Transported back to the south of France

On a self-taught Flamenco guitarist from Lille, political wives and the wondrous Edna O’Brien

Photo by Thomas Despeyroux on Unsplash

On a scorching hot afternoon a decade ago, we perched on a bench in Avignon, ate ice creams from Regal Glace and listened to an amazing Flamenco guitarist busking in the street.

The musician’s name was El Kado, a self-taught guitarist (and former boxer) from Lille who was playing at the Avignon Festival that year.

The crowd was so transfixed by his talent that an audience quickly built up. When a friend of El Kado strolled through the crowd selling copies of Al Andalus, his latest CD at the time, we were among loads of people who eagerly snapped one up.

I ditched CDs long ago for Spotify but last week something made me search out El Kado’s name. Sure enough, he was on Spotify and I’ve been playing his music on repeat ever since.

Even now, I only have to hear the first few bars of a track called Le Chant des Aures and I’m instantly transported back to the south of France, to sunlit roads winding past olive groves and lavender fields and evenings on our terrace drinking pastis under the plane tree. The power of music to evoke long-lost memories is as intense as ever. Is it the same for you?

Memories aside, I’ve spent most of my week catching up with books and films so I’ve got some great recommendations for you.

Books

How Not to be a Political Wife by Sarah Vine

Sarah Vine’s jaw-dropping memoir has been splashed across the papers everywhere this month. She is, of course, the Daily Mail’s Wednesday columnist and the former wife of Tory politician turned Spectator editor Michael Gove. It’s full of fascinating vignettes, from her friendship with Samantha Cameron, who Vine says was “the absolute opposite of a snob” and “loved a drink and a fag”, to the Chipping Norton set party where Vine wandered over to say hello to Jeremy Clarkson, only for him to glance at the bottle of wine in her hand and say: “Actually, can you get me a glass of red?”

Apart from Alan Clark’s diaries and Sasha Swire’s Diary of an MP’s Wife, most political diaries are insufferably boring but Vine’s book is the opposite. In years to come historians will pore over her first-hand account of the months leading up to the Brexit vote and the toxic fall-out afterwards. As an ardent remainer, I disagree profoundly with Michael Gove’s bombshell decision to back the Leave campaign and completely understand why the Camerons were appalled – but even so, I can’t help feeling sorry for Vine.

She writes unsparingly and compellingly about her difficult childhood (her glamorous father constantly chipped away at her confidence and is mentioned in her acknowledgements “for f***ing me up so brilliantly”), her difficult teenage years, her postnatal depression and the “slow death” of her marriage. Whatever your politics, it’s a mesmerising read.

The Stranger in Room Six by Jane Corry

I’ve known Jane Corry for years – since the days when we were both young feature writers on Woman’s Own magazine. She later switched to fiction and her nail-biting psychological novels (ten so far) are real page-turners. Her latest, The Stranger in Room Six, focuses on two main characters – Belinda, who by an ill stroke of luck was convicted of her husband’s murder and has served 15 years in jail, and 99-year-old Mabel, an evacuee during the Blitz who is the oldest resident in her Devon care home.

Corry is brilliant at weaving the two women’s stories (along with multiple twists) into a gripping narrative and a conclusion that I didn’t see coming. The most compelling scenes of all are flashbacks to Belinda’s traumatic years in prison – all the more convincing thanks to Corry’s three years as the writer-in-residence at a high-security prison.

The Names by Florence Knapp

As regular readers will know, there have been some fantastic debut novels this year, but Florence Knapp’s The Names is one of the best. Moving and beautifully written, it’s a Sliding Doors kind of tale that chronicles the story of Cora, a mother who sets out with her nine-year-old daughter to register the birth of her baby son.

Her abusive husband Gordon wants her to follow a longstanding family tradition and name the baby after him but Cora is hesitant. She knows that going against his wishes will have grave consequences but is it right for her child to inherit the name from generations of domineering men? Should the baby be called Bear instead, a name chosen by his sister, or should he be Julian, the name Cora has set her own heart on? The Names follows the three versions of Cora’s son’s life – and the infinite possibilities that a split-second decision can create.

Films

Blue Road

If you love Edna O’Brien’s writing you MUST see Blue Road, a documentary portrait of her life and times directed by Sinéad O’Shea. It recounts the story of O’Brien’s upbringing in rural Ireland and the shock of her family (her abusive father and put-upon mother) when she ran away with the writer Ernest Gebler, who was nearly 20 years older than her. They married and had two sons but when O’Brien’s first novel, The Country Girls, was published in 1960 he was overcome with jealousy, harassing and menacing her and even writing sneering comments in her diary.

The film includes TV interviews with O’Brien, who was always entertainingly frank, diary entries read by Jessie Buckley and an extended conversation with O’Brien just before her death last year at the age of 93. Released in January, Blue Road is still doing the rounds in small, independent cinemas so do catch if you can.

The Ballard of Wallis Island

When I sit through the movie trailers at the Odeon the screen is filled with snippets of blockbusters I’d pay not to see. So it’s heartening to discover that an indie film with a tiny budget that was shot over 18 days last August has become “the word-of-mouth hit of the summer”.

I can’t recommend The Ballard of Wallis Island highly enough. It’s a touching, life-affirming rom-com that never veers into sentimentality – the story of Charles, a lonely, middle-aged lottery winner living in a rambling pile on a remote, windswept island. He hits on the idea of staging a private concert by his favourite folk duo, the once hugely successful Herb McGwyer and Nell Mortimer. The pair split up a long time ago – both romantically and musically – but Charles engineers for them both to turn up without the other knowing. Written by Tim Key and Tom Basden, who also play Charles and Herb, it’s highly original, with great one-liners, wonderful tunes and the brilliant Carey Mulligan as Nell.

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