June 2010

Book news

Another book by local author John Miller is published this month. Called ‘All Them Cornfields and Ballet in the Evening’, it is a resonant and highly personal story about the vanished world of the USSR. For more than 40 years, the Soviet Union was the centre of his working life – he started on The Eastern Daily Press – and some of the big stories of the 20th century were played out in front of his notebook. Mr Miller, a Southwold town councillor, gave the NSPCC annual ‘Soup and Puds’ lecture in St Edmunds Hall earlier this year. The title of the book is unusual. He unashamedly stole it from the 1957 film I’m Alright Jack, which starred Peter Sellers as a communist trade union leader forever acclaiming the Soviet Union as a workers’ paradise. Mr Miller has produced two local books: The Best of Southwold and Southwold in Old Photographs. ‘All Them Cornfields and Ballet in the Evening’ is published by Hodgson Press, price £12.99.

Also of interest is a new book by local author Douglas McPherson, which stars the east coast’s very own piece of circus history, the Yarmouth Hippodrome. Circus Mania – The Ultimate Book for Anyone Who Dreamed of Running Away With the Circus, has been described by the great showman Gerry Cottle as, ‘a passionate and up-to-date look at the circus and its people’. Mr McPherson, who works as a freelance journalist for The Daily Telegraph and The Stage, was inspired to write the book after a visit to the Hippodrome where he met aerialist Eva Garcia. . . just days before she fell and died during her act in 2003. Having become fascinated with the dangerous, itinerant lives of circus performers, their customs, superstitions and history, Mr McPherson began his exploration of circus culture at the Hippodrome, which is Britain’s last permanent building purpose-built for circus. After opening with a chapter on the Hippodrome, Circus Mania introduces us to Britain’s oldest circus family, features an exclusive interview with the Mr Big behind the Chinese and Moscow State Circuses, and assesses the future of circus, which was founded in London by trick horse-rider Philip Astley in 1768. Throughout the book, however, the action frequently returns to the Hippodrome, where the author met such colourful characters as Britain’s funniest clowns, Clive Webb and Danny Adams, and the stars of the Circus of Horrors. ‘Circus is an incredibly diverse and vibrant field of entertainment, and we are fortunate to have a living piece of its history right here in East Anglia,’ says Mr McPherson who, when he’s not in the Big Top, can be found most weekends walking on Southwold beach or having a coffee on the pier. Circus Mania is published by Peter Owen, and available from www.amazon.co.uk and all good bookshops.

Finally, a book swap library service has been set up in Halesworth. Tanya Marwood, Manager of Woolnough Funeral Service, Halesworth and five other branches of Anglia Funeral Services (Beccles, Bungay, Diss, Harleston and Long Stratton) has organised a book swap library service for Halesworth, and these other towns. People are invited to the branches to have a look at the books and take one, two or more away to read. If they have any unwanted books themselves, they can be left for others to select. The system is like a public library, but, if you want to keep the book, that is fine – and, of course, there are no fines! You can keep the books for as long as you want, then either bring it back and swap it for another, or simply keep it. If anyone using this service so desires, there will be a collection box for Help for Heroes for voluntary charitable donations. There are over 500 secondhand books to start the scheme off; a mixture of novels, factual, fiction, Mills & Boon and children’s books. As the book swap scheme progresses, Ms Marwood hopes it may become mobile, taking books to local hospitals and residential homes for people who are unable to get to the branches. If anyone has any large print books they no longer need, she would be most grateful as these will be most useful for the proposed mobile service. Ms Marwood’s enthusiasm has been catching, as her colleague, Rachel Allen, is hoping to start a monthly book club at Rackhams Funeral Home at Diss, For more information regarding the book club, please ring Rachel Allen at 01379 642321. For more information about the book swap scheme, please contact Woolnough Funeral Service, Cemetery Chapel, Holton Road, Halesworth IP19 8HD (tel: 01986 872 204).