thought, in warfare, politics and bureaucracy, and the environmental controversy that surrounds its use.
IN MY OWN TIME by Jane Miller
(Virago £9.99) ON THE cover is a touching black and white photograph of a very young Jane Miller, dancing with an equally youthful Karl Miller — her late husband, who co-founded the literary periodical the London Review of Books.
Jane, now 84, worked as a teacher and then a professor at the London University Institute of Education before publishing Crazy Age, her book about old age, in 2010 and becoming a journalist a year later, at the age of 78.
This collection of her columns for an American magazine covers an invigorating range of subjects.
Her love of swimming, her shortcomings as a cook, the astonishing differences between her own youth and her grandchildren’s, and the experience of widowhood after 60 years of marriage are described with a humanity and quiet humour that makes them feel like conversations with an intelligent friend.