Book Reviews

THE FOLLOWING BOOKS ARE REVIEWED BY JOHN HAGAN

THE BREATHING REVOLUTION

BY YOLANDA BARKER / GREEN TREE $24.99

When I first began my yoga practice over a decade ago, the mantra of my teacher was, ‘Listen to your breath’. After about four downward-dogs I had no trouble listening to my breath – it was roaring in my ears! For the ancient yogis, breathing exercises (pranayama) constituted the fastest path to enlightenment - peace, bliss and wisdom. Barker builds on, and enlarges, this principle, illustrating how the way a person breathes affects the body, mind and emotions, largely through the breath’s connection to the nervous system and the stress response. Barker believes that ‘very few people breathe optimally’, describing how inefficient breathing impacts negatively on physiology resulting in possible high blood pressure, anxiety, low energy, disturbed sleep, palpitations and other incapacitating issues. For those wishing to walk up a flight of stairs without feeling out of breath, calm their emotions, develop clarity, become more physically fit and more energetic, Barker outlines a simple seven day programme of practical exercises, covering such elements as analyzing and recognizing personal breathing habits, use of the correct breathing muscles, exploring breathing rhythms and proper exhalation procedure. In the second section of the book, Barker describes simple breathing techniques including tips for enhanced posture, pelvic floor health, plus advice on how to evoke calmness and develop better sleep patterns. Drawing on her own experience of coping with anxiety and depression, allied to her background as a long-time yoga teacher, Barker shines a profound light on the physiology of stress, and its debilitating effect. Suggested exercises are in dot point form, and illustrated by simple line drawings; instructions are easy to follow making this a really practical book to read. Between its covers, this slim, 160 page publication has the potential to afford us all a new breath of life.

THE ICE COVEN

BY MAX SEECK / WELBECK $29.99

Following on from his bestselling Nordic noir novel, The Witch Hunter, Seeck again features police investigator, Jessica Niemi as she continues to lead a small, elite group of officers in Helsinki’s Violent Crimes Unit. Two popular social influencers have suspiciously disappeared after an album launch party by Kex Mace, Finland’s biggest rap star. Next day,

a female corpse is washed up on a frigid Finnish shore wearing a manga costume causing Jessica to confront what soon becomes a vast criminal conspiracy with a ruthless psychopath its heart. Highly regarded as a talented, instinctive investigator, Jessica is still coping with mistakes from her previous case and hasn’t fully recovered from the loss of her boss, and father figure, Erne Mikson. To compound her troubles, Mikson has been replaced by the pedantic, bureaucratic, Chief Helena Lappi who seems to have taken an instant, and spiteful, dislike to Jessica. The only survivor of a car crash which killed her parents and young brother, Jessica has inherited a family fortune and resides in an ornate mansion although she purports to live in a small grubby flat. She exhibits aspects of her personality which don’t necessarily reflect reality as she faces her own personal demons. With short pacey chapters told in the present tense, Seeck has developed a technique which ratchets up the tension producing an impactful thriller full of dizzying twists and turns, red herrings and dead ends. The intricately, intelligently plotted storyline, set in the bleak Finnish winter, will keep the reader engrossed and guessing. In Jessica Nemi, Seeck has created a heroine as complex and captivating as I can remember as she races to solve the crimes before an old enemy emerges threatening to destroy her. .

DUCHESS WHO DARED

CHARLES CASTLE / SWIFT PRESS $ 22.99

The hit TV show in the UK over the recent Christmas period was A Very British Scandal depicting the real-life story of the turbulent marriage and bitter, brutal, expensive divorce proceedings of the Duke and Duchess of Argyll. During 1963, under the glare of a rabid British tabloid press and a transfixed nation, theirs was a court case awash with revelations of violence, burglary, theft, infidelity, bribery and illicit photographs. Margaret, Duchess of Argyll and society beauty immortalized by Cole Porter in his hit song, You’re the Tops, was dubbed, the ‘dirty duchess’ for her many liaisons outside their marriage (the Duke alleged there were 88 ‘other men’). However, the Duke himself, addicted to alcohol, amphetamines and gambling, was not without his own array of mistresses and infidelities. Believing she would win the case, the costliest divorce proceedings in British history, Margaret was in Paris with her married lover when the judge delivered the adverse verdict, granting the Duke a divorce. The Duchess was denounced by the judge as ‘a completely promiscuous woman’ who was apparently not ‘satisfied with normal relations and had started to indulge in disgusting sexual activities to gratify a debased sexual appetite’. Eleven years later, Margaret contacted author, Charles Castle, asking him to write her life story. Castle agreed on the condition he could tape all interviews and also requested copyright and legal protection against any unforeseeable litigation as he ‘was all too aware that her past had been bound up with treachery, adultery and deceit’. The Duchess candidly disclosed to Castle, details of her early life as a Scottish born socialite and heiress, her affair, as a 15 year old, with film star, David Niven, the break-up of her first marriage, and how her second marriage to Argyll eventually turned sour. She is revealed as a formidable, headstrong woman who during her eventful life experienced domestic violence, miscarriages, a near-death accident, abortion, estrangement from her daughter and eventually the distain of a nation. Castle’s portrayal of the Duchess is that of a vibrant, poised, fashionable, sexually liberated woman, ahead of her time and who, perhaps in this day and age might have been treated quite differently by the law and society. None of the scandal and widespread calumny broke Margaret, who held her head high until her death in 1993. Accompanying all the intrigue, this is a tale peopled by actors such as Douglas Fairbanks Jnr and Moira Lister, a bevy of leading politicians, financiers and newspaper barons, and providing a fascinating

