Books I have read during lockdown (so far)

‘An Unkindness of Ravens’ by Ruth Rendell

Left to myself I’m not sure I would ever have picked up one of Rendell’s novels, but Ruth’s aunt passed two on to us a while back, seemingly under the (erroneous) impression that Ruth is a fan. Ruth would have put them straight into the charity pile but I thought that as they were there I’d give them a go (the other one was the later-published ‘Simisola’, which I read a few months back).

‘An Unkindness of Ravens’ was published in 1985 and was Rendell’s thirteenth ‘Inspector Wexford’ novel. The story focuses on the disappearance of Rodney Williams, a marketing manager for a paint company; Williams’ body is discovered fairly early on in the proceedings and the bulk of the story is taken up with Wexford trying to find out whodunnit. A quote from The Times at the front of this book reckons that Rendell has a “mesmerising capacity to shock, chill and disturb”. I wouldn’t say I’ve quite thought that about either of the books of hers I’ve read so far, but I did find the book pleasantly readable, though the twist in the end is more confusing than chilling, and it’s never adequately explained why Inspector Burden’s wife has gone a bit doolally on discovering her unborn child is a girl (in the event, the amniocentesis was wrong, and it’s a boy – phew).

These collective noun thingies are a fun curiosity for quizzes but some, like this one, must surely have just been made up by someone having a bit of fun. This Country Life piece lists a whole load of collective nouns for birds. Confusingly, some types of bird have more than one – for ravens, this lists both ‘unkindness’ and ‘conspiracy’. Off to see if I can spot a booby of nuthatches.

‘Burial Rites’ by Hannah Kent

This was meant to be our March Book Group book – Alison’s choice – but it’s not clear yet whether we’re going to attempt some sort of remote discussion of it. Someone did suggest trying to meet via Zoom, but I’m not quite sure how that would go – my mother’s book group did attempt this, though Mum bowed out of attending so I’m not sure how it went.

Burial Rites was published in 2013 and was Hannah Kent’s first novel. It was apparently shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award. It’s set in early 19th-century Iceland and the action takes place among a series of rural settlements in the north-west of the country. Kent has woven a story around the real-life execution of Agnes Magnúsdóttir in 1830 for her part in the murder of two men at an isolated farm.

Agnes was the last person to be executed in Iceland. As I usually avoid reading any forewords, author’s notes etc until after I’ve read the actual story, I didn’t realise at the outset that it was based in real life and was hoping until quite late on that Agnes would be granted a reprieve, and perhaps receive an offer of marriage from the nice Reverend Tóti. ‘Twas not to be. It’s not clear quite how much Kent had to go on in terms of known facts about Agnes’ life, but she has certainly managed to construct an absorbing story that represents Agnes as essentially a victim of her circumstances, but also as an intelligent and literate woman angry at where things have led and at the lack of choices open to her as a servant.

‘The Secret History’ by Donna Tartt

A few months back a friend lent me a copy of Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch, reckoning that it was a good read and I should give it a go. So far I haven’t been greatly tempted by the imposing hardback brick, and am not any more encouraged by discovering it won the Pulitzer Prize in 2014 – the only other Pulitzer Prize-winning novel I’m aware of having read (Philip Roth’s American Pastoral) was almost completely lost on me¹. Mum recently finished wading through The Goldfinch, but didn't seem overly enthused by it. In any case I decided that if I was going to read one of Tartt’s novels, I’d read The Secret History, especially as Ruth conveniently has a copy of it on her bookshelves. So I did.

Admittedly the current lockdown situation probably helped, but the fact that I romped through a >600-page novel in less than a week must be testament to something. It’s a great read and very well written. It’s set in a fictional ‘liberal arts’ college in New England (supposedly based on the one Tartt herself attended) and centres on a small élite group of students who have been admitted to the Classics degree run by eccentric professor Julian Morrow. The story is narrated by one of the students, Californian Richard Papen, a talented ancient Greek scholar from an ordinary background (his father runs a gas station) who has had to jump through all sorts of hoops to get to the college in the first place and then to get onto Morrow’s course. Papen is deeply impressed both by Morrow and by what he perceives as the glamour of the other five students on the Classics course, lying about his background and buying clothes in an attempt to dress like them. It soon turns out that the others aren’t quite including him in everything they do. Events escalate and things don’t turn out all that well for most of the group, though Papen is at least alive at the end.

