A Prince of Wales

Posted on April 26, 2024 by smellincoffee

Gwynedd calls for aid! A few years ago, the rightful king of Gwynedd, Lylwelyn, marched to the assistance of the Earl of Chesire, largely out of friendship to the Earl’s men Roger and Roland. Now, ambushed after a parlay with the uncles who have stolen his lands, the prince has asked for that favor to be returned. Roland quickly discovers that the war-band he led during the recent unpleasantness has been defeated by victory: its men, once proud warriors, have again fallen into drunken vagrancy, spending their time pawing women and drinking themselves to sleep. After marching them out into the country to sweat away the ale and get back to fitting form, Roland and the boys head for Wales — where they find one of Lylwelyn’s uncles has hired the Vikings hanging around Ireland to serve as extra muscle. Roland and Lylwelyn have an idea, though, one that requires using Roland’s Danishness for all it’s worth. With no skulduggery going on at home, Millie nearly vanishes as a character — a bit like Senator Amidala in Revenge of the Sith. Still, Roland doesn’t have the book all to himself: there’s a sideline where one of Sir Roger’s best men’s bastard son shows up looking for the father he’d never known, hunted by his unwitting stepfather who realized he’d been cuckolded years ago and decided to take it out on the boy, leading to Sir Roger and a few of the house guards having to fetch him, only to run into their own Welsh problems, and soon enough everyone is stabbing and running and trying hard not to die. Fun enough. It looks like the next novel focuses on young Declan, who Roland grew up squiring with and who is Sir Roger’s new Master of Sword.

“I am done with women!” the boy said flatly. Sir Roger smiled in the dark.  Any boy who would ride across Wales and risk his life for love was not likely done with women.

“We’ve a problem.”
“Well, spit it out, man.  Bad news doesn’t improve with age.”

Behind the horse came men, leaping off the bank and onto the gravel bar. Most were weaponless and all were terrified.  [He] had seen routs before—had seen men run like this from his Dub Gaill. Something in the smoke had broken these men and it was coming his way.

“Well, my lord, it is like the beginning of a good battle poem—outnumbered hero, grave danger, little hope of victory.”
“It is that,” Llywelyn said dryly.
“But by the end of the poem, the hero always triumphs, lord!” Llywelyn laughed.
“Well, let’s hope we get to that part soon.”

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The Dangerous Years

Posted on April 25, 2024 by smellincoffee

Hard to believe, but the bloody war’s over. Lieutenant Kelly McGuire distinguished himself as much as he was able, but it wasn’t much of a naval war, the Great One. But while the big war might be over, peace isn’t quite the word for parts of the world at the moment, especially the bit around the Black Sea. Russia is killing millions of its own in a civil war, and the government of Turkey is about to fall to Ataturk, who like the shah of Iran decades later will decide that Progress and Modernity depend on mandatory rules about the hats people are allowed to wear. Worse yet, Kelly’s girl back home has stopped writing him, apparently frustrated by the fact that he still doesn’t want to get hitched — worried that the admiralty will decide that an officer married to anyone but the service doesn’t merit promotion. With so many young officers being dumped into civvie life, it’s a chance he can’t take, even knowing he might lose the woman he’s known all his life. Charley’s a fine girl, but his life, his love and his lady is the sea. Sure enough, he’s assigned to a new posting, but between hurricanes and another war in China, there’s no shortage of threats to life and limb on offer, including a man-eating widow in Shanghai who is especially dangerous to young officers nursing broken hearts and bruised egos. Kelly is no more the young lad he was in The Lion at Sea: his relationship with Charley is especially complex here, and interestingly his old antagonist from academy days becomes practically a comrade-in-arms here, and Kelly matures from an ambitious young man to an officer whose shoulders are burdened not just with epaulets, but concern over his crew — either in battle or in the pay line, since struggling economies make it hard for working-class sailors to keep their families fed. All this growing up makes since when a reader sits back and realizes that this volume is covering the entire inter-war period, beginning with the surrender of the High Seas Fleet (Hochseeflotte) at the end of the War, and ending with the rise of Hitler. I liked that Hennessey made it episodic, and this novel was particularly interesting because so many of the incidents it covers are bits of history I’ve never heard of, like the Invergorden mutiny. China in this era is extremely chaotic: not united, but on the path to being so with nationalism fueling different figures like Kai-Chek. This was thoroughly enjoyable, and I’m sorry it’s been four years since I visited Hennessy: he’s good with characters, dialogue is snappy, and the action is always solid.

