“Eleven Minutes Late” by Matthew Engel

The back cover of this book tells you it that the author travelled the length of the British railway system from Penzance to Thurso, meeting a variety of people from politicians to platform staff on charmingly bizarre trains, the most beautiful branch line, and uncovered the mysteries and explored the history of railways in Britain.

I had really high hopes for this book – a mixture of train travel, quirky characters and the nostalgia of the railways as a British institution. A promising start gave me everything I was looking for, but unfortunately, it didn’t last.

After a few chapters, the narrative took a must stronger turn towards this history of the railways and diverted away from the people and places of the journey. I stuck with it, but it gradually got drier and drier, and I actually ended up putting it down for three months.

I eventually decided I wanted to finish it, and starting it again, the history continued for quite a while, but the last couple of chapters looking more at the state of the railway today along with the conclusion of the authors journey, made me glad I made the decision to continue.

I liked the authors writing style, it was just the depth of railway history that I found hard to take, as the blurb did not reflect the content making me feel a bit cheated. I would have been much happier to have read a book that concentrated mainly on the story of the journey with a bit of history thrown in, but I got the reverse felt which was rather dry and lacking in character.

“Shakespeare’s Wife” by Germaine Greer

There is very little known about William Shakespeare’s wife, Ann Hathaway, and most of it is based on conjecture and assumption, rather than evidence. We do know she was older than Shakespeare, and most theories claim she bedded him and he was then forced to marry his pregnant seducer. Historians and academics interpret the little evidence there is to make Ann the villain of the piece, while Germaine Greer turns these theories on their head, and looks at the bigger picture of the society of the age, and suggests that Will and Ann were in love, backed up by discussions around the customs and laws of the time, and how history has recorded their affairs.

This is by no means an easy read as it is a very academic text, so be prepared for lots of reference numbers pointing you to the Notes section at the back of the book, as well as plenty of lists of the recorded evidence for other contemporaries of the couple which can be dry at times. As someone who doesn’t read books about history or academic pieces, I thought I might struggle with the book, but having heard the author on various radio programmes and podcasts talking about it, I was determined to have a go. Greer’s voice jumps out of the text at you, and I almost felt she was reading the book to me in my head, it was such a strong narrative, while the content is fascinating and a real insight into the society of the period, mixed with interesting views on how evidence of his feeling for Ann and their relationship may be seen in Shakespeare’s work. As the author points out to us, it appears that others who have attempted to examine Ann’s affect on Shakespeare and his work, seem to have used the lack of records as evidence that Ann didn’t conform to the customs and laws of the period, but it seems highly unlikely that a woman in this period would have been able to behave and live in such a way without being ostracised from her community.

It took me a while to finish the book, but it was an interesting and educating diversion from my normal reading, and thoroughly worthwhile.