The Secret History was published in 1992 and was Tartt’s first novel.

‘The Black Stallion’ by Walter Farley

First in a series of 1940s children’s books about, as the title suggests, a black stallion. I’d never heard of these books but Ruth has a number of them in the attic, brought back to the house along with several boxes of stuff from her childhood. I remember as a child being aware of some ‘horsey’ series – quite possibly books by the Pullein-Thompson sisters but I also remember the older My Friend Flicka, published the same year as The Black Stallion. Not being interested in horses – then or now – I never read any of them. I did read K. M. Peyton’s Flambards, though that’s more of a ‘people’ story with horses as a background.

The story: teenage Alec is on a sea voyage back from India where he has spent several months visiting his uncle. The ship calls at an Arabian port, where a magnificent black horse, along with his owner, come aboard. The ship is wrecked in a storm, and the black horse and Alec are the only survivors. They spend several weeks bonding together on an uninhabited island before they are rescued by another ship. They both are eventually returned to Alec’s home city of New York – Alec having assumed ownership of the horse – and Alec arranges for a neighbour to stable him. The neighbour, Henry Dailey, turns out to be a former champion jockey who spots champion material in the horse, and he and Alec set out to train the horse for racing.

The story is ludicrous but fun and feel-good enough. I think it would have been a bit Boy's Own for my tastes as a girl; Ruth claims that as a tomboy she went for these books over what she perceived as ‘girlier’ horse stories. There are evidently a number of sequels, though I’m not sure whether I’ll read them. They include The Black Stallion and Satan – I had had visions of the BS engaged in a life-and-death struggle with the very Devil himself, but it turns out that Satan is one of the stallion’s colts.

The Black Stallion was published in 1941; Ruth’s copy is a Knight Books edition from 1975. The book was the basis of a 1979 film of the same name.

‘A long way gone: memoirs of a boy soldier’ by Ishmael Beah

This was one of our Book Group books in 2008 (I’ve just checked – how time flies), but I abandoned it after a few chapters and must have skipped the meeting. It’s been languishing in the attic ever since, presumably because I had some sort of vague idea that I ought to read it before giving it away. Lockdown has presented an ideal opportunity to gather my strength and tackle it again; not that it’s a difficult read but it is, as the subtitle might suggest, somewhat harrowing.

As a 12-year-old in Sierra Leone, Ishmael Beah was visiting a neighbouring town with some friends when rebel RUF (Revolutionary United Front) forces overrun his home village, after which he never sees his family again. He wanders from village to village with various other boys for some time, before ending up in the town of Yele, in the south of the country. This village is protected by soldiers fighting for the government, who offer the boys food and give them work to do – but then issue the boys with guns and make them join them in fighting the rebels. Helped along by the drugs the boys are given, Ishmael seemingly becomes a pretty effective soldier. Two years on, he and other younger teenagers are rescued by UNICEF personnel and taken to a rehabilitation centre in the capital Freetown. Rehabilitation proves a struggle, but Ishmael is eventually found a foster home with an uncle and his family.

The civil war in Sierra Leone went on for most of the 1990s before being declared over in 2002. A long way gone was published in 2007. One of the worst bits of the book is when the RUF arrive in Freetown, just when you had thought Ishmael was safe and able to pick up his life again. It’s not to be, and he eventually manages to escape the country altogether into neighbouring Guinea. In the end, it’s partly a stroke of luck that saves him. While in Freetown, he had been picked along with another boy to go to the United Nations in New York to talk about his experiences as a boy soldier, and at the conference meets an American woman, Laura Simms, who befriends him and sends him money after he returns home to Sierra Leone. This money helps him pay for his way out of the country and – although this is not detailed in the story – he evidently eventually got to the US with Laura’s help, where she provided him with a home. He was certainly overdue some luck.

¹  Actually, scanning the list of Pulitzer winners, I've also read Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad, though I remember precisely nothing about it.

