My Years with Corrie (by Ellen de Kroon Stamps)

I hadn't heard of Ellen de Kroon Stamps when I saw this book on a second-hand Christian bookstall, but Corrie ten Boom is well-known for her part in World War II in Holland, and autobiography 'The Hiding Place' which was later made into a film.

'My Years with Corrie' are written from the perspective of Ellen, who was her personal assistant and secretary for ten years. It opens and closes with Ellen's next stage in life - her marriage to Bob Stamps, and the birth of their first child, Peter John. But the majority of the book charts the ten years when Ellen 'tramped' the world - mostly in aeroplanes - with Corrie ten Boom, to talks and conferences and presentations.

It's not written chronologically; perhaps that would have been impossible, although the earlier chapters tell the story of how Ellen, a trained nurse, came to take on a job for which she had no qualifications whatsoever. But the book is about her journey as a Christian, as much as her journey with Corrie - how she learns to overcome some of her worries and fears.

It's not the greatest writing, but I found the anecdotes interesting; it's very honest with the author's difficulties in trusting God, and how she gradually learns to trust him for money, for direction, and at last accepts that she might be called to the single life - just in time for her to meet the man she would eventually marry.

I read this over a week, a few chapters a day. Recommended in a low-key sort of way to anyone intrigued to know more about the amazing - and very human - Corrie ten Boom. Now out of print in both UK and USA, but sometimes available second-hand.

Into the Light (by Steven Masood)

I hadn't heard of Steven Masood before - apparently he is now a professor of comparative religion in Columbia. I picked this book up second-hand and inexpensively, and it's sat on our shelves for some months. But finally I decided to read it, and have completed it in just two days.

'Into the Light' is subtitled 'A young Muslim's search for truth', and is published by a Christian organisation, so it was fairly obvious that the book was going to chart the course of someone from an Islamic background deciding to follow Jesus.

That was indeed the overall plot of this autobiographical book. The author, whose original name was Masood rather than Steven, was born into an family who belonged to the Ahmadi sect of Islam in Pakistan, considered heretics by the mainstream Muslims. Masood was a thinker and questioner from a young age, and often spotted inconsistencies in what he was taught at school and in the mosque. He was a very devout Muslim from a young age, but wanted to know answers to his questions - and could not understood why his relatives and teachers simply got angry with him rather than trying to address his concerns.

As he grew up Masood continued studying and questioning, often suffering violence as a result. When he was 18, and still insistent on finding answers, he had to leave his family home since so many people wanted to kill him. He describes fairly vividly the ways he felt God led him to places and people who could help him, and the intellectual steps he took before, in his twenties, committing his life to Jesus as a Christian believer.

There's a lot of action in the book; I found it quite a page-turner, and interesting as I read about his background. On the other hand, the writing is quite terse, and there's little characterisation. I wanted to know what would happen, but could not feel any real empathy with the author. Perhaps that doesn't matter - he writes from an intellectual and factual rather than emotional viewpoint, after all. But I felt it could have been a lot more moving and thought-provoking if it was also more emotive.

I was also a bit disappointed that the book ended where it did. It doesn't go on to describe what happens after the author makes his Christian commitment, and then has to leave the place where he's been staying. Evidently he succeeded in life, since he had the book published, and then went on to do his degree and become a professor, and that would probably also make an interesting story.

Still, overall I thought it worth reading. It's long out of print in both the UK and USA, but can sometimes be found second-hand.

Review © Sue's Book Reviews, 1st June 2008

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid (by Bill Bryson)

I do like Bill Bryson's writing, on the whole. My single reservation is his excessive (in my view) use of bad language, most of which seems entirely unnecessary. But I enjoy his sense of humour and style enough that I usually read his books anyway.

I hadn't realised that he had written an autobiography until my older son presented it to me for my birthday, about a month ago. 'The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid' is sub-titled 'Travels through my childhood' and promised to be an interesting read.

