As usual, I listened to part of the consistently excellent Today programme on Radio Four. There were two items that particularly caught my ear. One was about a report being published today by an organisation called Race on the Agenda (ROTA) on the subject of girls being involved in gang crime in London and elsewhere. The crime appears to be largely related to drugs and is often violent. Some of this violence is sexual in nature. Reference was made to female members of gangs being raped as a punishment by rival gangs. The author of the report referred to rape “as a weapon of choice”. One female gang member, interviewed by the BBC, admitted to smoking and dealing in cannabis from the age of 13. She started selling class A drugs on leaving school. She had beaten up people and been beaten up herself and also admitted to handling a gun for a fellow gang member.

The second Today item was a debate on the effect of immigrant workers on the UK economy. One conclusion seemed to be that foreigners were happy to do work over here that British workers were not prepared to undertake. One of the participants in the debate was Frank Field, the Labour MP for Birkenhead. He mentioned that, in his constituency, about half of young people do not attain the minimum school leaving requirements and are destined for a lifetime of unemployment. Some young people in Birkenhead have told their MP that they have no intention of working unless a job offers something like three times their benefits level.

There were then two pieces in The Times that caught my attention.The first was that, despite a ten-year Government strategy costing millions of pounds, Britain still has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in western Europe. The second was about a London gang member who was involved, as a lookout, in the murder of a shop manager, whilst on police bail for murdering a youth for his mobile phone. (He was on bail because the police did not have sufficient evidence at the time to have him put in custody pending trial.)

These are just four items of news on the same morning. How can any sensible person deny the existence of an underclass in this country or that we are living in a broken society?

‘Paddy, will you draw your bedroom curtains before making love to your wife in future?’

‘Bejaysus —- Why?’ Paddy asked.

‘Because,’ said Mick, ‘the whole street was laughing when they saw you making love yesterday.’

Paddy replied: ‘Stupid bastards, the laugh’s on them … I wasn’t home yesterday.’

Photo: Kate Atkinson. See below.

The Brass Verdict (2008) by Michael Connelly
See the review in my blog of 24th June 2009.

Aimez-Vous Brahms… (1959) by Françoise Sagan
I came across this book whilst clearing out my mother’s house. Françoise Sagan was a popular French novelist who died in 2004. This was her fourth novel and is only 129 pages long. It is about a middle-aged woman in a long-standing affair who becomes involved with a much younger man. Even though it is so short, I still found it tedious. This was the first book by the author that I have read and it is likely to be the last.

The Shape of Water (1994) by Andrea Camilleri
This is the first in a popular series of novels, translated from Italian, featuring a Sicilian detective, Inspector Salvo Montalban. It is an enjoyable mystery, written in a low key, and I may well read another in the series.

The Interpretation of Murder (2006) by Jed Rubenfield
The author is an academic lawyer at Yale University and this is his first novel. It is set in the USA in 1909 and is a mixture of fact and fiction. The factual context is the visit to that country at that time of Sigmund Freud, accompanied by Carl Jung, to give a series of lectures on psychoanalysis. The fiction is the former’s involvement in solving a murder and an associated mystery. It received very good reviews and was one of the UK’s best-selling novels in 2007. Whilst it is cleverly plotted and carefully researched, the central conceit did not really work for me.

The Mission Song (2006) by John le Carré
Anyone who is familiar with this website will know that I am a huge admirer of John le Carré. This story of an interpreter out of his depth in murky African politics did not disappoint. It is written with a lighter touch than some of his work.

Case Histories (2004) by Kate Atkinson
This is the second novel by Kate Atkinson that I have read. The first was Behind the Scenes at the Museum which was the 1995 Whitbread Book of the Year, an impressive feat for a first novel. I thoroughly enjoyed both books. She has an original style and is able to blend tragedy with dark humour. Unlike the earlier book, Case Histories is a detective story but it is quite different from the norm. The central character, Jackson Brodie, a private detective, is very likeable and features in two further novels. I look forward to reading them.

