The Embalmer's Book of Recipes by Ann Lingard Find!
Last week we had two library events with the author, Ann Lingard. Ann was a lecturer and research scientist at the University of Glasgow, before changing career to write and broadcast. She and her husband and a few sheep now live on a small-holding in NW Cumbria within sight of the Solway Firth and the fells, where she writes novels, short stories radio plays and non-fiction.
I had asked Ann to speak at these events because we are about to launch a countywide reading promotion called Science Reads, Ann talked about her latest book, The Embalmer's Book of Recipes, and about the fun and challenges of doing thge background research for her novels, all of which contain some element of science.
How best to describe The Embalmer's Book of Recipes? To say that it is multi-faceted would be an understatement...and the phrase multi-faceted is more than apt as two of its characters are working on patterning and quasicrystal structure: the practice and theory of how shapes and images could be fit together to fill two- and three- and multi-dimensional space!
This is a novel which is largely set in Cumbria, written by an author who now lives in Cumbria and which encompasses the themes of genetic difference and the illogicality of human love, interwoven with maths, taxidermy, and the tragedy of foot and mouth disease.
Jane Gardam has been quoted as describing The Embalmer's Book of Recipes thus: 'A many-faceted book of science, academia and contemporary country life in the Lake District. The account of the dreadful days of foot-and-mouth disease in the last epidemic is agonising and the Cumbrian accent is perfect'.
These themes and elements are explored through three very different women: Ruth, who is a taxidermist living and working in Cumbria; Madeleine, a widowed Cumbrian sheep-farmer; and, Lisa, an achondroplasic mathematician and academic based in Liverpool.
Lisa meets Ruth and Madeleine through a mutual friend, Stefan, and gradually gets to know them better, but as she does so it becomes clear that they both are harbouring secrets. As the novel unfolds these secrets are revealed and they add to and enhance the key theme of science and our relation to the natural world.
The characters of the three women are wonderfully drawn, and they are all three very different, but very strong women.
Another strength of the novel is the way that it captures life in Cumbria, but so particularly in the sections relating to the dreadful time in 2001 when Foot and Mouth devastated the county, leading to entire flocks and herds being culled and destroyed, as well as the lives and livelihoods of so many people. These sections are especially moving, and the culling is likened to the wiping out of a genetic strain - which it was with entire flocks, some going back generations, being eradicated - thus further exploring the novel's wider theme of genetics and selection.
This is a novel which offers the reader much to think about, whilst capturing the essence and spirit of Cumbria.
To find out more about Ann Lingard, visit: http://www.annlingard.com/index.html
Ann Lingard with her sheep...
27 October 2009 from Helen
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You've inspired me to read this. Intriguing stuff. You mention Jane Gardam. I heard that she she has a house in Sandwich, Kent- but I haven't found out whether any of her fiction is set in the county. Job for another day!
It seems that Jane Gardam has been very active lately in her local market town - treating Sandwich residents to poetry drops! (For more on this, see my latest blog entry on the Kent webpage.)
Happy reading, Julia.