The World of Minack by Derek Tangye

The World of Minack offers us a rare insight into the lives of a devoted couple over the course of more than 40 years.  Despite the necessary limitations of this book , one can't help but get wrapped up in their story because, given a different inflection, it would be our own: hopes and fears, triumphs and defeats, joys and sadness, and change and loss. 

In 1949, Derek Tangye and his wife Jeannie decided to make a sea-change.  They gave up well-paid jobs in London and moved to Cornwall, taking up a tenancy in a clifftop property called Dorminack (which they shortened to Minack).  Here, they made a living growing early season daffodils and potatoes.

In 1961, Derek published A Gull on the Roof, the first of The Minack Chronicles, a series of twenty books detailing their life on a small holding. He continued to publish a new book in the series every two years or so until his death in 1996.

The World of Minack is a collection of excerpts from the first seventeen books, with a separate chapter dedicated to each of these volumes; therefore, we follow the Tangyes (mostly in chronological order) from World War Two until Jeannie's death in 1986.

The excerpts in this book deal mostly with the Tangye's menagerie of animals: the cats Monty, Lama, Oliver, Ambrose and Cherry; Boris the muscovy drake; the donkeys Penny, Fred and Merlin; and a gull called Hubert.  The tales about  these animals are interspersed with descriptions of the land, sea and weather, Derek's philosophical musings on life in the countryside, details of the trails and tribulations of flower farming, and brief accounts of some of the people they met throughout the years.

I had intended to read the series from beginning to end, having already read some in the 1980s.  Alas, that is never going to happen, so I opted to read the expurgated version in the form of this book.  It is a trade-off.  By making this decision, I have saved time at the expense of depth and detail.  Tangye's selections give the lion's share of the narrative to their pets and the least share to the people they met.  The descriptions of the weather tended to be repetitive without adding to the narrative.  Oh well, we all have our druthers: for myself, I would have liked less weather and more people.

Even so, The World of Minack is engaging and stirring.

Reclaiming Epicurus by Luke Slattery

Epicureanism was a school of thought that flourished for centuries around the Mediterranean basin until near the end of the Roman Empire.  

Its founder was Epicurus (341–270 BCE).  Although a prolific author, very little of Epicurus' work has survived into modern times.  When I first studied Epicurean philosophy in the Eighties, the main textual sources were the poem De Rerum Natura by the Roman poet Lucretius (c. 99-55 BCE) and the biography of Epicurus by Diogenes Laërtius (c. 3rd Century CE).

How exciting to be told by Luke Slattery that there have been new discoveries in Turkey and Italy that is now adding to our knowledge of this particular philosophy.  There is that and a lot more in this slender but thoughtful and entertaining book.

Slattery begins with a potted history of Epicureanism and an explanation of its basic principals for living the Good Life.  He compares this model with our modern world and its need for exponential economic growth and consumption, and its by-products of pollution and ecological loss, and he asks a simple question:  could an ancient philosophy of happiness save the world?

In the second part of the book, Slattery recounts his travels to Turkey and Italy to view some more recent discoveries relating to Epicurean philosophy.  His sojourn in Turkey is particularly touching as it reveals how members of an ancient community may have lived their lives, informed by philosophy.  The real excitement comes when he recounts how modern technology is allowing scholars to read charred papyrus scrolls preserved under the Vesuvian ash that buried Pompeii and Herculaneum.

Slattery concludes the book with a chapter considering Epicurean philosophy, its influence on Karl Marx (who wrote his doctoral thesis on the philosophies of Epicurus and Democritus), and its resonances with the modern world.  It could well be the cure for our ills.

Highly recommended, as is Epicurean philosophy.  Thanks, Luke.

Luke Slattery is an Australian journalist.

A Cat in the Window by Derek Tangye

A Cat in the Window is the second instalment of the Minack Chronicles.  In the first, A Gull on the Roof, Derek Tangye recounted how he and his wife Jeannie gave up life in London in the 1950s and moved to a small farm in Cornwell with intention of growing flowers and vegetables for the markets.  In that book, the reader met an assortment of humans and animals, including the Tangye's beloved ginger cat Monty.

A Cat in the Window is all about Monty.  Tangye has a cordial dislike of cats at the beginning of the tale, having been raised in a dog-loving household; however, it is not long before the small ginger bundle of a kitten that is Monty has wormed his way into Tangye's heart.

For the first half of his life, Monty lived with his humans in the suburb of Mortlake, near Kew, before they moved to Cornwall, where he spent the remainder of his life.  Tangye describes how Monty quickly adapted to life in the country, happily sharing the land with an assortment of birds.

There is not a lot of depth to this short book, but that is not the point of it.  It is the celebration of the life of a friend who was loyal and affectionate for 16 years.  If you have ever had the privilege to share your life with a cat, you will identify with a lot of the things the author mentions. It is a simple, honest and sincere tale about a friend with a tail.

The Battle for Home by Marwa al-Sabouni

A very interesting book about the civil war in Syria, and an inspiring example of vision and determination in the face of great adversity.  

The author contends that the old architecture of the country once contributed to the unity of the nation, and that colonial and modern architecture sowed the seeds of the recent conflict.  

According to al-Sabouni, the old Syrian urban centres, such as Damascus, Aleppo and Homs - Homs being her home town - had grown organically, with various ethnic and religious groups living together as a single, integrated community.  Colonial and modern town planning, combined with industrialisation and urbanisation, tended to surround the old city centres with suburbs segregated on religious and ethnic lines.  This segregation first led to conflict, then to war.

Throughout the book, al-Sabouni interweaves her philosophical views on the role architecture plays in creating and sustaining community and culture with her analysis of how the war came about.  She also recounts the consequences the war has had on the population: civilian deaths, sectarian violence, the diaspora of refugees and the reduced circumstances of those who chose (or had no choice but) to stay in Syria.

The author's style is of the first order.  The narrative is lyrical, logical and crisp.  The reader is left in no doubt that there is a fine and decent mind at work.  Al-Sabouni has a vision for her ravaged country, and an optimism that a new architecture, incorporating the inclusiveness of the old, can not only rebuild her country's cities but its community as well.

Highly recommended.