Highlights:

Kelly sighed. ‘It’s never been my habit to refuse when I’ve been told to volunteer, sir.’ The admiral’s smile grew wider and he rose. ‘A very good idea, too,’ he said briskly.

“I’m a great one for humanity. It’s people I don’t like very much.”

‘Might not come to massacre,’ Verschoyle said cheerfully. ‘They might not kill everybody. Just you.’

‘Can’t face their ancestors without their heads,’ Balodin said dryly. ‘They’d lose face.’ He gave a stiff smile. ‘No pun intended, of course.’

‘You seem to be very much the strong silent type, Commander.’
‘It’s a strong silent service, Mrs. Withinshawe.’

Captain Harrison didn’t make life any easier. He was a rigid disciplinarian punctilious about side parties and greetings and, a man of private means, it was his delight to point out to Kelly that, unlike most married officers, he preferred not to spend too much time ashore. ‘I’ve been married thirteen years,’ he liked to say, ‘but my wife has learned to do without me.’ ‘Perhaps she prefers it that way,’ was the first lieutenant’s opinion.

“Everything’s permissible there. Even meetings between old lovers, and you and I will always be a special case. We once committed murder together and that forges a link that’s difficult to break.’

“You may be hell on wheels as a sailor, Kelly, but as a hearts and flowers type you’re an absolute dead loss.”

Related:
The Lion at Sea, McGuire’s first appearance. WW1 naval antics
Falling into Battle, Andrew Wareham. More WW1 naval.

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The Ransomed Crown

Posted on April 23, 2024 by smellincoffee

Sir Roland Inness is returning to the hills he fled from as an outlaw, as a boy who’d slain three Norman men-at-arms for murdering his father and burning his home. He comes here not merely to pay respects to the dead, but to ask for his people’s support: the Midlands are burning, caught by a growing war between the usurping dog John and those loyal to King Richard, and the hope of continuing resistance at Chester needs men to help defend it. Will the Danes put aside their hatred of the Normans and unite with the Earl of Cheshire against a still worse threat? Well, that decision is made somewhat easier when de Ferrers, the man who made Roland an orphan, orders an invasion of the Danish hills and forces them to rally behind the flag. Matters grow worse, though: the King, attempting to return to England from the Crusades, has been captured by enemies on the Continent, and the Holy Roman Emperor is demanding more than a king’s ransom for his return. Richard’s arrival in England was the only thing giving those resisting John and his allies hope — and from inside the siege line, things look grim indeed. As Roland and Declan try to keep their lord’s people safe, Robin of Loxley and his brother-in-arms Friar Truck are outlaws in Sherwood, stealing wagons to keep the people of the Midlands from starving — and Millie is again serving as a spy, attempting to figure out who is undermining the loyal cause. Given how many of these I’ve read recently, this review threatens to sound like copy-paste beyond this point: it continues being solidly enjoyable, and as Grant points out in his afterword, this is as close as the series has come to being grounded on real events. Grant comments that there’s no reason to think the real de Ferrers was a particularly bad man, he just had the bad luck to be the Earl of Derbyshire when Grant needed a villain. Richard’s captivity and the subsequent wringing of England to pay his ransom did happen, though here it’s not developed as strongly as it might be: it’s happening in the background and the characters talk about how awful it is, but the reader is more focused on the spy drama and Roland’s attempts to break the siege of Cheshire. This is another fine addition to the series that will mostly be remembered for Roland’s recovery of his brother, who in the first novel he was compelled to entrust to the church for safety.

Would that men could be as content with their lot as were dogs!  But the nature of man was to strive, and in their striving, men were capable of the most admirable feats and the most appalling wickedness.

Oren slapped him on the shoulder and sighed. “I might have talked you out of your allegiance to this Sir Roger, but the most beautiful girl in England?  I can see it is a lost cause.”

