Longitude - Dava Sobel

About the Author: Dava Sobel is an award winning writer and former New York Times science reporter who has contributed articles to Audubon, Discover, Life and The New Yorker. She has also been a contributing editor to Harvard Magazine, writing about scientific research and the history of science.

The Review: Longitude is a story about a Yorkshire carpenter John Harrison and his quest to claim the prize of £20,000 offered by Parliament in 1714 for solving the problem of calculating longitude. Determining your position at sea had long been a problem and depended much on luck as skill. It had puzzled scientists of the age and Parliament tool the unprecedented step of offering a reward for a solution. Using his knowledge of how a sailor calculated the time from a fixed position he set about creating a portable time piece which would sustain the rigours of the sea and also keep accurate enough time to calculate the ship's longitude.

All members of the group read this book and enjoyed it. Many of the group remarked about his dogged determination and his tenacity in pursuing his goal in the face of strong crticism and rivalry from the mosgt prominent and celebrated members of the scientific community. He built his prototypes in his shed with carpentry tools and his own skilled hands with no plans as such. He suffered sea sickness on his voyages after which he was accused of 'fixing' the result. He eventually after 40 years was finally awarded the prize he so richly deserved.

The story was written in a skillful way and the complexities of the story were accessible and very readable. All the members present said that they enjoyed it even those who are not necessarily scientifically inclined!

No books were offered at this session and each member selected their own Christmas read and will talk about it at the next meeting.

The members of the group retired to a local hostelry to partake of some Christmas cheer and seasonal fare!

The Outcast - Sadie Jones

The Author: Sadie Jones was born in London in 1967. Her father is Jamaican poet and screenwriter Evan Jones and her mother an actress. Her friends left to go to University and she took up a variety of jobs and then travelled. After travelling she settled down in London and spent several years as a screenwriter before writing her first novel The Outcast.

The Review: The book a reccommendation by Joan Bakewell and offered in the selection was anticipated to be good. The book was an easy read with a relaxed style of writing. It held most peoples interest with the subject matter around parental attachment, loss risk and transgression and held the promise and raised expectations that an insightful story line would be revealed. Many felt the characters were underdeveloped and unconvincing. This included Lewis the main character who stays child-like and in observer mode with no inkling of responsibility or engagement to change his life or take the risk of being different and resolving what is bothering him as he grows up. He demonstrated a general rage that festers inside him and is focused on authority and his father figures.



There is a complex theme of bereavement and guilt around the circumstances of death of his mother, the brutal approach of the police and the indifference of his father result in an inrovert and repressively angry individual. It was felt that the mother's character was fun and lively and sensitive to her child did not stretch the imagination, further than that although combined with the separation and terse reunion with the father, and claustrophobic and deadening routines of family life (meal times, please and thank you) provided a rich source for insecure attachment and psychological immobilisation.



Some members of the group were keen to place the behaviours of the families into the context of the 1950's, demonstrated by the parenting style, emotional deprivations, and class and lifestyle references. Although these were were not overplayed, the over all feel of the book was that it tried to do too many things by addressing too many issues. The step-incestuous scene showed the kind of dsiassociation of the character throughout the book and perhaps a useful literary device to show the full impact of being lonely, isolated, cut off and how a lack of fulfillment can be displaced on both parts and lead to distructive behaviours.



The group felt that it was good first novel for the author although the view was that it was a bit gimmicky, if these strong emotional topics are to covered they need much more research and simplicity in delivery.

The books put forward for selection are:

Olive Route - Carol Drinkwater

Short Stories/Licks of Love - John Updike

Longitude - Dava Sobel

The Four Loves - CS Lewis

The Man Who broke Napoleons Code - Mark Urban


The selected book is ............ Longitude by Dava Sobel

Samuel Pepys - The Unequalled Self - Claire Tomalin

Biography: Claire Tomalin won the Whitbread Book Award for Samuel Pepys. She has written biographies on literary figures before such as Wollestonecroft, Shelley and Jane Austen. Born in France to a French father and English mother in 1933 she started writing at the age of 7. She first became known for her poetry and her writing which helped her traverse difficult times in her life; during the war and the break up of her parents marriage.

She had five children by her first husband Nick Tomalin who was killed while reporting from the Golan Heights in 1973. He future husband (not known to be at the time) Micahel Frayn sent her into labour with her fifth child whils at the theatre watching one of his comic plays which caused her to laugh so much that it triggered labour. She married Frayn in 1993 and remains happily married to this day.

