Shona’s library is less a bookshelf than a life story told in spines and signatures. From the well-worn magic of Winnie-the-Pooh and the moral backbone of To Kill a Mockingbird, to chance encounters with Oliver Sacks, Colm Tóibín and Christopher Hitchens, each book here has earned its place through memory as much as merit. Some carry inscriptions, some carry arguments, and one even carries a stamped signature from a stroke survivor determined not to be silenced. Together they trace a reading life built on curiosity, contrariness and the occasional starstruck queue.
The House at Pooh Corner
One of the best things my parents ever did for me, was introduce me to books. From a very early age I could recite every nursery rhyme known to mankind and soon afterwords, my favourite words were penned by A.A. Milne: Winnie-the-Pooh, When we were very young, Now we are Six, and The House at Pooh Corner. My original copies disintegrated and were replaced with paperbacks-never quite the same, but note the price: a mere 45 cents each!
The animal characters of Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, Owl (Wol- he couldn’t spell) Tigger and their human friend, Christopher Robin, fascinated me: their dialogue, their antics, their whole way of being was just magical but also very real to me and I can still recall many of the quirky phrases, adventures and mishaps
that first captured me all those years ago. Not to forget the very particular wisdom of Pooh, eg : a special song that Pooh and Piglet we’re going to sing to Eeyore could not be practised at home, ‘because it’s a Special Outdoor Song which Has To Be Sung In The Snow’!
To Kill a Mockingbird
‘Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird’. I have never forgotten that advice that the lawyer gave his children in this riveting classic of the less than rational adult takes on class and race in the Deep South, thirties era.
When I first read this book, I found it somewhat unsettling: the hypocrisy, prejudice and overall violence alive and well in just one town, was horrific. However, the main message of how one human’s persistence and stamina can win out, definitely shines through with true humour and a touching feeling for the value of life and justice.
I’m also on my second copy of this book, which still falls open at pages that have been re-read just to remind myself of the sheer power and authenticity of this deservedly Pulitzer Prize winner.
Seeing Voices
In another lifetime, my career took an unexpectedly serendipitous turn, when I followed in the footsteps of a great aunt and uncle and became involved with the Deaf community, specifically children and their families. Around that same time, when I was learning sign language myself, Seeing Voices was published and thus began my ongoing passion for all things Oliver Sacks- aside from HIS fondness for footnotes!
Seeing Voices is a wonderfully detailed, accessible and insightful exploration into the world of the Deaf, their culture, their language, their rights and struggles to be ‘heard’. Skip the footnotes and enjoy: it’s compelling and humane.
I also had the pleasure of meeting Dr Sacks during this time and acquired the story of his devastating leg injury, a deeply personal exploration of dealing with illness, uncertainty and being on the receiving end of the caring profession. As he was signing my book, I was tickled by the fact that he was wearing odd socks: one red, one green!
Insomniac City
Given my interest in Oliver Sacks – as well as calling New York my second home, it was only logical that I would discover Bill Hayes’ memoir, Insomniac City: New York, Oliver, And Me. Bill Hayes, largely by one of life’s quirks of fate became Oliver Sacks’ partner for several years until the latter’s death in 2015.
This marvellous memoir has several facets: it is a celebration of a partnership, a deeply personal portrait of Oliver Sacks, of life in the ‘city that never sleeps’ as well as a homage to a journey of love, grief, and loss alongside the possibility of peace. Accompanying photos of both Oliver and life on the streets of NYC (Bill Hayes is also a photographer) are an evocative enhancement to the story.
It was wonderful a few years ago, to spend a short time with Bill in NYC and share all things Sacks and New York.
The Story of the Night
By now you’re possibly thinking that it’s all about getting a signature! In a sense- yes! When books resonate with me, a dimension is added where an author is present at a book launch or festival or some such event. The Story of the Night was my introduction to the works of Colm Tóibín: what an honest and remarkable depiction of a human is the main protagonist, Richard Garay: his sexuality, his frailty, his risk-taking: the gamut of emotions are fully explored through this character’s character. There’s courage, uncertainty,integrity, fear,hope.
I have most of this writer’s works but return to The Story of the Night and always discover something more.
When Colm Tóibín came to Melbourne, there was only one copy of this book on the sales’ table, but several of his others. Who knows why? Mr Tóibín had no answer: he was far more interested in the origins of my name – Shona- and its spelling; he was not at all bothered about the growing queue as we spoke. They had to wait until he had heard MY story- so they did!