Bill Bryson's childhood was actually rather uneventful - he makes reference to this in his prologue, explaining that while his parents had a few strange quirks, they didn't abuse or neglect him, and didn't treat him in the appalling manner of some recent well-publicised autobiographies. But, as one of the newspapers said, Bryson could write about lint in a tumble drier and make it funny. His childhood, in the USA in the 1950s, has a great deal more scope than drier lint... and although it's not laugh-aloud funny, I smiled several times, and found it a very readable book.

Interspersed with childhood anecdotes that seemed very real (although he admits to changing a few details, and exaggerating here and there) is some commentary on America in the '50s and '60s - probably nothing new to readers in the USA, but for someone who knows very little of American history, it was quite revealing.

Bryson is entirely honest about the problems that overtook American culture, and the bad habits that people developed (such as junk food and excessive TV watching) while clearly loving the positive sides of his country and people. Perhaps for the first time I began to understand some of why America is what it is - and it's mostly a rather strange culture for those of us in Europe and elsewhere.

As well as the autobiographical incidents, and social history comments, are some slightly surreal accounts of Bryson's belief that he was 'Thunderbolt Kid' - a child from another planet, who could zap and obliterate people he didn't like. This belief grew from the super-hero culture, found in comics and television, but he writes these sections as if they're as real as the rest of the book. It helped me get a better picture of what he was like as a child, and made the book all the more enjoyable.

I'm not sure that Americans would appreciate this as much as Brits; it does poke a lot of fun at their culture, and the historical parts are probably nothing new to folk who grew up in the USA. Much of the humour in the writing is ironical, or subtle, which appeals strongly to the British sense of humour but perhaps not so much to those in America.

Recommended to anyone who enjoys Bryson's style - and to anyone who wants to know a bit of social history of America in the post-war years.

Review copyright © Sue's book reviews, 21st May 2008. All rights reserved.

Foolish to be Wise (by Roy Peacock)

I didn't expect a whole lot of this book. I find Christian autobiographies a bit variable, and this is a paperback from the mid-1980s, which I picked up second-hand. 'How a brilliant scientist came face to face with the miraculous' is the rather dated byline on the front. Professor Roy Peacock is an aeronautical engineer in the UK, who has apparently been at the forefront of research in his field, and has lectured in many countries.

So, yes - he is (and was) a brilliant scientist. And this book does indeed relate what happened when his world was rocked on its foundations by encounters with Jesus.

Roy Peacock's childhood was somewhat bound up in the church, in a ritual kind of way, for he sang as a chorister. Religion is what happened on a Sunday, and although he had a general belief in God, that's as far as it went. As he grew up, and started to focus more on science, the church got rather pushed aside. He started work, and got married to Elizabeth... and then found himself caught up in a mission. Very skeptical at first, he could not deny the changes that took place in his wife when she became a believer, and shortly afterwards decided to become a Christian himself.

From that moment, his life was never the same. He knew nothing of the Bible, despite having read it many times, and the person mentoring him was no expert either. But together, in small groups, they observed God working, and studied Scripture. One by one his preconceived ideas about life and the universe were toppled as God revealed himself more and more.

What I found interesting about this book, and Roy Peacock's journey of faith, is that he remained very much a scientist throughout. When something new surprised him - for example, a clear sign of physical healing without any medical intervention - he saw it as new data, examined the circumstances, looked in the Bible and other sources to see patterns and trends, and generally subjected it to rigorous scientific investigation. Each time, he found more and more evidence of God's reality and the way he works in the world today.

'Foolish to be wise' is clearly written, combining an autobiographical account of the author's life and Christian journey with explanations of various doctrines, some of them quite controversial in today's church, which seem very matter-of-fact from this scientist's perspective.

I was planning to read a chapter a day,but often found myself reading a great deal more. The book was thought-provoking, and very interesting, as well as a wonderful account of God really working in people's lives, and using an unlikely person to do great things.

Definitely recommended. Sadly it's long out of print, but seems to be available second-hand in both the UK and USA.