Sneaky bit of Lakeland walking

Returned on 19 March from joining Ray in the Lakes for a few days – which now, as at the time of writing, feels like a lifetime ago. That week turned out to be the last week anyone was allowed to go on holiday for what could be a while - our planned family break in Snowdonia at Easter has had to be postponed, and Ruth's and my break in north Norfolk in mid-May looks distinctly unlikely to happen. Although it was (obviously) before the current lockdown, the week was overshadowed to some extent by the Coronavirus business and following the developments, but it was still a pretty good escape.

We stayed at The Old Laundry at Croft Courtyard in Clappersgate, just outside Ambleside. The imposing yellowish-coloured mansion The Croft occupies a prominent position on the A593 going out of Ambleside towards Coniston. The house was built in the nineteenth century and has now been converted into apartments after apparently lying derelict for a while.

The Croft, Clappersgate

Partly because of the long drive up there, we made the decision once we were there not to use our cars but just to walk each day from where we were staying. This obviously placed some restrictions on where we went, but we didn't feel particularly restricted as Clappersgate proved to be an excellent base for a variety of walks.

Before I arrived Ray had been to the tourist information place and picked up a pack of useful ‘Lakeland Leisure Walks’, giving a selection of walks easily accessible from Ambleside. We worked our way through most of these over the course of the time I was there.

Entrance to Croft Courtyard

Walk 1: Vale of Rydal, 5.8 miles

Our first walk, on the afternoon of the day I arrived. We walked into Ambleside and through Rothay Park, crossing over Stock Ghyll. Crossed the bridge over the Rothay and joined a lane (Under Loughrigg). Passed what looked like long-disused gates to a Fox How, apparently once the home of the poet Matthew Arnold. Further along we passed the stylish-looking Riverside Terrace holiday homes.

Stock Ghyll in Rothay Park

Old gates to Fox How

We were amused by the stepping stones across the River Rothay signposted to the A591: certainly not usable when we passed, though the first few were visible under the water. Here’s a photo of them not underwater. According to this, the current stones are new ones built to replace the previous set which were washed away in the floods of 2015.

Stepping stone river crossing

We turned left for a bit past Pelter Bridge car park towards Rydal Water, then down to the river again and across the A591. Crossed the road and up the lane leading to Rydal Mount. Turned right to pass round the back of Rydal Hall. Not sure what Rydal Hall is currently used for; the site has rather the look of a youth hostel about it. We saw the Rydal Beck waterfalls and the little building called The Grot. Continued back through Rydal Park towards Ambleside, rejoining the A591 for the last bit.

Rydal Beck waterfalls

Our route in red below showing start and end point in Clappersgate. Rydal Water top left:

Walk 2: Loughrigg Fell, 7.5 miles

We took a footpath leading off the A593 not far down the road from where we were staying. It climbed quite steeply giving some great views of Windermere and a glimpse of our old holiday place Huyton Hill, now Pullwood Bay, among the trees. Also looked down onto the Holy Trinity Church at Brathay.

We came out onto a plateau and did some faffing about a bit trying to find the right route, including doing a bit of a detour we didn’t need to do. Eventually came to the pretty little Lily Tarn by an unnecessarily long route. Followed a path westwards for some while. Had elevenses sitting on a bench with a great view of Loughrigg Tarn.

Lily Tarn

Loughrigg Tarn

Followed a lane for a while and then via Deer Bolts Wood out on to Loughrigg Terrace, a popular viewpoint over Grasmere. From here until Rydal Water there were a fair few people. We followed the path down to the shores of Rydal Water where we stopped to eat our sandwiches. After that we followed the route past Pelter Bridge car park again, and the hopeful ice cream van, and along the lane back into Ambleside, where we had tea and cake at The Rattle Ghyll.

Grasmere from Loughrigg Terrace

Lunch by Rydal Water

River Rothay from Pelter Bridge

The Rattle Ghyll, Ambleside

Our walk skirted around Loughrigg Fell without going up onto the top, but there were plenty of people heading for the top. This National Trust page refers to Loughrigg as a ‘sprawling hump’, and as one of Wainwright’s ‘midget mountains’.

Ray told me about Scarf’s equivalence between distance and climb, which seems to be a way of approximating what you’ve actually walked if the gradient is taken into account. Meant for those walks where you can appear to have covered a disappointing number of overall miles despite having been hauling yourself up and down hills for what feels like a couple of hours. This happened to us at the earlier part of today’s walk, where we seemed to have slogged what felt like a fair way up onto Loughrigg Fell, only to have the tracker dispassionately announce that we’d covered one poxy mile.