and colourful peek into the mores and motivations of a past era of British high society.

LONG PLAYERS

EDITED BY TOM GATTI / BLOOMSBURY $34.99

Originally a weekly series in UK’s New Statesman, those columns have now been reproduced into this intoxicating mix of memoir and music, demonstrating how a single long playing record shaped the outlook and identity of fifty noted authors. During childhood, I can recall hearing the crackly voices of Harry Lauder and John McCormick emanating from heavy, shiny, shellac records, spinning at 78 revolutions per minute, but it wasn’t until 1948 when the 12 inch record was launched heralding the introduction of the modern 33rpm LP. Over the years since, the popularity of the LP has waxed and waned with Michael Jackson’s Thriller, released in 1982, becoming the top selling LP of all times with sales of 50 million. Gatti approached a selection of famous writers such as Deborah Levy, Patricia Lockwood, Billy Bragg, Clive James and Ben Orki, to recount the LP which most affected their lives. Colm Tobin cited the 1969 album Give a Damm, by Irish folk band the Johnsons as his choice because through it he was able, while a teenager, to imagine and fashion the world outside his Irish boyhood home. Marlon James declares that Bjork’s Post helped him come to terms with his identity, sexuality and faith. For Kate Mossman, Paul Simon’s The Rhythm of the Saints will forever be associated with a remarkable teenage holiday which the family won to the south of France. Ian Rankin, creator of Rebus, settles for John Martyn’s Solid Air as the one album which has been his constant companion through school, university, marriage and children – even through his punk days. ‘Each time when we moved, the first album on the turntable was Solid Air’, he states. Writers LP choices are widespread and eclectic, some mainstream (for Alan Johnson it’s the Beatles Revolver), while for some, like Fiona Mozley (Cassadaga by Bright Eyes), the selection is a little more idiosyncratic. Subjects range from Mozart

to Ms Dynamite, with the pieces selected revealing something interesting about the writer, the music and the world at large. As a post script, the album which radically changed my life, putting an end to my smoking habit, was jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery’s A Day in the Life. My choice is not based on the disc’s content (although I remain a big Montgomery fan), but on the album’s confronting cover. How about the LP which most affected you?

THE FOLLOWING BOOKS ARE REVIEWED BY PAULA XIBERRAS

A CURLEW’S EYE

BY KAREN MANTON

A Curlew’s Eye, Karen Manton’s first novel is at once a gothic novel and a supernatural ghost story. The gothic castle or manor house is replaced by a crumbling homestead. Into this scene arrives Greta, her husband Joel and their children, always travelling and never settling down they appear to not want to face reality. Joel returns to the home of his childhood that is tarnished by the tragic loss of his sister. He is here to repair his old home for sale but the repairs are not only on his home but himself as he seeks to recover from a childhood incident that as left visible scars on his body. The fairytale imagery of the story continues with the poisonous apple and spindle re imagined as a poisonous lake that acts like a mirror, not one asks who is the most beautiful of all but instead throws up images of unfortunate animals that chose to drink from its transparent depths. The mystery of the novel is not transparent however and it takes to the end to piece the story together. Karen says the fairytale of the six swans is pivotal to the story. The six swans is a story about six brothers who turn into swans and the sister who has the ability to change them back, which she does but unfortunately the charm is incomplete and one brother is left with the vestige of a swans wing. Joel is like this brother, incapacitated by an accident he is left bereft of fully functioning after the loss of his sister Magdalene, instead he brandishes scars the equivalent of the inconvenient reminder, like the swans wing, of what he has lost. On the property remain the car that Magdalene was born in and it is only later we see the symmetry in her death. Greta is impacted by the appearance of a young girl who seems fascinated by the replicated birthmark that Joel and one his sons share. The wind chimes that mark the presence of the girl make her both heard and hidden. The swan in mythology is noted for its life long devotion to one partner and as the story and the mystery it becomes clear as the tragic inhabitants of the lake that Joel’s retention of the scars representing the wing of the swan symbolise his life long devotion to his sister. A Curlew’s Eye by Karen Manton is out now published by Allen and Unwin.