“What the Prince expects and what the situation allows are not always the same, my lord.”

He had been trained to the blade since he was a boy and had a reputation as one of the finest swordsmen in the Midlands.  Surely he would overmatch some peasant who was more accustomed to killing with a longbow from ambush.  But as he watched Roland close the distance, a nagging thought struck him.  In all his years of training, he had never faced a man who meant to kill him.

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April 23: Shakespeare and St George

Posted on April 23, 2024 by smellincoffee

April 23rd is the feast day of St. George, the patron saint of England, and for that reason I devote April’s reading to naught but English literature, English history, etc. I am not entirely sure how a man killing dragons in Turkey managed to become the patron saint of England, but the wisdom of our ancestors is in the tradition, and my unhallowed hands shall not touch it or the country’s done for*. By curious coincidence, it is also the death date of William Shakespeare, and — traditionally — Shakespeare’s birthday. They come together in Shakespeare’s “Henry V”.

Dishonour not your mothers; now attest
That those whom you call’d fathers did beget you.
Be copy now to men of grosser blood,
And teach them how to war. And you, good yeoman,
Whose limbs were made in England, show us here
The mettle of your pasture; let us swear
That you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not;

For there is none of you so mean and base,
That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game’s afoot:
Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
Cry ‘God for Harry, England, and SAINT GEOOOOOORRRRGE!!’

[*] That’s a Dickens reference.

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Top Ten Unread Books on my Shelf

Posted on April 22, 2024 by smellincoffee

….hmm. Well, I dispatched Mount Doom last year, so I don’t have that many. The Shahnameh and The Houses We Live In, plus The Origin of Feces is hiding somewhere. I think Taxi, a collection of interviews with Cairo cab drivers, is also at the post office. I’m going to go with Top Ten Books I Really Owe A Review. But first, the tease!

He winked at her when he handed over the reins. “The English breed fast horses and beautiful girls, my lady.  I enjoyed sampling one of the two.” Millicent mounted quickly and looked over her shoulder at the bold young Welshman. “It is well you chose the one you could handle, my lord,” she said, wheeling the horse around and digging her heels into its flanks. (The Broken Realm)

He looked again at the land, silent, lonely, and lovely in the crisp northern air. The shadows of the anchored ships of the Grand Fleet suggested a maritime Valhalla full of ghostlike shapes frozen into a crystal silence in which the leaden water was the only thing that stirred. (The Dangerous Years)

Brought up on a diet of Bede, Gildas and King Arthur stories, we ‘knew’ that powerful warrior kings stormed ashore at the head of large, heavily armed warbands, sacking the cities, putting the villas to the flame and their Romanised inhabitants to the sword. Modern archaeological research tells a different tale. Pryor (2004) reflects a consensus of many modern historians when he writes, ‘To me the notion of Anglo-Saxon invasions is an archeologically absurd idea.’ To quote Fleming (2010), ‘By 420 Britain’s villas had been abandoned. Its towns were mostly empty, its organised industries dead, its connections with the wider Roman world severed; and all with hardly an Angle or Saxon in sight.’ And it happened in a single generation
(The Fall of Roman Britain: Why We Speak English)

Let’s start with the aged veterans of the Read-but-Unreviewed. In a 2016 New Years Resolutions post, I mentioned six books I’d read but not reviewed that I still want to review. In the last eight years, I’ve managed to review two of the six, Happy City and Cult of the Presidency. My zeal for reviewing Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Trash has faded over the years, leaving…

(1) The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Jane Jacobs. This book had such an effect on my thinking — being the catalyst for a mental sea change before I’d reached the halfway point — that it’s a shame I’ve never been able to review it.

(2) The Age of Absurdity, Michael Foley. A recommendation from Cyberkitten. I’ve re-read this one several times but never reviewed it.

(3) The Once and Future King: The Rise and Fall of Crown Government, F.H. Buckley. Examines how one-man dominance is returning in Anglo-American constitutions.

(4) Unnatural Selection: How We are Changing Life Gene by Gene, Emily Monosson. This was a fascinating NetGalley advance copy, so not reviewing it was especially wicked of me.