Letters To A Young Contrarian
When I was barely able to stand on my own two feet, my mother taught me nursery rhymes, one being ‘Mary, Mary quite contrary’. Down the track, doubtless when I showed signs of having a mind of my own, Mum said I was just like Mary: ‘VERY contrary’.
A million moons later, a work colleague, also an ardent bibliophile, suggested I read Christopher Hitchens’ ‘Letters to a Young Contrarian’ as I would likely relate to his oppositional approach to practically anything: media-spin consensus, political and generally received ideas, religion, traditions, morality and so on. She was right: I have since read everything by ‘Hitch’ that I could get my hands on, but this slim volume kick-started it all: his witty, elegant, savage and wise exhortations to future generations of angry young men – and women- are explored across an endless range of ‘contrary positions’ in the form of letters to ‘My dear X’….
Hitchens was also famous/notorious- for his love of nicotine, whisky, ribald socialising with fellow intellectuals. He had a penchant for limericks: when he was dying – hideously but bravely- of oesophageal cancer, I was tickled pink when someone at Vanity Fair (he was a contributor there) replied to my emailed, hopefully diverting, five line take on his situation, and advised that it had ‘been given to Mr Hitchens’. I like to think he was amused. Gone too soon…..
I Regret Almost Everything
Oh dear… another signature! BUT this, as far as I know, is one of a kind. After a stroke in 2016 immobilised Keith McNally’s right arm, never one to be defeated- as his bestselling, prize-winning memoir reveals- he uses an old-fashioned stamp pad to print his signature. He has two signature stamps and opted for this one the night we met.
Born in the UK, Keith McNally’s main claim to fame, prior to his book topping all the best seller lists, related to his establishment of several restaurants in New York City, the best known – and a favourite haunt of mine- being Balthazar in Soho. Self-described as ‘Deadbeat New York Restauranteur’, at the risk of seeming star-struck, it’s my view that McNally’s literary gifts are more than a match for his skills (he doesn’t cook!) in the restaurant business. His memoir is a brutally honest, self-deprecating and ‘no holds barred’ revelation of his life, loves, mistakes, observations and -obviously- regrets. An instantly compelling read: I was sorry to reach the end, but ever a perfectionist, McNally has apparently already been editing and rewriting his book so: to be continued…
I Wanna Be Loved By You | A Life in 100 Takes
Marilyn Monroe would have been 100 years old on 1st June 2026. I always admired her, for although of course I never met her, I had a weird sense of her as some kind of kindred spirit-no doubt related to our shared June 1st birth date. From an early age, I bought or was given ‘MM’ books: these have been carefully whittled down – some just didn’t grab my credibility- due to moves of countries and homes, but having already become a fan of Andrew Wilson’s writing, it was logical to birthday gift myself his fantastic new biography of MM.
Five years of research went into Andrew Wilson’s exploration of the many stories, rumours, conspiracies and myths surrounding MM; there is also a great deal of previously unpublished archival material. Who knew that MM had the library of a true intellectual? Books by philosophers, poets, novelists. ‘I Wanna Be Loved By You’ is a tour de force of commitment not only in presenting the realities of the star’s complicated family and early life, marriages, health, addictions etc, but also through deconstruction of the many falsehoods that were constant public companions throughout her tragically short life. Another book I wanted to go on forever…
The Limerick
My mother sent me off to university ostensibly to give me the education that she herself missed out on, but when she observed the direction my life took on there, I’m sure it was a decision she regretted to her dying day! I very quickly gravitated towards the University Drama Society, the literary, intellectual set at the student newspaper, wore the beatnik look du jour and through all this somewhat bohemian environment, convolutedly and literally discovered the lure of the limerick. At the time, an older member of the drama/ literary set would endlessly, impressively recite very ribald examples of this art form and I discovered they emanated from this book in his own library. Lucky for me I managed to find a copy – this one, now falling apart from years of referencing.
True to the jacket blurb, ‘This is the largest collection of limericks ever published, erotic or otherwise’. Indeed, none are really otherwise! The book is fascinating not only for the quantity of its five line ditties- 1739- but also for its detailed bibliography, intriguing notes and variants of many. I must to say that I am quite proud of the fact that I have memorised quite a few myself and when called upon, have been known to recite them, where gatherings have degenerated to a certain level of debauchery! Here’s just a couple of lines to get you started:
‘The limerick form is complex
Its contents run chiefly to sex… ‘
Finish that as you please!
