Mary J

Since finishing my exams and now my job, have had plenty of time for reading...

The Jungle (Penguin Classics Deluxe Editions)

Home

The Moor's Last Sigh

The Reader

Netherland

Reborn: Early Diaries, 1947-1964

For Whom the Bell Tolls (Vintage Classics)

I also got two awesome books for my leaving present from work

Raghu Rai's India: Reflections in Colour

10X10_3

A walk along the Thames from Greenwich...

Royal Naval College Greenwich

Royal Naval College 2

Trinity Hospital

Greenwich Peninsula Ecopark

Gravel silo

Thames

War of the Worlds

Thames Flood Barrier

Three months between posts, slack, I know. Have been pretty busy at work, worked crazy hours (unpaid!) in April, and spent most of May recovering from it, but fortunately now that my job is an official casualty of the credit crunch, and I'll be leaving in August, the partners feel too embarrassed to make me stay late... Have also been studying, had an exam yesterday, and two more to go, and then all finished! I genuinely won't know what to do with myself.

Haven't read much fiction recently, but had a bit of a history binge:

The Isles: A History

I really enjoyed Norman Davies' weighty history of Britain and Ireland, even though I didn't necessarily agree with all of his positions. He highlights the ways in which "British" history and "Britishness" have been constructed as narratives, and essentially backdated to before Britain existed, as well as the dominance which the English narrative has had over those of the other three nations. Whilst I agree that Britishness is a social construct in some ways based on fictional narratives, rather than a timeless 'nationhood', I think that's the same with every country, to a greater or lesser extent. I also disagree with Davies' arguments in favour of Scottish independence, and his arguments that Northern Ireland should simply be united with the Republic come across as naive at best and flippant at worst (and really date the book, actually, which was published in 1999). Having said all that, I did really enjoy The Isles, and it made me feel smarter after I'd finished it, which is always a good thing...

The Wordy Shipmates

This is the disembodied spire of St Antholin's, a Christopher Wren church built in the City in 1682. When the church was demolished in 1875 the spire was bought by a printer who put it in his back garden, which is now the centre of a cul-de-sac in Forest Hill.

St Antholin's spire