> NEW AND NOTABLE
Elizabeth & Margaret, by Andrew Morton (Grand Central Publishing)
Well, this is good timing, sibling relationships being what they are right now in the great House of Windsor, with the popularity of the series “The Crown,” and the mega-hype around Harry and Meghan’s interview with Oprah and the alleged rift between Charles and Diana’s two sons. Theirs is not the first heir and unexpected spare in the living family, though — and royal watchers will likely be pleased to see that probably the best known of the royal writers, Andrew Morton, is out with a new volume. “Elizabeth & Margaret: The Intimate World of the Windsor Sisters” explores the relationship between the current Queen and her younger sister. Elizabeth was the unexpected heir and Margaret the unexpected spare after their father became king of England — King George VI — upon the abdication of his brother, Edward VIII. As Morton notes “the coronation changed the relationship between the sisters forever,” a history we are perhaps seeing repeat itself in Harry and Will.
In Praise of Retreat: Finding Sanctuary in the Modern World, by Kirsteen MacLeod (ECW Press) This might seem like an odd title to come out with in the midst of a pandemic when so many of us have been forced to be alone. But there might also be a certain wisdom in it. Kirsteen MacLeod embraces the idea of being alone. Serendipitously, she handed in the first draft of this book — about retreating from the modern world — in December 2019, a mere few months before we’d all be retreating from the frantic pace of the world whether we wanted to or not. Her reflections begin in her own cabin in the woods and take in the ancient idea of retreat, too, with literary and other references. At first glance a peaceful read that might yet be useful in helping us make the most of this unexpected alone time.
Endpapers: A Family Story of Books, War, Escape, and Home, by Alexander Wolff (Atlantic Monthly Press) He quit his job at Sports Illustrated and moved his family to Berlin to delve into his family history in Germany — a rite of passage of sorts that Germans call “Vergangenheitsaufarbeitung,” or “working off the past.” His was no ordinary family: his grandfather Kurt, partly Jewish, was literary and published authors including Franz Kafka, before exiling to New York and founding Pantheon Books. His grandmother, a Gentile and part of the Merck family of pharmaceutical fame, divorced Kurt and stayed in Germany. Wolff’s father, Niko, stayed with her and went on to fight with the Wehrmacht. This is Wolff ’s effort to come to terms with — or work off — his family’s past.
The Only Way Is the Steady Way, by Andrew Forbes (Invisible Publishing) Baseball season is here again. If times were different, we would be sitting in the stands and, between balls and strikes and innings, thinking about life, the universe and everything, letting our mind wander where it may — to the time Atlanta flew the Canadian flag upside down before Game 2 of the 1992 World Series, for instance; to baseball cards, a player called Dooley Womack, or to the “the value of discipline, the slow dogged accumulation of skill and experience” exhibited by Ichiro Suzuki. That or fill in scorecards and compile statistics. Peterborough writer and passionate baseball fan Andrew Forbes contemplates this and more in this new book of baseball essays; a companion, of sorts, to his previous collection about the same subject “The Utility of Boredom.”
Deborah Dundas