The House of the Spirits (1982) by Isabel Allende
We had had this book at home for several years but it did not appeal to me. I only decided to read it after seeing that The Times had included it in its list of the 60 greatest books of the past 60 years. The author is Chilean and is related to the former president of that country, Salvador Allende, who was deposed in the 1973 coup led by General Pinochet. This was her first novel and is set in a South American country which, although unnamed, is identifiable as Chile. It is a family saga, covering three generations. It is a magnificent work and deserves the recognition it has received.

Russian Hide-and-Seek (1980) by Kingsley Amis
This was another book that belonged to my mother. It is set in England fifty years after the country has been colonized by the Russians and concerns a plot to bring down the government. I have read and enjoyed several of Amis’s novels but this was not one of them. I found it neither amusing nor interesting.

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Solicitors
In the finance section of a recent weekend edition of a “quality” newspaper there was a reference to “solicitors, lawyers and accountants”. This was not the first time I have seen this error. There are two principal branches of the legal profession in the UK: solicitors and barristers. Both are lawyers. The journalist should either have referred to “lawyers and accountants” or to “solicitors, barristers and accountants”. Her implication, hopefully inadvertent, was that solicitors are not qualified lawyers. I wonder if she would object to a distinction being drawn between “writers and journalists”?

Police
I was walking along our road the other day when a police car drove past me going in the opposite direction. As he approached, the driver gave me a cheery wave. I found this surprising gesture rather uplifting and it occurs to me that a friendly approach from the police could do wonders for their public image. Having said that, although it seems to me that they often have a bad press, I personally have always found them helpful and courteous. This was even the case when, many years ago, I was giving a witness statement and used the term “I was proceeding along…”. The officer taking the statement suggested that I should use different wording. I suspect he thought I was taking the piss. I wasn’t. It was simply that, having been indoctrinated by Dixon of Dock Green, I thought that was the correct term to use. Honest, guv.

Teaching of  History
I have read criticism of the teaching of history in schools in that there is too much emphasis on the twentieth century. At least, I think I have but research on the Internet has failed to reveal my source! Anyway, whatever it was that I read has given me food for thought. My recollection of my own rather distant school days is that we suffered a surfeit of the Plantagenets and Tudors and the only time we touched on the twentieth century was when studying the events leading up to the First World War. My daughter, who is in her early thirties, has a similar recollection of her time at school.   We both wish we had had the opportunity to cover more recent history as that would have had greater relevance to the world in which we now live.

Each part, lasting an hour and a half, was an adaptation of a Henning Mankell novel. These were, in order: Faceless Killers, The Man Who Smiled and The Fifth Woman.

Kurt Wallander is a depressed, middle-aged Swedish detective whose life is a mess. He is divorced,  lives alone and has a father who suffers from dementia. The bleakness of his life is matched by that of the landscape in which he is often seen. The murder cases in which he is involved are always grisly. This may not sound too promising but it added up to compulsive viewing.

Kenneth Branagh’s performance, in the title role, of a man on the verge of a nervous breakdown is very impressive and the regular supporting cast is consistently good.

The BBC has clearly lavished time and money on this series. It contrasted strongly with the recent ITV offering, Above Suspicion, a 3-part serial by Lynda La Plante that was shown on consecutive nights. I only watched it to the end because I was ill and did not have the energy to do anything more taxing. I wish I had not bothered.

The previous series of Wallander won the 2009 Best Drama Series BAFTA. It would not surprise me if the second series won the award for this year, unless there is a rule prohibiting this. 

For anyone who missed Wallander, the first series is available on DVD and the second series is, I understand, due for release early next month.

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The Suspicions of Mr Whicher (2008) by Kate Summerscale
This is a thoroughly researched account of a notorious Victorian murder case that involved Jack Whicher of Scotland Yard, the most famous detective of the time. The case inspired the classic English country house murder story. The book won the prestigious Samuel Johnson prize for non-fiction in 2008 and was named as the Book of the Year in the 2009 Galaxy British Book Awards. Whilst I enjoyed it, I felt it succeeded more as a social history than as a narrative of the actual events. Nevertheless, well worth reading.

A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007) by Khaled Hosseini
I enjoyed this even more than Hosseini’s first novel, The Kite Runner. Indeed, I think it is the better book. Like its predecessor, it is set in Afghanistan, and is an epic and often harrowing tale of the lives of two women enduring their plight in that country’s recent turbulent history. It has been a huge international success and was the novel that most impressed me of the ones I read last year.

