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| Georgina Harding |
Georgina Harding
‘No, I didn’t travel to the Arctic,’ says Georgina Harding, whose ‘The Solitude of Thomas Cave’ is set on a remote island off Spitsbergen in northern Norway during the depths of winter. ‘I went to the British Library. I feel rather guilty saying that, but then I didn’t travel to the seventeenth century either.’Unlike Costa prize-winner Stef Penney, noted for writing about northern Canada without visiting the place, 51-year-old Harding wasn’t hampered by agoraphobia. Far from it: she’s been an adventurer all her life and wrote travel books about Romania and India before deciding that fiction would be ‘much more interesting’. In fact it was during her sojourn in Tranquebar, Tamil Nadu, that she first stumbled across a 400-year-old anecdote about an unnamed English seaman who, for a wager, spent a winter in icy isolation in the Arctic, and survived. Gradually, the idea grew into a haunting tale about a man battling not only the elements, but the onslaught of grief caused by the death of his wife and child.
Feature continues
Wishing to write neither ‘a seafaring yarn’ nor a historical novel ‘with lots of costumes and period detail’, Harding drew instead on the period’s philosophical context. Along with the dawning of the age of reason, the book also describes the first stirrings of industrialisation; Thomas is a whaler, and what brings him to the Arctic is the possibility of turning blubber into cash. There’s no polemical aspect to the depiction of whaling, however. Harding, a great Melville fan, is more interested in imagining how Cave would have experienced it – hence her decision not to visit Spitsbergen as a tourist. ‘Thomas Cave’s island was uncharted and I didn’t want to pin it down too much,’ she says. ‘I think it works as a mythic place.’
Lisa Mullen
‘The Solitude of Thomas Cave’ is published by Bloomsbury at £12.99.
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9 comments
Yeah, it's definitely a recommended read. I certainly don't agree with everything this KJ Rolling person has to write, but you can't deny there is much wisdom and common sense in the book, if you can read without prejudice.
So tell me, Spambuster, name the sections that you disliked most of all. Failure to do so only confirms my suspicion that you are an aggrieved little person who has an axe to grind with the said author of this book of the decade.
the books is shyte, i want my money back. dont buy it, it is seriously rubbish
I don't know who this KJ Rolling geezer is, but he (or she) produces many gems about the Tower Of London and loyalist band parades. I liked the item about the monarchy, while the mock commercials are quite amusing.
What's Kerry's problem? Is he/she riddled with angst at having a bi-sexual name? It's a belter of a book.
Yeah, the KJ Rolling book is definitely not dull. It is quite amusing and provocative which probably explains why Kerry was not so impressed - the poor dear.
I have just read 'How To Commit Suicide In Ten Easy Steps' and it is certainly not a dull read. Okay so the title is a bit risque, but there are so many thought-provoking bit-sized items to keep any reader amused or antagonised.
I read it , its a load of cr@p
I submitted more than two weeks ago a book for a possible review to John O'Connell, but have not had the courtesy of a reply. Could someone return my book, entitled 'How To Commit Suicide In Ten Easy Steps' by KJ Rolling, unless you need more time, which is fine.
Disappointed
KJ Rolling