It's based on the older Naismith's rule, which was aimed at calculating how long it would take to hike an intended route as a way of allowing for the impact of gradient on total mileage. It seems to involve an 8 to 1 rule whereby 8 units of distance are equivalent to 1 unit of climb. Applying this formula to today's walk gave the following:

i.e. the distance in km plus the overall ascent (1139 feet according to MapMyWalk, converted to 0.347 km) times 8. This gives a result of 14.9 km, which converts to 9.3 miles, as compared with the 7.5 that MapMyWalk tracked it as.

Route below. Starting point at our accommodation in green; finish point in Ambleside in red (I stopped the tracker when we went into the Spar for some dishwasher tablets, but obviously we did then have to walk back to Clappersgate).

Walk 3: Windermere and Jenkin Crag, 6 miles

We started out walking along the A591 out of Ambleside towards Windermere, then through the Low Fold car park and turned right onto Old Lake Road and then soon after left onto the tiny and steep Skelghyll Lane. Passed a surprising number of houses, all of which must have great views but must be buggers to get to in a car. The lane eventually becomes a stony track and passes through some pleasant woodland (Skelghyll Wood) before you get to Jenkin Crag – today a somewhat slippery rocky outcrop, but we did duly stand on it and admired the views of Windermere. We continued up the track to pass through the farmyard of High Skelghyll Farm.

Stencher Beck

Ray on Jenkin Crag

Soon after leaving the farmyard we turned right downhill across fields, eventually coming down to the back of the Low Wood Hotel, where Ray and I once went swimming on a long-ago Lakes trip in around 1994. We were staying a couple of nights at the Waterhead Hotel in Ambleside – then a Best Western, now looks rather posher – which had some sort of partnership arrangement whereby guests could use the health and leisure facilities at Low Wood. Low Wood looks as though it’s been significantly enhanced and extended since then and is now calling itself the Low Wood Bay Resort & Spa.

We skirted round the back of the hotel and had to join the A591 for a bit, heading back towards Ambleside but after half a mile were able to turn off through Jenkin’s Field and walk along the lakeshore path. We sat on the bench at Holme Crag to eat our sandwiches (albeit it was only about 11am). Looking across at both Huyton Hill-as was and at Wray Castle. We continued along the lakeshore to rejoin the pavement by the A591 just before Waterhead Marine. We walked along the little promenade for a bit and then into Borrans Park. We skipped visiting the Roman fort and walked back into Ambleside.

Windermere from Holme Crag

Continuing the theme of old gates, we passed several other intriguing old gates during today’s walk – these, which presumably once led to a house called ‘Skelgarth’ (although internet snooping failed to reveal any house of that name currently) and these gateposts and gate which were set on quite a steep hill, and seemed rather curiously located. A long-ago pedestrian route to church, perhaps?

Old gates to 'Skelgarth'

Curious gate into a field

Route of today's walk in red below:

As it was still early, and as we knew rain was forecast for the afternoon, we decided to take a bus ride to Hawkshead (the Stagecoach 505 service). I had been convinced that Hawkshead is on the shores of Coniston Water, but it isn’t. The closest lake is Esthwaite Water, so we set out from the village to have a look at this. We set out along the road leading south along Esthwaite’s western shore, and turned left onto a path signposted to the lakeshore. This led us past a water treatment works and then diverted us onto a field shortly before the track reached the Water Side B&B. The path became increasingly boggy such that we abandoned the attempt to reach Esthwaite’s shores and retraced our steps back into Hawkshead. So a bit of a non-event. We did have tea and crumpets at the Minstrels Gallery Tea Rooms and then browsed around the Hawkshead outdoor shop while we waited for the bus back.

The Minstrels Gallery Tea Rooms, Hawkshead

Walk 4: via Skelwith Bridge, Elterwater, Grasmere and Rydal, 10.9 miles

We set out down the B5286 and crossed the bridge over the River Brathay, then turned right onto the charmingly-named Bog Lane. We followed little roads until we reached Skelwith Bridge. The slate gallery and adjoining café used to be a favourite family place to visit in longer-ago Lake District trips; I suppose the last time I went there must have been some time in the 1990s. We spent some time scouting around trying to find out what was still there that we remembered. The slate workings had clearly closed; Kirkstone Quarries, which had its headquarters at Skelwith Bridge, was placed in administration in 2012, according to this piece in The Westmorland Gazette.