Review copyright © suesbookreviews.blogspot.com, 2nd May 2008

Ten Fingers for God: the Life and Work of Dr Paul Brand (by Dorothy Clarke Wilson)

I had not come across Dorothy Clarke Wilson's writing before, although she seems to have been fairly prolific, particularly in biographies. I had heard of Paul Brand, mainly due to reading just about everything by Philip Yancey. He was an orthopedic surgeon who was also a pioneer in leprosy research and surgery. moreover, he was the person who first showed that leprosy itself does not cause deformities: it's the lack of pain, a result of leprosy, that causes people to be unaware of situations when they are damaging themselves. This is well known now, but back in the middle of last century nobody had any idea.

When I read 'In the Likeness of God' earlier this year - by Paul Brand and Philip Yancey together - I determined to learn more of this remarkable man. So I put 'Ten Fingers for God' - the full biography of Paul Brand - on my wish-list.

There's an excellent introduction by Philip Yancey, but the main part of the book is by Dorothy Clarke Wilson, and covers Brand's life from birth up to the late 1980s when he had retired. It's very thorough, with plenty of family background and some interesting incidents and anecdotes, although the best of them have been used elsewhere - probably in one of Philip Yancey's books.

I found the book mostly interesting, but a bit heavy-going in places. A huge number of people are mentioned by name - relatives, colleagues, patients - and I found it impossible to keep track of them all. Sometimes a leprosy patient was introduced, with a moving or fascinating story told about him. But then he might be referred to several chapters on - by which time I had totally forgotten who he was. However, since biographies deal in real life and factual incidents, this is perhaps inevitable.

I read the book over about three weeks; I found that a chapter at a time was often enough, as there was so much information and so many people involved. I didn't feel myself drawn to the people as I do in some novels - perhaps this isn't possible in a biography, or perhaps the problem is that the author wasn't herself a fiction writer who specialised in characterisation.

Nonetheless, it's a very readable account of the life, work and ministry of this incredible man, and well worth having. Recommended to anyone who wants to know more about Paul Brand, or about the development of leprosy medicine in the latter part of the 20th century. The Christian emphasis is low-key - Brand was a living example of a man who cared about following God by doing his work, and ministering in practical ways to those who were suffering.

Fear No Evil (by David Watson)

I had a lot of respect for David Watson, the British evangelist (and Anglican minister) who lost his fight with cancer in 1984. Hundreds of thousands of people were praying for him all over the world, and it was quite a shock when he suddenly went downhill rapidly in his last couple of months, as many expected him to be healed.

His book 'Fear no evil' was written in the last year of his life. It's an autobiographical account beginning with the day he learned of his illness. It began in a rather dramatic way, having to cancel speaking a major event in the USA (although he was able to find others to deputise for him) so that he could have an operation to remove a possibly malignant ulcer from his colon. The ulcer was removed, but in the process the doctors discovered an inoperable tumour on his liver, and gave him about a year to live.

Then began quite a battle, including some high-profile charismatic Christian leaders, including John Wimber, flying over to spend time with David and pray with him. They were all certain that he would be healed; his eventual death had quite an impact on their theology and later teaching about Christian healing.

I knew the story. It was top news in British Christian circles in the 1980s, so I knew what was going to happen in the book. But it was interesting to read from David Watson's own pen, as it were. He wrote very well, peppering his account with anecdotes, and also some relevant thoughts and principles. In his final year he felt challenged in many ways to re-think his priorities, and despite the illness he learned to be able to say, truly, that he was happy to 'go home' if that was what God wanted.

Worth reading for anyone wanting to know more about David Watson's last illness, or to read a positive and encouraging account of a fight with cancer, even though it didn't end in the way his family and friends hoped.

'Fear No Evil' is out of print in the USA as well as in the UK, but can easily be found second-hand.

A Stitch in Time (by Elsie Newman)

This book is a biographical account of a British woman called Christine. Her story starts in the late 1980s when she wants to help people in Romania, after seeing an Anneka Rice programme about their plight. However she is convinced she has no skills or abilities that would be of any use.

