Julian Barnes - The Sense of an Ending

Tony Webster and his gang start out as sex-mad teens not quite experiencing what the swinging sixties was all about. Frustration and adoration, the former reserved for his not quite yielding girlfriend Veronica Ford, the latter for newcomer Adrian Finn. Absorbed into their friendship group, but keeping himself at arms length through his seriousness and nonconformity the rest of the group look up to his vast intelligence. Or this is how they remember it.

Barnes has Tony Webster hurtling through his actions and emotions in the first part of the book, dedicated to his early youth, love and friendships. Sure of his actions and injustices, it is only in the second part of the book that Tony begins to question his reliability as a witness to these events having now reached the later stages of his life. As he begins to question and unpick events from his youth, prompted by an unexpected lawyer's letter, Tony realises that maybe his own history is made up of the 'self-delusions of the defeated'. His own impact on time and events begins to get scrutinised and necessitates corroboration to prove whether the happenings in his otherwise average life happened as he imagined, or whether he was an untrustworthy witness to his own events.

The Sense of an Ending is an interesting investigation of the fallibility of memory and how we bear witness to our lives. A brilliant insight into a portion of someone's world and their changing reflections and accounts of their history it is nothing short of a great and thought-provoking read.

Michelle Magorian - Goodnight Mister Tom

This book was the first of what I'm guessing will be many for my PGCE course. Easily slotting into reading aimed at giving a greater context to war-torn Britain for KS2, this book offers a lot more than you might initially perceive. 

Goodnight Mister Tom is less about the impact of World War II on children in the forties than about the personal developmental journey of the young William Beech. Arriving in the sleepy countryside village of Little Weirwold alongside the latest cohort of evacuees, he soon finds himself handed over to the gruff Mr Tom. The William we first meet is a silent, cowering and fearful boy, notable only by his silence and skinny frame. Michelle Magorian does brilliant justice to his character by exploring his thoughts and rationale behind his behaviour. As he begins to feel at home in his new environment with Tom and Sammy, (Tom's enthusiastic canine companion), his character starts to become more natural and at ease, as does that of Tom. When Will befriends fellow evacuee Zach, he has met his polar opposite. An exuberant child full of confidence (and who is at times rather precocious), Zach helps to pull Will out of his silence and into childhood. 

As I've said, this story although set against the backdrop of wartime Britain is so much more. It is a careful, yet at times painful exploration of the complexities of child abuse and neglect. Goodnight Mister Tom helps track the progress of Will as he escapes from abuse, showing both the impact on development and character as well as starkly illustrating the difference between good and bad environments. A very careful and skilled handling of difficult CP issues.

Terry Pratchett - Raising Steam

Raising Steam is the mighty Terry Pratchett's 40th book in the Discworld series, published only last year. Perhaps more than a little out of sync, it is my first foray into his world. Maybe the beginning would have been a wiser place to start, but as a very long car journey necessitated a very long audiobook to accompany it, beggars couldn't be choosers. That said, I will definitely be intending to go back to where it all began, and here's why...

 Raising Steam is an excellent and witty account of the threat of ensuing modernity. Although fantasy, the city of Ankh-Morpork and its inhabitants bears a striking resemblance to earth as we know it. Half steeped in goblins and dwarves, half in the Industrial Revolution, Pratchett's world is at once as homely as your best jumper and completely of another world. Charting the arrival of the infamous steam train in the form of Iron Girder, Pratchett whistles you through the rapid expansion of the railway system and its battles against those who view change with a suspicious eye. The ensuing toils and troubles encountered by the great wheeler dealer Moist von Lipwig are nothing short of a rollercoaster ride, nevermind a merrt trip on a steam locomotive.

With elaborate and frankly brilliant characterisation (special mention going to Of The Twilight The Darkness), this is a must read. Or in my case, a must hear as I listened to the audiobook version told by Tony Robinson whose range of voices is an utter delight. If you like fantastical, cheeky whimsy, then please please indulge yourself!