River Brathay near Clappersgate

The building that used to house the shop and café has been taken over by a company called Chesters. There is still a café there, quite posh, with an open-air terrace beside the river, where Ray and I stopped for coffee and a pastry each.

After this we set out to follow the river north towards Elter Water. We passed Skelwith Force, which had a goodly amount of water in it; Ray walked down to the little viewing platform but I didn’t fancy getting that close to the raging torrent, so contented myself with taking photos from higher up. Above Skelwith Force, the Brathay meanders through a green valley. The Cumbria Way footpath also passes along here and we followed it from Skelwith Bridge along the northern side of Elter Water as far as Elterwater village.

Ray by Skelwith Force

The Brathay above Skelwith Force

From Elterwater village, we walked up a little hill road before turning off it onto a footpath heading uphill past Huntingstile Crag. This got a bit boggy on the top. We paused near Red Bank Wood to eat our sandwiches then carried on down a footpath towards Grasmere, coming out onto a little road. We walked down to the lakeshore and then turned right along the shore, passing along the foot of the lake below Loughrigg Terrace. Then along the River Rothay for a while, crossed the A591 (after making use of an extremely useful set of public toilets) and along a harder-going than expected path that runs parallel with the road looking down onto Rydal Water. At Rydal Mount we returned to the main road and made our way back to Clappersgate via Under Loughrigg.

Herdwicks by the road

Grasmere

I was more than usually struck on this week’s trip by how many thumping great houses the Victorians built themselves in the Lakes. On Grasmere’s western shore (the one without the A591 running up it) there are several large houses standing around prominently and louchely in their own grounds. Took this photo, attempting to squeeze two such into one picture. The one on the right with the veranda thing appears to be called The Lea; the one higher up on the left of the picture is Hunting Stile.

Route of walk in red below. Grasmere and Rydal Water at the top; the top bit of Windermere bottom right.

Early evening we managed to stir ourselves again and walked into Ambleside (after Ray tried and failed to organise a taxi) and had dinner at an Italian restaurant called Misto.


Verdict: it was a lovely few days and was lovely to be back in the Ambleside area again. Looking forward to going back in due course.

Human-robot interaction

Originally published on my OU study blog while studying module TM129 'Technologies in Practice'

Block 1 of TM129 includes a study week on human-robot interaction.

This looked at Carnegie-Mellon University’s 2001 Nursebot project. There’s a video clip of Nursebot ‘escorting’ two elderly patients to their physiotherapy appointments. One resident in the interview clip seems to think something like Nursebot would have practical use in that it would save nurses’ time escorting residents to their various appointments. Nursebot would need a fair few enhancements before she approximated human company though. The interviewer is heard assuring the resident that Nursebot isn’t intended to replace human interaction – in fairness, the woman being interviewed seems to realise that.

This week’s material also revisited ELIZA, developed in 1966 to interact in the style of Carl Rogers’ ‘client-centred’ therapy. This version of Eliza http://www.manifestation.com/neurotoys/eliza.php3 (Wallace, 2006) was linked to.

I had some interaction with Eliza while studying TU100 in 2015, and blogged about it then. The interaction this time wasn’t much more successful, though perhaps a little more abrasive. The > symbol is before Eliza’s input; the asterisk before mine.

Joseph Weizenbaum, Eliza’s creator, evidently expressed surprise at how emotionally involved people became during interactions with Eliza. I have to say I also find that rather surprising.

Skirrid

Ruth and I went down to stay with my Mum and Dad in Abergavenny last weekend, with the plan of climbing a hill on the Saturday. Speaking personally, I’m not too bothered about walks having to involve summit-conquering, but Ruth seems to find them a more exciting prospect if they do. Utterly appalling weather on the drive down on the Friday, so we weren’t too optimistic, but Saturday morning seemed a bit improved, so we set out nice and early.