To her surprise, she discovers that her unusual hobby of machine knitting is a skill that's much needed in Eastern Europe. So - after research, and appeals, and discussion - she boards a plane to find out what she can do in practical terms, and to get to know some of the local people.

This is the start of a ministry that lasts over ten years, as more and more people want to learn to use knitting machines, to support their families, or to barter. Since machine knitting is done sitting down, it can be done by people with some handicaps so is an ideal trade for many who would otherwise starve in some Eastern European countries.

'A Stitch in Time' is an interesting and unusual story, written 'as told' to Elsie Newman, so it's a mixture of anecdotes, facts and opinions. This sometimes makes for a rather stilted story, with a large number of people involved in many countries; Christine obviously remembers them all with fondness, but in a short book it can be confusing, and I sometimes found myself losing track of who she was dealing with.

The stories have similarities, too: Christine hears of a need, raises money, sends machines and yarn to the relevant place, meets some locals - often through a translator - and teaches them the basics of machine knitting. There are setbacks in some places, difficulties to surmount, dangers to work through... but it was hard to feel more than a passing interest since the chapters are short, and most of the characters not really very well developed.

It's written from a Christian perspective but without any 'preaching', and only the occasional mention of a church or of people praying for Christine and her work. Recommended for anyone interested in machine knitting, or in seeing how an unusual skill can be used well to teach and encourage people who are struggling in many ways.

Listening to Others (by Joyce Huggett)

Joyce Huggett grew up in a close-knit working-class community, and found her roots of caring in the generous - if sometimes brusque - hearts of those around her when she was a child.

Mostly autobiographical, 'Listening to Others' charts the author's gradual introduction to healing and wholeness ministries, and the importance of listening.

Throughout the book she gives useful guidelines and practical advice, in an interesting and well-written format. There are many anecdotes as she charts her journey into the listening ministry, and explains clearly how she learned what she did - and also the mistakes that were sometimes made along the way. Personal tragedies are described, and the way that even one's pain can be used to help others.

It's a Christian book, intended for those who follow Jesus, but without any overt evangelistic message. Most of the caring people Joyce grew up with knew little about God, and many of the ideas she suggests would be of relevance to anybody.

Definitely recommended. Still in print in the UK, and available second-hand in the USA.

Running for the Hills (by Horatio Clare)

I was recommended and lent this book by someone who thoroughly enjoyed it. Horatio Clare has written a memoir: carefully constructed from his own recollection, conversations he's had and diaries he's read. He charts the time when his parents, young and idealistic, bought a rather run-down farm in Wales and attempted to make it work.

It was indeed a very well-written book, full of careful observations and would probably be of great interest to anyone who likes farms, or who is interested in biographies in general. Unfortunately, I'm not one of them. I like biographies that have a lot of human interest - with a bit of humour too, if possible - such as those by James Herriot or Gervase Phinn.

But there was very little of that in 'Running for the Hills'. Instead there were detailed descriptions of farming life, some of it rather horrific, and a strangely dispassionate account of the disintegration of the author's parents' marriage.

I found myself struggling to hold interest in the first few chapters, waiting for something to happen. Then I began skimming to find more 'story'. Then I skimmed faster... I'm quite good at skimming, so I did spot a few passages where the children related to one of their parents, and quite enjoyed those parts. But I probably skimmed at least two-thirds of the book, and found it all rather sad in the end.

For those who like biographies it's a highly acclaimed book, and I certainly thought it was very well-written. There just wasn't anything much to hold my interest personally.

Miracle in the Mirror (by Mark Butain)

'Miracle in the Mirror' is a fairly short biography written by the late Mark Buntain. It features Nita Edwards, a remarkable lady from Sri Lanka who was seriously injured by a fall when she was a student, and became paralysed. She lost all sense of feeling, and there was little hope for her as the paralysis crept gradually higher and higher in her body. After a year in hospital, she could not move at all and needed a constant care assistant.

Yet she was healed, miraculously. The non-Christian doctors who had attended her refused to accept it, but thousands of people had seen Nita strapped to a wheelchair, with deformed hands and her head uncontrollable, unable even to talk - and then saw her, just a few days later, walking with ease, and talking about what God had done for her.

