English Music

I'm finally getting my reading on track after a hesitant couple of weeks. This morning I finished Peter Ackroyd's wonderful Albion: The Origins Of The English Imagination. I had already dipped into the penultimate chapter English Music having noticed that its main concern was the music of Ralph Vaughan Williams and I enjoyed it even more the second time around having got a better idea of what Ackroyd regards as the essentials of the English imagination. It seems to me utterly right that he chooses to focus on VW rather than Elgar, though the latter gets an honourable mention. One line in particular, concerning VW, jumped out at me for its personal applications: His music is instinct with that sense of belonging, so that the act of listening to it becomes a form of homecoming.

I'm now considering rereading Ackroyd's novel English Music. I found it the most difficult of all his novels when I first read it but I remembering enjoying it, especially the brilliant pastiche of Blake's prophetic books. The problem is though that I frequently consider rereading Ackroyd's early novels and can't afford the time for such a digression. I think if I had to name my favourite novels then First Light and Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem would be vying for places right at the top of the list. As it is, though, his latest book The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein lies enticingly on the shelves and I've promised myself a reread of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Or, The Modern Prometheus before I let myself loose on it.

And all this in the shadow of our imminent trip to England (and France) on which I've vowed to take only one or two books to read in recognition of the fact I'll be buying more when we get there.

Meantime I'm pressing on with the very English Pat Barker and her distinct music, but finding The Ghost Road heavier going than I expected.