Book 81 - Gayford Martin "Spring Cannot be Cancelled"

Gayford Martin "Spring Cannot be Cancelled: David Hockney in Normandy" (Thames & Hudson)




The book is somewhat falsely advertised though: “It is based on a wealth of new conversations and correspondence between Hockney and art critic Martin Gayford, his long-time friend and collaborator. Their exchanges are illustrated by a selection of Hockney’s new, unpublished Normandy iPad drawings and paintings alongside works by van Gogh, Monet, Bruegel, and others.”

This gives the impression that the book consists mainly of “their exchanges”, but that’s not true at all. The book is mainly Martin Gayford’s musings and anecdotes about Hockney and art in general, indeed based on their Facetime talks and emails. I’d say the bulk of the text, about 80%, is Gayford’s prose, intersected with fragments of what Hockney said or wrote.

Not that it is fully without problems: the main issue being that Gayford isn’t critical at all, and I think the book would have benefited if he would have given a different viewpoint to some of Hockney’s statements – most notably about Duchamp and about photography.

Another issue is its overall lightness: some parts border on the clichéd – panta rhei, true, but that isn’t very insightful. Gayford is at his best when he simply tries to describe Hockney’s work: “a seamless blend of the sophisticated and the straightforward.”

Book 82 - Daphne Du Maurier "Jamaica Inn"

Daphne Du Maurier "Jamaica Inn" (Vintage)






Mary Yellan’s mother is dying. Her final wish is that Mary go to Bodmin to live with free-spirited Aunt Patience and her husband. When Mary arrives, she is shocked to see her Aunt Patience is a timid, dispirited woman, broken by the abuse of her husband. Jamaica Inn is located in the bleak moorlands of Cornwall and when Mary arrives, she not only has to deal with its bad reputation, but also with the landlord, her uncle Joss Merlyn, a known criminal who has successfully evaded the law.

Uncle Joss warns Mary not to look outside at nights when she hears sounds, but she does anyway and discovers a smuggling ring. Her uncle is a smuggler and probably a murderer too. She also discovers that there is another person, who is secretly working with Joss. Before long she finds herself tossed into a world of shocking human brutality, as she is drawn into the smuggling, theft and murder.

Although the story is a mystery, the author uses the bleak setting to unfold a true classic of gothic romance and adventure. This novel is very well written and I found the characters to be very distinctive. My only complaint is that the narration of the several landscapes Jamaica Inn was surrounded with, were overly descriptive at times and slowed down to story a bit. Nevertheless I could envision Jamaica Inn totally and particularly the smuggling scenes. What a fabulous book, and du Maurier was still a book or two away from her most famous novel, Rebecca.