Skeptics may scoff, and those who believe God does not heal today may be cynical. But there's no reason to doubt this remarkably testimony which was witnessed by so many. Nita Edwards went on to be a tremendous witness for Christ in Asia.

The writing felt a little stilted in places; perhaps it's just because this book was written in the early 1980s, just a few years after the healing, when this was a typical style for biographies.

But the story is so gripping that the style hardly mattered. Even though it was obvious what was coming - even down to the date of the healing, which Nita knew in advance - it was difficult to put this book down by about two-thirds of the way through.

It's not in print any more, but can sometimes be found second-hand. Both the British and American Amazon online stores have copies - see the links at the top and to the right.

God's Madcap (by Nancy E Robbins - biography of Amy Camichael)

'God's Madcap' is an autobiography of Amy Carmichael, written for children by Nancy E Robbins. It's a short book - under 100 pages - containing a brief outline of Amy Carmichael's life and ministry in India in the early part of the 20th century.

It opens with Amy's huge family having a birthday party for her in her old age, then takes us back to her childhood in Northern Ireland. She was in a fairly well-off family, but always interested in those less fortunate than herself. The book describes her first experiments in prayer as she started to wonder whether God existed or not, and her gradual growth and calling.

There are a few author asides here and there that would probably seem very 'preachy' to today's children, but it's an interesting story albeit slightly stilted here and there. Not currently in print, but available from both UK and US Amazon online second-hand.

My Family and Other Animals (by Gerald Durrell)

'My Family and Other Animals' is the autobiographical account of Gerald Durrell's family moving to Corfu when he was ten, and the years they spent there. His interests, even at that age, were primarily related to animals - encompassing the entire animal kingdom, including insects and reptiles. He was an avid collector, and delighted to find mentors able to help him. Some of the book features his expeditions around the island, to discover a variety of beasts, many of which he took home to study.

However the main appeal of the book is in the characters and conversations of Gerry's family - three older siblings, and their long-suffering mother. Larry, the oldest, is literary-minded, and invites a succession of poets and artists to stay, sometimes without much notice. Leslie, a couple of years younger, is much more action-orientated, and particularly keen on shooting. Their sister Margo is rather flaky, but usually delighted with any small and sweet animals. Misunderstandings ensue, and a great deal of humour comes through.

The book also gives a good account of Corfu life in the 1930s, before the tourist industry took over. There's a little colonialist snobbery inherent, but I didn't find it too grating (Gerry talks casually about 'peasants' - although he considers most of them his friends) but overall it's a delightful account. I first read it as a school textbook when I was about fourteen, but even that didn't spoil my enjoyment. I read it again about ten years later, and recently indulged once more. Highly enjoyable, recommended to anyone.

Lost Without You: The Story of Noor (by Kate McCallum)

'Lost Without You: the story of Noor' is a Christian biography, published in India, about a Lebanese girl known as Noor. It's written 'as told to' Kate McCallum; we bought it in Lebanon and I read it because I've met Noor although I don't know her well.

The story opens with Noor in the airport in Cyprus, where she has come to do a six-month Christian discipleship course. The picture is of a naturally friendly and strong-willed girl, who argues with the officials and is determined to follow the path she believes to be right. After that one scene, we're taken back to her early life.

Her story is a horrific one, though told fairly unemotively. Reasonably happy as a small child, her life changes drastically when she is four years old, and sees her mother brutally killed. From then on, her gentle older brother is her only refuge. Traumatised by what they've seen, they are first sent to a psychiatric hospital, but nobody knows how to handle them. They move to grandparents, but as one parent was nominally a Christian and the other Druze, all the grandparents consider the children defiled, and their cruel words stay with Noor for many years. She believes herself useless, and wonders why she was ever born.

As she grows up, she meets real Christians who show her love and care, but although she discovers God for herself, the book is not preachy. I suppose the story is a bit like that of 'Cinderella' in plot, but there's no glitz in the new life. As she grows and matures, she must learn to forgive those who have wounded her in the past, and there are times when she goes back rather than forward for a while.

