BOOK DIGEST
“Shoes are often designed with a flair or flamboyance that far exceeds their practical use”
In SHOES: AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY (Bloomsbury), Rebecca Shawcross skips through thousands of years of footwear, from the mundane rawhide pampootie (a primitive type of moccasin), through padukas (Indian toe-knob sandals), clogs, brogues, courts, mules, hobnailed boots, stilettos, wedges, platforms, exercise sandals and sneakers. From the practical to the indulgent, no other form of clothing is lusted over in quite the same way.
In A TABLE IN THE ORCHARD (Ebury Press), Michelle Crawford writes of swapping her hectic city life for an idyllic family farmhouse in the countryside: “... There’s something about Tasmania that creeps under your skin and bewitches you with its beauty. The longer you stay, the more you discover and the harder you fall, until there is nothing left for it but to give up everything you know, surrender to its charms and move here.
It had called to me like a siren across the Bass Strait for years, but it was a visit in October 2004 that sealed my fate. Standing on top of a snow-covered Mount Wellington with my husband Leo, I took in the breathtaking view and the sight of our twoyear-old daughter Elsa delighting in her first snow. I felt the first stirring of butterflies in my stomach.”
In ACCIDENCE WILL HAPPEN: THE NON-PEDANTIC GUIDE TO ENGLISH USAGE (Weidenfeld and Nicolson), Oliver Kamm argues: “... You can be wrong and I can be wrong about grammar, spelling and punctuation. But … it’s not possible for everyone, or for the majority of educated users of the language to be wrong. The only evidence we have of what makes up the English language is how people write and speak it. If an ‘incorrect’ form is more widely understood than an alternative construction, it isn’t incorrect. It’s what the language is.”
In GIRL IN THE DARK (Bloomsbury), Anna Lyndsey describes her life with a rare and severe light sensitivity: “... I know I do not have much time. Immediately I leave my blacked-out room, a clock is ticking; my skin begins its twisted dialogue with light. At first the exchange takes place in softest whispers, then more insistent mutterings. ‘Ignore it!’ I want to scream. ‘You don’t have to respond, don’t get involved.’ But my skin soon chatters loudly, an argument is building. The situation is becoming heated; it is prudent to separate the protagonists.
… Over the whole covering of my body, I burn with invisible fire. I take my skin back to my lair. In the darkness, it regains its equilibrium.”
“If you travel as much as we do you appreciate the improvements in aircraft design of less noise and more comfort – provided you don’t travel in something called economy class, which sounds ghastly.” Prince Philip, addressing the Aircraft Research Association in 2002: Quoted by Antony A. Butt in THE WISDOM OF PRINCE PHILIP
(Hardie Grant) More than 50,000 people visit Buckingham Palace each year as guests at banquets, lunches, dinners, receptions and garden parties. From A ROYAL COOKBOOK (Royal Collection Trust)