NED KELLY AND THE CONSTABLE, A STORY OF ANNE SOUTER AND DOC NEESON

I spoke to Doc’s partner Anne Souter about the recent biography which she co-authored with Jon Bradshaw ‘The Life and Times of (Irish) Aussie Rock Legend Doc Neeson’, which explores the enigma of The Angels’ Bernard Patrick ‘Doc’ Neeson. Doc Neeson is a towering figure in Australian music and that is more than in his quite formidable physical height. Doc gave us a unique stage presence that inspired others, most notably found in the characteristic hand movements of Peter Garret, directly inspired by Doc’s own wild hand movements known as ‘Exploring space’. Doc arrived in South Australia from Ireland as a teen on the converted troopship Shrathnaver, with his father Barney a former British army officer, who would take up work as a prison warden and linesman, his mum Kitty, a nurse and his five other siblings. Doc got his nickname from his love of the wild west gunslinger Doc Holliday.An enigma like Doc had of course some interesting facts formed around his legend. At school he was athletic at the high jump but his singing oddly enough did not impress at least one teacher. Brother O’Doherty suggested it was wise for young Bernard not to follow a music career!nAlthough Doc wasn’t classically trained in music like his band mates the

Brewster brothers, he, like all Irishmen had a tradition of jamming the classics such as ‘Molly Malone’, ‘The Mountains of Mourne’ and ‘Whisky in the Jar’ with the family band. Doc loved learning and had a wide breadth of knowledge including a scope of Australia History which surpassed those who were Australia born! A fact about arguably the Angels most famous songs ‘Am I ever gonna see your face again’ was that part of the lyrics were penned by the teenage Doc about a girl with whom he travelled on the school bus.

CREEK-Y SECRETS AND DECEPTION IN COUNTRY TOWN

BY PAULA XIBERRAS

I recently spoke to Fleur Macdonald about her new novel ‘Deception Creek’. Set in the Flinders Ranges it involves Joel, returning from a time in jail, a religious family and rural crime. Fleur once again gives readers another great thriller that touches on topics of tragedy, abuse, forgiveness and new beginnings. Deception Creek true to its name is layered with old secrets and suspicions that rise to the surface of the murky creek. The story centres on Joel Hammond who returns to Barker after a period in jail for the suspected murder of his girlfriend Maggie, and is subsequently alienated and harassed. What follows is a tragic and shattering conclusion. Fan favourite, Dectective Dan Burrows is again doing what he does best with care and compassion. Fleur shares with me that she has a busy year ahead with three books in the pipeline. Deception Creek by Fleur Macdonald is out now published by Allen and Unwin. ☘

VALE PATSY MCARDLE

BY BRIAN MCLOUGHLIN

Patsy was the real old style newspaper reporter, always on top of his story whether it was a local Monaghan or Border happening during the Troubles or an everyday bread and butter story. His by-line appeared regularly in the national daily and Sunday papers and the broadcast media also used his copy. I got to know Patsy when we freelanced for Eurolink along with Lloyd Gorman before Irish Scene’s editor Lloyd started a new career in Perth. We were commissioned by Jim O'Brien of the European Parliament Office in Dublin to write a weekly column for the provincial newspapers. Each of us had to write for the papers in a particular part of the country and how events in the European Union affected that area. Doing this assignment meant travelling to Brussels and Strasbourg to get material and see the European Parliament in action. Patsy was an entertaining and interesting companion with his Castleblaney accent. He was well-known by the politicians and I recall when we were in Strasbourg, we used to visit an ice cream parlour and sit on a high stool at a high table eating our ice cream and looking out the window at the city trams silently floating by. "You have nothing like this in 'blaney Patsy I once said' and he just nodded and continued licking his ice cream. One of the last of the old stock of journalists, may you rest in peace Patsy.

From the editor: I first learned about Eurolink when I was the news editor for the Wicklow Times in Bray, Co. Wicklow. Every week the office fax machine (remember them) would spit out pages of EU based stories – for free publication – produced by one Patsy McArdle. Little could I have guess that several years later I would be regularly travelling to Strasbourg and Brussels with him, Brian and other Irish journalists. I was a young reporter at the time and both Brian and Patsy were respected and seasoned journalists, I learned a few things from them and was lucky to have them as companions on those outings to Europe. News of Patsy’s death filtered through in January just as the last edition of Irish Scene was going to press. Apart from wanting to pay tribute to him I am sure there are a great many people here from the border regions who would have known his fearless reporting during those troubled and dangerous times. His old newspaper The Argus described him as “A legend in his own lifetime”. He really was! ☘