The writing felt a bit stilted in places, perhaps because English is not Noor's first language, but it was well worth reading. Even though I knew the ending - foreshadowed in the first chapter - I found it difficult to put down once I had started. It's undoubtedly a testimony to the way God can work in even the most difficult of circumstances.

Head over Heels in the Dales

This is the third in Gervase Phinn's autobiographical account of life as a school inspector in the Yorkshire Dales. I wasn't all that impressed by the first in the series, surprised it would be compared with James Herriot's stories of life as a vet. But I enjoyed the second more, and having just finished the third one today, I think it's my favourite so far. The author has definitely got into a good style, telling a complete story rather than simply giving individual anecdotes.

There are the same interesting mixture of characters, presumably either real or very close to life, and a fascinating mixture of children. The portrayal of the wide variety of schools in his patch sounds very believable - from the hard-working, inspiring grammar school to the struggling comprehensive in an impoverished catchment area. Anyone wanting to know what typical British schools are like - albeit from the point of view of someone who believes absolutely in state education - would probably find these enlightening and interesting as well as very amusing in places.

Recommended.

Lime Street at Two

Having been gripped by the first three autobiographical books by Helen Forrester, I was looking forward to this, the fourth and last. I thought perhaps it would fill in the gaps during her young adult life that were rapidly skimmed at the end of the third book (By the Waters of Liverpool).

Sadly, I was disappointed. Yes, it filled in some of the gaps and told us more of her romances in the war years, but I didn't find this book nearly so interesting or so well-written as the previous ones. Instead it seemed to slot anecdotes in randomly between general facts and figures relating to the war. No doubt it's useful as a piece of social history from a first-person viewpoint, but whereas the earlier books read like stories, and were very moving as a result, this one left me almost cold. I almost wished I hadn't bothered, since the first three books seem complete in themselves, with a conclusion at the end of the third that takes us right up to the time when she started writing.

I didn't even feel that this book ended satisfactorily - it suddenly came to an end, with the end of the war, but did not leave much hope for the future or any clue what the author might have done later in her life. Since I had already read the third book, I knew what the future held, but for anyone picking this volume up without having read the others, it would be rather frustrating. There's a lot of reference to people from the other books but without much to capture interest, even for someone like me who had felt totally involved with their lives in the earlier books.

To be fair, it's not badly written and for someone interested in the war years it's probably worth reading. But it was a great disappointment when read directly after the others in the series.

By the Waters of Liverpool

This is the third in Helen Forrester's autobiographical account of her family's life in Liverpool during the Depression of the 1930s. As this book opens, Helen is 18 - not quite so dirty and hungry as in the earlier books, but still struggling to keep the family together.

World War II threatens, but ironically makes life a bit easier for Helen since the younger children are evacuated, giving her a little more free time. She continues to work steadily for little money and to give most of her pay to her parents, becoming increasingly more stressed as she sees other people her age having fun despite poverty and war.

In this book she eventually begins to bloom as a young woman; an amazing example of courage and strength in face of adversity as she does what she can to make the most of every penny. There's no hint of self-pity in the writing, just an honest and often moving account of what was probably a typical family.

There's an epilogue to this book, flashing forward ten years to give us a 'happy ending', so I suspect it was supposed to be the last of a trilogy - well worth reading, and I'm now very interested to find what the final book in the series is about!

Liverpool Miss

This is the second in Helen Forrester's autobiographical series of four books. Not so instantly gripping and shocking as the first, it's nonetheless very well-written and an excellent sequel.

Helen goes through her teenage years in this book, as she starts work for a pittance, struggles to attend evening classes, goes through puberty, and continues to look after her six younger siblings and try to deal with her rather irresponsible and unpredictable parents.

An amazing story, all in all, providing some very interesting social history and beautifully drawn people, in a book that flows so well, it's hard to remember that it's not fiction at all. Could be read alone, but much better as sequel to 'Twopence to Cross the Mersey'.