We ended up choosing Skirrid, a pleasingly accessible hillock to the north-east of the town that's claimed to be the easternmost outcrop of the Black Mountains. I drove us to the National Trust car park on the B4521 (indeed, the whole hill itself is owned by the Trust) and started out well by completely flattening this wooden post when turning in to the car park. I should have contacted the Trust to tell them really. Thankfully, perhaps due to the recent rain, it wasn’t too firmly anchored into the ground so there was no damage to my car.

Poor posty

Mum kindly wrote us out some directions to the car park, though thankfully Google Maps did manage to locate it.

We set off up the well-signposted path from the car park that leads into woods (Pant Skirrid Wood), where there’s then a fairly steep ascent, partly up steps, until you emerge onto more open ground and the walk levels off. The sun came out on the way up, which pleased us both immensely, and there were some quite decent views. It’s a nice open path to the summit (part of the Beacons Way at this point). It was also quite windy, but thankfully there are no scary sheer drops off Skirrid so the odd bit of staggering about wasn’t too alarming.

Route up, looking back towards Blorenge

On the way up

We made the summit by just after 9:30am. It isn’t a long walk from the car park really.

While we were on the summit the weather started turning, and the initial part of the return walk involved quite large flakes of snow. We had intended to descend and come back via one half of the path that skirts the base of the hill. We did indeed descend from near the summit, but the path along the base proved so waterlogged that it was extremely hard-going. By the time both Ruth and I had fallen over, she decided she’d lost patience with it and insisted on us walking up the side of the ridge back onto the upper path, and then retracing steps. It was steepish but, thanks to plenty of bracken, not slippery and it was certainly a relief to be back on a decent path.

Snow on the return route

As we’d brought hot drinks and snacks with us, but hadn’t thus far found anywhere to sit and have them, I insisted on sitting down on a bench not really all that far from the car park to have a cup of tea and a chocolate biscuit. I was punished for this by my rucksack taking a nosedive off the bench into a muddy puddle. We finished up the rest of the food sitting in the car and poking fun at other walkers attempting to put waterproof overtrousers on in quite strong wind.

Skirrid has a notable landslip at the northern end. Mum and Dad tell me this is a good spot for a picnic. Legend apparently has it that it happened at the moment of Christ’s crucifixion, though Dad prosaically points out that it actually pre-dates that by many thousands of years.

The only previous time I’ve walked up Skirrid was on Boxing Day 2000, when from what I remember it was an extremely cold day. Here’s a photo I found of Dave, me and Mum on that occasion.

Our route last Saturday:

Robotics demonstration

Originally published on my OU study blog while studying module TM129 'Technologies in Practice'

Just watched this. Broadcast via Stadium Live from the OU's School of Computing and Communications.

'Baxter' is a collaborative robot, in the sense of being designed for human-robot interaction. He was made by Rethink Robotics.

In terms of the chat window, I said hello but that was it. There were quite a few questions being asked in the chat window, some sensible, some flippant, but I tried to focus on the demo and not be reading the chat. In fairness, people did seem interested. I guess robots do capture the imagination.

We were asked how humanoid we thought Baxter is. Well, it (he?) has arms. From the waist down though, not so much. I was amused that he seemed to have an OU ID card around his neck. 

Baxter

Baxter's arms contain seven motors - apparently they are referred to as '7 degree of freedom' arms. There are two at each of the three joints (one for the hinge, one for rotation) plus an extra rotation one.

Baxter has ultrasonic sensors on his 'head'. I think he also had other types of sensor but I didn't write these down.

Baxter's movements were being dictated by a program running on the presenter's laptop, on a nearby table. The program was written in Python though I assume other languages could be used. He doesn't have his own power supply - he's plugged in.

Sines and cosines are involved in working out where his grippers are in space. An applied use for maths :-)

Someone in the chat spotted what looked like a red push button on the table behind the presenter. Turned out this was indeed an emergency off switch, if Baxter went berserk and started killing people. Only kidding. We were assured that Baxter has been designed in a way that makes him safe around humans. And he can only lift around 1-1.5kg apparently. The lightweight.

The red button

The presenter asked whether we thought Baxter obeyed Asimov's Three Laws. Although Asimov was a sci-fi writer rather than a scientist, these 'laws' are still apparently considered useful in thinking about the safety of robot systems. They're difficult to apply literally though as they assume a robot can distinguish what a human being is (Asimov's fictional robots were very clever) - when in reality no robot actually built thus far could do this.