(5) Freedom and Virtue: the Conservative-Libertarian Debate, ed. George Carey. A collection of essays from different authors discussing overlap and opposition between libertarianism and conservative thinking of the time. My own political thinking is complicated and conflicted, so I found it especially provoking reading.

(6) This Brave New World: India, China, and the United States, Anja Manuel. Fascinating comparison of India and China, and an argument for how DC should approach its relationships with both powers.

(7) Life Under Compulsion: Ten Ways to Destroy Humanity Of Your Child, Anthony Esolen
(8) In Defense of Boyhood, Anthony Esolen.

(9) We Have Been Harmonized: Life in China’s Surveillance State, Kai Strittmatter

(10)The Four Loves, C.S. Lewis. I’ve read this book three times in the last four years.

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Worth reading: “A Time we Never Knew”

Posted on April 22, 2024 by smellincoffee

Freya of GIRLS, one of my favorite substackers, just posted an article on one of my favorite book-authors’ substack called “A Time We Never Knew”, on the wistfulness that Gen-Zers can experience when seeing videos of high school in the 1990s and very early 2000s, back when humanity had not been reduced by its own devices into stoop-necked mental cases. I don’t think it’s paywalled, so click away. Here are some quotes, though.

But God, that loss—that feeling. I am grieving something I never knew. I am grieving that giddy excitement over waiting for and playing a new vinyl for the first time, when now we instantly stream songs on YouTube, use Spotify with no waiting, and skip impatiently through new albums. I am grieving the anticipation of going to the movies, when all I’ve ever known is Netflix on demand and spoilers, and struggling to sit through a entire film. I am grieving simple joys—reading a magazine; playing a board game; hitting a swing-ball for hours—where now even split-screen TikToks, where two videos play at the same time, don’t satisfy our insatiable, miserable need to be entertained. [Emphasis added] I even have a sense of loss for experiencing tragic news––a moment in world history––without being drenched in endless opinions online. I am homesick for a time when something horrific happened in the world, and instead of immediately opening Twitter, people held each other. A time of more shared feeling, and less frantic analyzing. A time of being both disconnected but supremely connected.  […]

Maybe all generations look back with nostalgia. But my sense is [Gen-Zers] don’t do it for a time they never knew. They feel a longing for their youth; their childhood. My parents might flick through black-and-white photos and hear stories from my grandparents and feel intrigued, but not so much grief. I think there is something distinctly different and deserving of our attention about online forums filled with Zoomers wishing that they lived before social media. Wishing it didn’t exist. These are children grieving their youth while they are still children. These are teens mourning childhoods they wasted on the internet, writing laments such as “I know I’m still young (14F), and I have so many years to make up for that, but I can’t help but hate myself for those years I wasted doing nothing all day but go on my stupid phone.” […]

But we have to remember what has been lost. When we are grieving record stores, mixtapes, old-school romance, and friends goofing around in ‘90s high schools, what are we actually grieving? Delayed gratification. Deeper connection. Play and fun. Risk and thrill. Life with less obsessive self-scrutiny. These are things we can reclaim—if we remember what they are worth and roll back the phone-based world that degraded them.

We have to start somewhere. I suppose what I’m asking for here is some sympathy and a little more grace. It’s easy to mock Gen Z and Gen Alpha for their soaring screen time, to roll your eyes at teenagers wasting their youth in their rooms, ruminating about themselves, and feeling hopeless about the future. But they are trying their best to keep up with a world so agonizingly different from any before it—and it is the only one they have ever known. 

So please. Next time you cringe at Gen Z for not coping, for not feeling cut out for this world, remember how painful it is to think that the good times are over. Then imagine how much more painful it would be to realize you never knew them. 

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So I visited Whistle Stop….

