by Jenni Murray
Like many, many others, this year I did not really have a birthday party. But I still had birthday presents, and one of them was this book, which I finished reading last night.
As the title suggests, it spans a period of several thousand years, told through the biographies of 21 remarkable women. Out of these, there were four I had never heard of, but even in the chapters about the women I had known about before, I learned a lot.
Starting with Pharaoh Hatshepsut and ending with Cathy Freeman, the book represents the author's personal selection of women she feels have contributed to their time and place considerably - some of them shaping the future in a manner they could not have foreseen. One example is Catherine the Great, who completely reformed the legal system of her vast Russian Empire, introducing equal protection under the law for everyone and emphasising prevention rather than punishment of crimes, ideas that were quite ahead of her time and still need working on.
In each chapter, Jenni Murray briefly explains how she came about to include that particular woman in her collection. Some of her contemporaries she has met and interviewed personally, while of course she had to rely on various sources for putting together the chapters about the women who lived in past centuries. She manages to present the facts in a concise manner and yet at the same time like a friend telling you about a person whose biography she has just read, over a leisurely meal together or during a walk.
All of it makes for more than just a good book, and there are suggestions for further reading. It was a thoughtful and welcome gift from a friend, and one I can recommend to anyone - man, woman, young, less young.
You can find out more about the author (a Yorkshire woman, by the way) here.
I wish you a belated Happy Birthday and many more of them, Meike.
ReplyDeleteI am glad that you are in a good place, a good personal place. You are in a good place in the wider sense too, geographically speaking. I pray all goes well with your eyes.
When I see your photos I often think of the solitary walks of Robert Walser, one of my favourite writers, who was only ever in a good place in the geographic sense.
Another great walker who wrote brilliantly was W.G. Sebald (born in 1944 in Wertach im Allgau) though his walks took him around the east coast of England, before his tragic death in a road accident. Max Sebald was Professor of of European Lit. at East Anglia University. His final masterpiece was *Austerlitz*: a book I give as presents.
I noticed Jenny Murray's 21 profiles in my bookshop and must get it when the shops here reopen.
Pharaoh Hatshepsut is an iconic figure with which to begin the 21 profiles. Egyptian goddesses make quite the beauty pageant: Tefnut, Hathor, Mut, Sekhmet, Bastet: each could assume the role of defending Ra, the all-seeing eye. Hatshepsut would have known this.
The right eye of Horus is equated with the sun and morning star, and his left eye with the moon or evening star. My primary (junior) teacher was a classically trained Catholic, and she gave us an unforgettable lesson about the Hebrew prophet Ezekiel who condemned sun worship by the priests. It was the detail about Ezekiel going down into a secret door in the bowels of the Temple and learning the terrible truth about idolatry.
Thank you, Hamel. My birthday was in March, the present made its way to me some time in the summer, and I read it one chapter at a time with other books in between.
DeleteGood wishes are always welcome, and yes, I am in a good place in more than one sense.
My sister has been fascinated with Ancient Egypt ever since she was around 9 years old, and is very knowledgeable about it. One of my nieces in Yorkshire has studied Egyptology at Liverpool University. It is clearly a subject that holds a special appeal for many.
Your sister and niece will be able to recommend books on Egyptian religion, a vast subject.
DeleteI think my first experience of the numinous came as a child of five, visiting the Glasgow Art Galleries and Museum, across the street from where I was born. The Burrell Collection included a huge granite Egyptian sarcophagus and a mummified body, skulls and bones. Very atmospheric on a winter's afternoon when the light was fading.
I have a scholarly book on Akhenaten. Naguib Mahfouz (born in Cairo in 1911 and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature) wrote a novel, *Akhenaten Dweller in Truth*.
This sounds like a book I would enjoy. That's a good present! Covid really messed up birthday plans this year. In fact, this year was one of the worst birthdays I ever had (Covid lockdown was starting, I was sick which made me paranoid that I had it, etc) and I sure hope this year is better! Did you know that Little P and I have the same birthday? I told him we'll have to celebrate the next one in a big way. Hopefully we can!
ReplyDeleteNot sure, but I believe you have mentioned that you and Little P have the same birthday - it just adds to your special bond!
DeleteYour birthday this year was special... for all the wrong reasons :-(
Hopefully, next year will be better.
Yes, I can imagine you enjoying this book, too.
What a wonderful concept for a book! I have not heard of it and I thank you for writing about it. I may see if I can get a copy for my Kindle. I hope all is well with you Meike!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Bonnie, all is well with me, just getting used to wintery temperatures and trying to fit everything in my days that I want/need to do.
DeleteI am sure you will like this book and hope you can find it at the Kindle shop.
I have listened to Jenni Murray many times on the BBC Radio 4 programme "Woman's Hour". She is retired now but she was always a warm, intelligent interviewer who listened closely and respectfully to what her guests had to say.
ReplyDeleteShe comes across as exactly that as a writer, too. In some of the chapters, she mentions that she has met the woman in the course of her work for Woman's Hour.
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