Head versus heart and our gut reactions (by Michael Hampson)

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It’s over fifteen years since I read ‘Head versus heart and our gut reactions’ by Michael Hampson. The author has worked as an Anglican minister, also as a teacher and a writer, and is now retired. This book, I recalled, had a Christian focus but was suitable for anyone interested in the Enneagram theory. 

I like reading different perspectives on personality theories, sometimes to find out more about myself, sometimes to help me understand friends better. Not that one can determine a type from a book, but this kind of thing can confirm ideas or behaviours that I’ve observed.

This book is a bit different from other Enneagram books in that it starts with the three basic ways in which people tend to react initially to new situations. For some, the focus is all on the people concerned and others who might be involved. For some, the focus is on practical questions. And for some, there’s a gut reaction that is more physical than either mental or emotional. 

The accidental tourist (by Anne Tyler)

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When I was rereading my novels by Anne Tyler a year or two back, I discovered that some of them were missing. Occasionally I lend books to people who forget to return them, so I assume that’s what happened. I recalled liking the books, and also that my copies were quite old, so I put new editions on my wishlist. 

One of them, ‘The accidental tourist’, was one I hadn’t read since 2002. I was given the book last Christmas, and read it over the past week or so. Usually I can’t recall much (if anything) about a book when I haven’t read it for ten years; in over twenty years I rarely have any memory at all. But something about this book must have lodged in my subconscious, as Macon, the main character, immediately felt familiar. And while I’d forgotten the storyline, I had a memory of him sitting on aeroplanes…

I like Macon a lot. He’s somewhat of a caricature, as so many of Anne Tyler’s people are, but a very likeable one. We meet him on holiday with his wife Sarah, but neither of them is in the mood for relaxing, so they go home early. We soon learn that they suffered a terrible bereavement a year earlier, and that instead of drawing them together, they now have little in common, and nothing to say to each other. 

Mini shopaholic (by Sophie Kinsella)

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The fifth book in Sophie Kinsella’s classic ‘chick lit’ series, ‘Shopaholic and baby’, features Becky Brandon going through pregnancy; the baby is not born until the end of the book. And its immediate sequel, ‘Mini shopaholic’, which I last read in 2012, begins a couple of years later. As with most books which I haven’t read in a decade or more, I had entirely forgotten the storyline.

One can’t forget Becky, however, or her hard-working and generous husband Luke. They are living with Becky’s parents at the start of the book, hoping to buy a place of their own. But one after another, the houses they want have problems. It looks as though the perfect one is available, however, so they’re hopeful. They’ve taken over rather a lot of her parents’ house with Becky’s huge collection of clothes and shoes, not to mention little Minnie’s equipment, toys and clothes…

Becky has been trying to cut down a bit on her own shopping, and even agrees to start wearing the things in her closet at least three times before buying anything new. And she’s also set up a new system for Minnie to buy things with her pocket money, although Minnie loves shopping as much as her mother does, and it’s clear that already she’s many years in debt…

Last term at Malory Towers (by Enid Blyton)

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I started rereading Enid Blyton’s ‘Malory Towers’ school series back in May. I’ve continued reading one per month and have just finished the last in the original series, ‘Last term at Malory Towers’. I say the ‘original’ series because I’ve learned that there are some extra book written by a different author which fill in some of the gaps. However I don’t have any of those, and have not read them.

I last read ‘Last term at Malory Towers’ in 2014, but as a teenager I read it every few years, and occasionally as a young adults, so I was reasonably familiar with some of the storylines. Darrell Rivers is now head girl of Malory Towers, and - with most of her friends - in her final term. She, Sally, Alicia and Betty are all off to university in the autumn, and are looking forward to it. But inevitably there’s a lot of nostalgia as they go to their beloved boarding school as pupils for the last time. 

Darrell’s younger sister Felicity is in the second form, and she features somewhat in this book, along with a rather unpleasant girl called Jo who has even more unpleasant parents. Jo’s father tells her he was always bottom of the class, and encourages her to do as little work as possible. He sends her money and extravagant food, and she tries to manipulate her classmates as a result. But the only person who seems to like her is a timid first-former called Deirdre.

Mr Brightly's evening off (by Kathleen Rowntree)

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It’s over twenty years since I read Kathleen Rowntree’s novel ‘Mr Brightly’s evening off’. So, unsurprisingly, I had entirely forgotten the story and the people. It was more than time for a reread.

There’s a prologue which doesn’t seem to make much sense at first: three unconnected women watching a TV show where some silhouetted women are asked how they feel about a situation, and a particular person. I’m not quite sure why this prologue is there, other than to give a bit of mystery to the novel; it’s not until towards the end of the book that the scene takes place.

Chapter one introduces us to the elderly - but spry - Mrs Parminter who wakes up to find herself lying in her garden, in the rose bed. She comes to consciousness gradually, and then starts to wonder why she’s there. She then worries about how she’s going to get up, until she remembers that it’s Wednesday, and Mr Brightly is going to pay her a visit. It’s his evening off, he has told her, when his wife is at choir practice. And although Mr Brightly is much younger than Mrs Parminter, in his early fifties, the two of them are very good friends.