Twopence to Cross the Mersey

This is the first in a series of four books forming Helen Forrester's autobiography. I had not realised until starting this book that it was in fact autobiographical rather than fiction; the cover looks like a typical Liverpool saga, and I'd had the book for quite some time before deciding to try it.

I was almost immediately hooked! The style is fast-moving and evocative without being at all self-pitying. Helen is 12 when the book opens, oldest of a family of seven children, and disaster has struck. Her fairly prosperous middle-class family has become bankrupt and destitute. This is partly due to the economic depression of the 1930s, and partly due to her parents' bohemian and extravagant lifestyle. They leave their house for their creditors, and spend their last pennies on travelling to Liverpool, where her father hopes to find work.

Of course there is no work to be found, and so begins a moving story of abject destitution, near starvation, and grim determination on behalf of Helen and some of her siblings. There were times when I had to remind myself it was indeed true anecodotes about a real family, rather than a rather grim invention. And yet there was always something positive and hopeful running through every disaster that struck, some conviction that things had to get better - and not only because Helen, despite being kept away from school to look after her baby brother, has clearly become a published author as an adult!

I expected to find it a bit of a struggle to keep going - instead I was gripped, drawn in to this family, more aware than I had ever been of what it meant to be bankrupt and destitute in hard times, and extremely thankful for my own lifestyle in the 21st century.

Highly recommended. This book is not currently in print in either the UK or USA, but widely available second-hand or in charity shops.

Over Hill and Dale

This is the second autobiographical book by Gervase Phinn, recounting anecdotes from his days as a school inspector in Yorkshire. I found the first book a little stilted, but enjoyed this one a lot more. A little like James Herriot's books about being a vet, each chapter is complete in itself, but there are also ongoing friendships and characters who recur. By the end of this book I had quite a clear picture in my mind about some of them, and am eager to read the other two sequels.

There's light humour at times, particularly in the innocence or earthiness of some of the children, but it's written without a hint of condescension. The author often comes across as one who asked a stupid question, or an ignoramus knowing little about country and farming life. There is criticism of some of the teachers, and old-fashioned styles of education which he comes across, but even these are shown in context: sometimes schools were battling against prejudice, against children who hadn't any wish to learn anything, or parents who had no time to encourage their children at home. In general, though, the teachers are commended, and the schools shown as happy places for most of the children.

There were some very moving parts of the book too. By the time I was two-thirds of the way through it was difficult to put down, and I was sorry to reach the end. Recommended to anyone who knows anything about education and schools.

A Child Called Noah

This is a moving book by Josh Greenfield, a Jewish man married to a Japanese woman, living in America in the 1960s. Their second son, Noah, seems a little slow to develop at first but gradually starts walking and talking; however he then regresses and seems to lose all his language, indulging instead in temper tantrums and repetitive actions. The family take him to doctors, psychologists, special schools... all of whom seem to have different diagnoses and advice. Autism, schizophrenia, brain damage, emotional damage, are all proposed and considered in turn.

The book is written in journal form, taken (I assume) direction from the author's personal diary. It's the kind of book that would have made a superb blog, but was written back in the days before home computers even existed. Unfortunately it was also a time when comparatively little was known about mental illness, and strategies such as gluten-free dairy-free diets were unheard of. As I read about Noah's grabbing at bread any time he saw it, I wondered what difference it might have made to him had he been restricted from bread and other products containing gluten.

While little hope emerges from the book, it's a gripping account of the family's struggles to cope with daily life, to find out what exactly is wrong, to consider options for the future, to see how difficult it is to cope even with reasonable resources: how impossible it would have been for an impoverished family in the USA unable to pay for special schools, medical treatment and other assistance.

There are two sequels to this book written in similar style, but they're all out of print (although available second-hand). I see from the above link that Noah was eventually placed in an institution as an adult where he continues to live. Not sure I'd read this again but it very moving getting inside the head of someone who experienced all this first-hand as a father, in days when fathers were not typically so involved in the lives of their small children.