Page 28 - Phonebox Magazine October 2014

Book Review
Thelma Shacklady
The Light Between Oceans, M.L.Stedman
Bookshop, Olney Tel: 01234 714592
which accompany the deception, and the twists and turns of the plot. At the heart of it is a small child whose only memory is of the lighthouse and the couple who keep the light. The moral dilemma is one which will raise an interesting discussion in book groups, and will be thought-provoking for the single reader.
On the 16th December 1918, Tom Sherbourne, former soldier on the Western Front, was accepted as relief
lighthouse keeper. After a short period at Byron Bay with two other keepers and their families, he was posted to Janus Rock, the most isolated in the Commonwealth Lighthouse Service. ‘We wouldn’t normally send a single man to Janus,’ he was told, but his single status changed when he met and married Isabel.
At first they were supremely happy; isolated on Janus Rock, Tom was devoted to the light, while Isabel was busy caring for the livestock. However, tragedy struck, not once but three times, as Isabel miscarried, on the final occasion almost at full term. Driven half mad with grief, she thought she was hearing the cry of her lost child, but discovered that the sound was coming from a small rowing boat washed up on the shore. It contained two people, a man who had not survived, and a very young baby who was still alive.
Sandra Metcalf
The decision to keep the baby and bring her up as their own, replacing the one so recently lost, was made primarily by Isabel, with Tom as her unwilling accomplice. She persuaded him that no mother would be separated from so young a child, and that she must have died before the boat reached Janus. The only future for the baby would therefore be an orphanage, whereas they could give her a loving home. Reluctantly Tom agreed, but then fell in love with Lucy, as she was named after the light, and, as she grew out of babyhood into a chattering little girl, she became his beloved daughter. Secrets have a way of coming to light, and actions have consequences. Janus was its own small paradise, but contact with the mainland occurred at regular intervals. Nothing remains hidden for ever, as they were all to discover.
This is a beautifully-crafted novel, with lyrical descriptions of Janus rock and insightful characterization. The reader is bound up in the convoluted series of lies and half-truths
A Short Book about Drawing, Andrew Marr
This isn’t a book that tells you how to draw. It isn’t even a book about how Andrew Marr draws. It is a look at why he draws and why he
thinks drawing is so important and how vital ‘doing and making’ are for a happy life. The text moves outwards from there, looking at the historical importance of drawing (something we have been doing since we lived in caves) and at its role in human communication – the earliest writing evolved from pictures and a drawing can still speak to us across centuries and across cultures in a way that writing cannot.
You would expect a successful journalist of his calibre to be an excellent communicator and Marr successfully presents some quite large ideas in a lucid, accessible way. You can hear his distinctive voice in his prose 28 Phonebox Magazine
but this is not the ‘television presenter’ or the ‘political commentator’ – this is a friend sharing his thoughts with you, filling you in on the personal experiences which have led him to this point in his thinking about the place of drawing in his life, and why he thinks it is so important for everyone:
“Drawing will make you a better person - not morally, necessarily, but it makes you think. It will help you to see the hidden patterns all around you, and make you a discriminating lover of landscape, faces and mundane objects. It becomes an education, which changes your brain as much as learning to play the piano or to dance. It is about striving to become more fully human.”
A large claim – but not an unreasonable one – given that many artists regard drawing as a way of explaining (not simply describing)
the world to themselves.
Insightful, entertaining and bravely illustrated with his own drawings this is a book which will make you think and hopefully, inspire you to reach for the pencil and paper (or iPad) and have a go.