The Mabinogion, Fan Ho, and Egusi [August 23]
Five Curated Recommendations from Others
Max 2022
‘The 13 ½ Lives of Captain Bluebear (my favourite fiction book since 4th grade).’
Zohra 2022
'I recommend questing to find a ripe, plump, orange honey mango which has travelled to you from Pakistan or India. She will change your life.'
Phil 2023
'If you listen to just one piece of Renaissance choral music, make it “O Vos Omnes” by Tomás Luis de Victoria. (He set it to music twice, but I’m talking about the good one).'
Bruce 2023
'When you’re feeling too utilitarian, read Mary Oliver - “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”'
Scout 2023
'There can be an anxiety in the pause following the first act of a conversation — a perceived urgent need to move on and away. Sometimes you can just calmly and quietly wait, and be with the silent pause, and a second movement will unfurl.’
Five Recommendations from Me
Fan Ho was a master of light and shadow. His photographs of 1950s-60s Hong Kong are strikingly beautiful, and unusually cinematic. A young girl studies on a balcony. Three arresting silhouettes divide a textured hall. A figure guides a small boat through a narrow canal.
The Mabinogion is the earliest collection of Welsh prose stories, and it contains some of the oldest prose from the islands of Britain. I first picked up the collection as an opportunity to connect with my Welshness, but the experience of reading them has been so much richer than I could have expected. The stories are deliciously bizarre (otherworldly claws, necromantic cauldrons, figures conjured from flowers), and the translation by Sioned Davies is effortlessly readable.
Bookfinder is the best place I know of to find affordable books online. It's not unusual to find novels for sale for less than £5 including p&p.
Since about 2020, my favourite comfort food has been egusi with poundo, and dodo. The scotch bonnet, the fragrant palm oil, the smooth yam, the caramelised plantain — heavenly.
Krzysztof Kieślowski’s ‘Talking Heads’ from 1980 is simultaneously one of my favourite documentaries, and one of my favourite short films. The formula is simple: visit a few dozen people, ask them when they were born, who they are, and what they want from life. The result is captivating.