Posted on April 19, 2024 by smellincoffee

Yesterday after a library conference (at which I was the only male attendee) I bolted over to Macon, GA, to hear one of my favorite musicians play. I was able to give her my librarian compliment (telling her I appreciated how casually she worked in references to Hemingway and Sylvia Plath into her songs)*, and then enjoyed a great acoustic concert. She’s run into Sierra Ferrell, something I wondered about, and confirmed that she’s wicked fun to hang out with. I hate screaming and never scream myself, but screaming was done and heard and I may have contributed. This morning, while breakfasting with two cool ladies who also did the meet-and-greet, I learned that the filming location for Fried Green Tomatoes was just north of the city. I had plans for the day and they disappeared like Frank Bennett. I have a dog named Idgie, for pete’s sake, of course I was going. (I’ve also visited the actual cafe that inspired the book.)

(incoherent but enthusiastic screaming)
IT’S THE PLACE! FROM THE MOVIE!!!!

“Idgie was a character, all right, but how anyone could have thought she murdered that man was beyond me…”
They don’t serve barbecue a la Frank Bennett.
I need to research the history of this town, but this strip is apparently owned by one person who has wisely oriented it towards the idolization of Fried Green Tomatoes. All of the shops sell FGT-related materials along with their peculiar specialties (antiques, books, oil paintings).
I found a hobbit hole!

….actually, it’s a place where the Ocmulgees used to do funerals.
The great mound, which I climbed and acquired sunburn while resting there.
Touring a mostly-intact late 19th century farm, the Jarrell Plantation. Operated circa 1840 to 1962. Stayed in the family until they gave it to the State of Georgia for use as a living history museum.

Hemingway: “I’m drunk on Hemingway dreams” – Make You Fall in Love With Me | “Like Hemingway and Hadley, it’s not the end of our story” — Met You.

Sylvia Plath: “Gettin’ drunk at a bar downtown, quotin’ Sylvia Plath”, “Phantom Feelings”.

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The Broken Realm

Posted on April 19, 2024 by smellincoffee

Two young men land in England and begin their journey home, to the Welsh marches. They are not the cheerful young boys they were nearly two years ago, when they set off for the Holy Land with their lord. They have experienced Hell, in blistering heat and clouds of flies and a desperate stand against the best of Saladin’s army. But if they’ve come back to England expecting peace and safety, they will find neither. The sniveling John is steadily attempting to usurp his brother’s throne, and he has allies in the Midlands soaking the people to increase his coffers, not knowing those allies are more in service to the French than himself. Roland and Declan’s master’s lord has gotten caught up in this devilry, and when they arrive home they find their former household naught but ashes. The bastard de Ferrers, the man who killed Roland’s father for poaching a deer that he never touched, is growing in power and arrogance and has unlawfully seized Cheshire and hangs all who resist him from the walls of Chester. Roland and Declan must find the remains of Sir Roger’s household, who have sought refuge in Wales, and find a way to stay alive and hopefully undermine all his villainry. They are not alone: Sir Roger’s daughter, Millie, is an agent of Queen Eleanor, working to expose all the plotting, and the Queen herself is no less formidable for her advancing age. Oh, and there’s also Robin of Loxley and Friar Tuck wandering around!

This is not a series I’d intended to get into: honestly, after reading No King, No Country, I was just curious as to what one of Grant’s other books might be like, and now I’m three books into it. There’s a lot to like here: we began with a frightened young orphan who is now an accomplished warrior, and increasingly a leader of men. There’s the great drama of politics, of course, both the domestic power plays and the way they’re being inflamed and enveloped into France’s ambitions. Seeing the Robin Hood story slowly percolating here adds a splash of whimsy, but it’s just a splash: Grant is careful to led his leads dominate, with Robin and Tuck remaining extremely minor characters. Although the beginning of this series struck me as written for young teens, all three of the once-minor leads are on the verge of adulthood now, each taking on responsibilities. Both Roland and Declan have moments of command here, and Millie is a key player in the plot, no less courageous than her crusader father and just as wily as the Queen herself. She and Roland’s attachment to each other is also beginning to mature. As this series continues, it’s becoming more of an ensemble with a leading man, instead of being the Roland-and-Millie show, but that’s to its benefit as I enjoy seeing Eleanor work to maintain the peace of the realm despite Johnny-boy’s ambitions. One new character this round is Llewellyn, the exiled king of Gwynedd whose lands are taken by his uncles Owain and Dayffd: I have a feeling he will make a return, as his alliance with Roland’s people is meant to be one of mutual support: I’d bet money one future book is Roland supporting Llewellyn against the conspiring uncles.