Review: This is the biography of the famous Diarist Samuel Pepys. First published in 2002 it is lavishly lauded both front, back and inside with plaudits from the great and the good.

For purists there is a Pepys family tree,maps of London and Huntingdon, a list of principlal figures, a prologue, thirty four pages of illustrations, seventy four pages of notes, nine pages of bibliography, and a twenty eight page index. But...........................................no one tells you that you can read the three hundred and eighty six pages of the diary without the need to read or refer to any of the above!

As a result the book can easily appear scholarly, dull and off-putting. The reading group split equally. One half of which disengaged , felt it instantly put downable, found the small print prohibitive and decided it was just not a book to pick up.

In contrast those who in the main had not laboured too long on the added extras found it intensely rewarding, intriguing , racy and exciting and an excellent read. All fet the book particulratly interesting from the perpectives of social history , political intrigue and good old fashioned nepotism. Pepys himself was a fascinating man with a far more significant life outwith the diary fame and more than many of the group realised. The extent of his involevment and influence of the Royal Navy came as a surprise to some, Thos who read to the end felt that Part 3 written after the diaries had ended was perhaps the weakest. In contract to Parts 1 and 2 it was felt to be somewhat repetitive and weaker in construction.

Summary: This was a book that clearly divided the group. However the concensuus of the members that the Book Group could not probably aim to please everyone every time. As a result of the after discussion there was a certian amount of pride in a variety of the books chosen and the fact that each member has over the period of time read more widely than their natural inclination.

Next Read:

The Outcast - Sadie Jones

Gabriel Garcia Marquez - One Hundred Years of Solitude

Biography:Marquez grew up with his maternal grandparents in Aracataca, Colombia. His grandparents were cousins who moved to Aracataca at the end of the War of a Thousand Days (1899 - 1902). Marquez's childhood anecdotes tell of a big house full of ghosts , conversations in code, and relatives who could foretell thier own deaths. It was house full of guests and social events , shaded almond trees and bursting with flowers. When his grandfather died Marquez wet to live with this parents. Since his grandfather's absence, his grandmother, who was blind, could no longer keep the house. It fell into ruin, and red ants destroyed the trees and flowers. Also early in his childhood Marquez witnessed the massacre of striking banana workers at a a plantation called Macondo. at a train station. The governement made every attempt to block this information from the public and even succeeded in erasing this incident from the history books.

Review: These events featured strongly in the plot of this book. It had a nostalgic undertone of the happiness and liveliness of his grandparents big house filled with ghosts and laughter. On the other hand the context of the book is Marquez's political beliefs many of the readers of the group found this out in retrospect. The revelation of these facts provided a deeper level of understanding and recognition of the realistic themes that had been viewed as 'fanciful' prior to the sharing of this information. The book itself hadben described in summary as a satire which had not been identified until Marquez's biography had been shared.

The view of the Group were mixed, however overwhelmingly the members considered the book to be a heavy read. Many were determined to read it and some found it dry. The barrier was the verbose style of writing where there were seldom new paragraphs and very long chapters. The family repeated the cycle of behaviours throughout these included incest, extra marital affairs and a decent into madness, the men going to war and the pass time of making metal golden fishes.

Ursula the earthy first generation female in the book, the mainstay of the family was earthy and a homemaker, this character dmonstrated many of the qualities of Marquez's own grandmother including the disintergration of the household as result of her blindness and the madness and eath of her husband. One member was looking forward to the read, however, consdiered the fairy tale story of magic carpets etc. tested his patience. Another member was determined to read it, this appeared to be the case for most members. The read was a chore as opposed to an enjoyable realxing read. Some of the themes such as the cycle of life, decent into madness of some of the characters, tremendously sexual passages, and a roughness in some, were real and there were some humourous passages.

Nearly all members felt that they were glad to have read it, it generated condiderable discussions. Some even reflect on it with some affection!

The next choices are:

A Tale of Love and Darkness - Amos Oz

Homesick - Esthiol Nevo

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson

Crusaders - Richard T Kelly

Samuel Pepys - The unequalled self - Clare Tomalin

The Tin Roof Blowdown - James Lee Birke

A lie about my father - Jon Burnside

And the winner is .............................Samuel Pepys - The unequalled self. - Clare Tomalin