A Rave and Not a Rant

.Natalie Haynes

She's brilliant.  

I can't remember exactly when I became aware of her; sometime last year I think Possibly when she was nominated for the Women's Prize for Fiction for her novel about the Trojan War - A Thousand Ships. I'd just read Pat Barker's The Silence of the Girls which was sort of about the same thing and A Thousand Ships  came up as an associated recommendation, in the helpful or irritating  way these things have. (I don't mind it when it's books, but honestly how stupid does a computer algorithm have to be to send  you a message saying 'Last week you bought this lawn mower for £2000. Here are some other things you might be interested in ... ' before listing another ten lawn mowers. How many lawn mowers does one individual need?) But I digress. 

Because the digital library didn't  have it, I bought it. And then I bought her earlier book The Children of Jocasta. And then I got her Radio Series Natalie Haynes Stands up for the Classics on audible. And because it was half price I bought A Thousand Ships on Audible too. I put her most recent book, Pandora's Jar on my Amazon wish list for Christmas and as is the January way with these things as no-one had bought me that, or the Aimee Stewart jigsaw, I bought them for myself. This is in no way a dig at anyone. I got lots of lovely things from my Wishlist and I was pleased with them and grateful for them. As I was with everything I was given. I just didn't want to wait to read Pandora's Jar) 

Haynes is clever and funny and well read, but she is all these things without being conceited or overbearing or patronising. A Thousand Ships was my favourite novel of last year; it made me laugh and cry and be angry and indignant in turns. I particularly love the voices she gave to Calliope, Muse of Poetry ('Let's not talk about Helen, she gets on my nerves' being a classic line) and Penelope who goes from patient credulous wife to really annoyed and non-credulous in a very believable way during  the ten years it takes her husband to get home from Troy. And there's a wonderful description of the moulting, confused, petulant Eris, the goddess of discord, who lobs a golden apple into a crowd of wedding guests and thus in a way starts the whole thing off. 

If you have an edge to your tongue and believe as Haynes does that war exacts a toll on women as well as men, and one just as worthy of being documented,  you will enjoy this book. Except of course for the bit in the afterword where she describes a male friend who denies the heroism of women in war. That will leave you aghast. I hope.