Thoughtful Thursday worth a visit

Mike's favourite journalist (and humorist) is Joe Bennett.

JOAN: The weather has been so lovely this last week. Mike and I went for a stroll along a deserted Castlecliff beach last Thursday and the whole seascape was so very beautiful. There was not a breath of wind, the sand glittered like diamonds in the sunlight and the sky was a vivid blue. Birds swooped overhead and small boats rushed out towards the horizon, sharing our joy in such a perfect day. We are so lucky to have this aspect of life in our brilliant Whanganui. My soul felt replenished.

Adding to that sense of a good day was our visit to Thoughtful Thursday at Confluence where we watched a fascinating, beautifully directed documentary about Kobi, the nickname for eminent jewellery creator, Jacob Bosshard. Born in Switzerland, he immigrated to New Zealand in the 1960s and brought to the country totally new ideas about how jewellery could be presented and made in a studio. Each piece is unique, an accepted way to perform this craft nowadays but new at the time. The film was made by his daughter and showed his life alongside his artistic wife in the South Island, where he started out as a mountain guide and then set up his craft workshop This was a most enjoyable film as have been those we have seen previously at Confluence. I really recommend these Thursday evenings. Seats are comfortable and cosy. There is an intimate atmosphere. We are welcomed in by Kevin and Melita. They love documentary film making and showing . There are excellent films in the pipeline for many Thursdays ahead. We need to keep on supporting such a great idea and offering, another string to Whanganui's bow.

Having said that, Mike and I will miss the next few Thursdays. We are included in the cast of Amdram's next production and are chuffed to be so! We are rehearsing small but so meaningful roles(?!) in The Vicar of Dibley, based on the TV series. I have never acted in a play where the characters are well known to the big audiences that we are expecting. I am so very pleased to have Chris McKenzie as director. It has been a pleasure in the past to direct HIM and he shares our passion for theatre. With Jacqui, his wife on board as well as Ian and Yvonne Jones, we have a great team supporting all the actors. It is fun and I already find it hard not to burst out laughing when we rehearse!

MIKE: One of my greatest pleasures in life is reading, especially novels and newspaper articles. A basic requirement, naturally, is that they should be well written. What precisely does that entail? With regard to newspapers, I expect a twofold quality — a facility for the English language and a logically developed argument, especially for political scribes. Such articles are rarer than you might imagine. As for novels, a strong story line always entertains, but the chief ingredient I look for is fluency and facility of expression. These may cover a wide range of styles, from the raw, often bleak , Scottish humour of Ian Rankin's character, John Rebus, to the earthy tones of Tim Winton, where you can smell the red dust of Northern Australia, the salt of the ocean, the daily lives of his subjects.

My 2018 book of the year has to be A Little Life, a monumental work of more than 800 pages by Hanya Yanagihara, which would often leave me exhausted, wrung out, emotionally drained after a session. The story is heart-rending, yet flares like a beacon of hope. Completely different is the Fiona Kidman I was recently loaned, a novel compiled from the story of one of the last men to be hanged in New Zealand. Her writing is beautifully understated, drawing you on to the inevitable finality, yet dangling the forlorn carrot of hope that a reprieve may be possible. Was that a spoiler? Not at all, because the end is all over the dust cover. It is an excellent example of knowledge of the ending in no way impinging upon the pleasure of reading a book. In fact, it enhances it. My present read is a Colum McCann novel, Thirteen Ways of Looking. McCann's prose is scattered with literary references, foreign phrases and, above all, humour and plays on words which are so clever and pertinent that you both laugh and wince at their accuracy. No spoiler, so no further details of the story line.

The mention of humour, however, leads me on naturally to my favourite journalist, Joe Bennett. Wednesday mornings wouldn't be the same without Joe's column in the Dominion Post. His scything satire, caustic, mordant wit and abundant ability in the English language make his writings an absolute delight to read. At times his subject matter may seem a tad trivial — items from his daily round — but it is soon elevated to a higher level by the precision and perfection of his prose, along with his wicked sense of humour. His scorn and contempt for the present POTUS endears him to me, since, like Joe, I can scarcely credit that such an apology for a human being can have gained election to so exalted an office. (A brief pause to bring my blood pressure down from boiling point to a steady simmer!)

As an addendum to my list, may I mention Edmund de Waal's The Hare with Amber Eyes, in which he describes the loss of the majority of his family's treasures, looted by the Nazis in Vienna, just prior to World War II. (Note "majority" — some were saved!) De Waal's prose is crisp and elegant, gently caressing the senses of his reader. The book is a treasure, a joy to read.

JOAN: I would like to compliment Hannah at the Spark shop for her hard work on my behalf, her expertise and her graciousness. I had just bought a new phone and wished to transfer everything to it, including moving to Spark and taking my number with me. She was great! She did not treat me as an old "wrinklie", patronise me nor consider me incapable of understanding what was involved. I recommend her to you and thank her most sincerely.

Comments and suggestions to mjstreet@xtra.co.nz