Don’t Look Back (2002) by Karin Fossum
I so enjoyed the BBC Wallander series last year that I decided to read one of Henning Mankell’s novels. Unfortunately the only ones that seemed to be readily available at the time were those on which the TV series had been based. It was not, however, a massive leap from a Swedish policeman to a Norwegian one, Inspector Sejer. Although it was well written, I did not find the book gripping and am a little surprised at Karin Fossum’s considerable popularity. Perhaps this was not a particularly good example of her work.

A Most Wanted Man (2008) by John le Carré
One of my favourites of the year. See the review in my blog of 24th June 2009.

I’m Not Scared (2001) by Niccolò Ammaniti
A disturbing story, seen through the eyes of a nine year old boy who gradually discovers that his world is not what it had seemed. It is a superbly written short novel that maintains its tension to the end. The 2003 film of the same name, with a screenplay by the author, is very faithful to the novel.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984) by Milan Kundera
This is widely regarded as a twentieth century classic. Having struggled to read it, I can but wonder why. To me it was unbearably tedious. Probably, I simply don’t appreciate postmodern literature. I am sufficiently old-fashioned to want well-drawn characters and a structure to the plot. I much preferred the 1988 film version.

The Ghost (2007) by Robert Harris
I read this on holiday in a very short space of time and it was, indeed, hard to put down. It is a first-class, intelligent political thriller. Don’t be misled by the title. It is not about the supernatural; the hero is a ghostwriter hired by a former British prime minister to complete his memoirs. If the Blairs have read this, I don’t think they would have enjoyed it.

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Although we have holidayed in France on many occasions, particularly when our children were younger, we had not previously visited Alsace and I suspect that it is not a holiday destination that readily springs to mind for many Brits. It is situated in north-east France and borders Germany. Indeed, the region has changed hands between France and Germany several times over the centuries. It last did so at the end of the Second World War. However, although it is part of France, the region is strongly influenced by its neighbour to the east,. This is apparent in its place names, its food and wines and some of its architecture.

We travelled to Alsace by train: Eurostar to Paris, the TGV from Paris to Strasbourg and then a local train to Obernai. We departed from London Paddington at 10:25 BST and arrived at Obernai at 17:50 (local time). With the benefit of hindsight, it would probably have been less tiring if we had flown to Strasbourg. The latter is the principal city of the region and is, of course, the seat of the Council of Europe and the European Parliament.

The tour operator through whom we made the trip arranged our accommodation and transported our luggage from one hotel to the next. Thus all we had to carry was a rucksack each, containing waterproofs (which in the event were not needed), water and, on most days, something to eat for lunch. One can either walk in an organised group or independently. We chose the latter. There was also a choice each day between a high route and a low route. The former were longer walks and involved more hill climbing; the latter were mainly by or through vineyards. We did some of each but preferred the lower routes as they were prettier. The high routes tended to be through forests. The length of the walks varied. The shortest, an afternoon walk only, was 6.2 miles; the longest was  19 miles. We chose the shorter one of 10.3 miles, that day! On average we were probably walking between 10 and 12 miles a day.

After staying the night at Obernai, a picturesque small town, the walk started the following day from Barr, a short train ride away. From there we travelled, over the course of the next six days, in a southerly direction, staying at Dambach-La-Ville, St Hippolyte, Ribeauvillé, Riquewihr, Lapoutroie and Kaysersberg. Each of these places was of interest but two of them, Riquewihr (below left) and Kaysersberg (below right), are beautiful medieval towns.  I wish we had had more time to explore them.

The local food is very German-influenced, with a lot of pork and choucroute (sauerkraut in German) and the portions tend to be huge. If gourmet cuisine is more to your liking, you should not be disappointed. I understand that Alsace has more Michelin-starred restaurants than any other region of France. We ate in two such restaurants, and one that was Michelin-recommended, and all three dinners were very good.

The white wines are world-famous. These include Riesling, Gewürztraminer and Pinot Gris.

For anyone who has not visited Alsace, I believe it has a lot to recommend it.