Yep. Pay up, me!

Related:
Here be Dragons, Sharon Kay Penman. Welsh drama set during this same time, and also featuring a Welsh Llewellyn.

Highlights:

“Where are the barons?” he asked, with acid in his voice.  “They have the power to control the Prince, not you or I.”
“That’s a good question,” said Tuck.  “If the Queen was sure of where the main pieces on the chessboard stood, she wouldn’t be talking to us pawns.”

He winked at her when he handed over the reins. “The English breed fast horses and beautiful girls, my lady.  I enjoyed sampling one of the two.” Millicent mounted quickly and looked over her shoulder at the bold young Welshman.
“It is well you chose the one you could handle, my lord,” she said, wheeling the horse around and digging her heels into its flanks.

“Did you kill the bastard living in your house?”  Robin shook his head.
“I was going to, but the priest here stopped me,” he said pointing to his companion.  “This is Friar Tuck.”  The big man laughed. “
The church!  Always spoiling our fun.”

“Two days ago he offered me five of his horses, a fine mail shirt and three gold coins [for the roan].”
“Good God, he lusts after that horse like it was a woman.”
“I honestly believe that if he had a woman of his own, he would throw her into the bargain for the horse.”

“If you would have been as charming to the guard, we would not be in this situation.” Roland returned her look with a small smile. “The guard was not as pretty.”

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If anyone needs me I’m in Georgia stanning for Morgan Wade

Posted on April 18, 2024 by smellincoffee

I’m an hour away from meeting the musician whose voice I’ve heard every day for the last two years. Had an interesting morning at a library administration conference, then a drive through strawberry, pecan, and peach orchards to Macon, GA. Going to a concert and a meet and greet tonight, then doing some general touristy stuff tomorrow. I’ve got a scheduled review for tomorrow, though.

Ooh-oooh-ooho-ooh!
I want you one last time
Another hit to ease my mind
I don’t want you to be over yet
Won’t you be my last cigarette?

Not the best audio, but she looks cool as hell.
This one is from her new album Obsessed that will be released this fall.
Here we go
You got me fallin’ in love again
You got a secret,
I wanna keep it
I wish I’d known you in your wilder days




We’re said and done and now you’re movin’ ‘cross the country
You found someone, I’m still acceptin’ that it’s not me
All the words we’ve ever said are bouncin’ off the ceiling
I try not to but I still have phantom feelings
I still have phantom feeling..
(Ooh-ooh) Like June and Johnny
(Ooh-ooh) Like Clyde and Bonnie

We run like rebels through the dust of the devil
It’s you and me, baby, when the dirt all settles
(Ooh-ooh)
(Ooh-ooh)

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Inie or outie?

Posted on April 17, 2024 by smellincoffee

Today’s prompt from Long and Short Reviews is “Introvert or Extrovert: Which are You?” I don’t know that I’d identify with either, since my expressiveness can vary widely depending on whom I’m with. My best friend from school, for instance, was surprised in sixth grade to discover that his quiet desk-mate suddenly morphed into a prank-pulling chatterbox at church. When I first moved back to town over a decade ago and entered a new social circle, I was more observant and quiet, and then when doing a skit in costume, I suddenly erupted with energy — again. I think it’s accurate to say I have a decided inclination toward introversion, given that I’ve always been bookish and thoughtful, but it’s only an inclination and balanced by my fondness for good company and the fact that I have a job in which I have to be personable. I’ve also noticed that I tend to be drawn toward people who are very outgoing, because their energy activates my own — all of my best friends are outgoing. I do like withdrawing into the quiet lunchroom and just spending an hour reading, though. I know other people who can switch on either mode: my friend DJ, for instance, was known for his outrageous and loud personality, but those who knew him well also knew that he could happily spend hours in silence, engrossed in a book. Cody Jinks, a guitarist and country singer, described himself once as ‘an ambivert’. I don’t put too much stock in labels, myself, but perhaps that’s the most accurate.

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