Time for some endless summer?

Sounds good, sign me up!

With the beginning of meteorological summer on 1 June, I thought it would be a lovely time to turn our attention to all things sunny summer-holiday stories. It is, of course, currently pouring with rain. But nevertheless, we soldier on!

What you’ll find below is a bit of a mishmash of summer-adjacent vibes: period pieces (you know the way the summers of your childhood were always sunny?) and a few travelogues to entertain you on holiday, maybe help plan a holiday or even just imagine you are in fact on holiday.

TL;DR

Read Bonjour Tristesse; watch Indian Summers and Moonflower Murders; listen to Wander Woman and Continental Garbage; and watch Before Sunrise and The Sandlot.

READ

Look, I have to admit: I’m a bit of a fan of French literature. Emile Zola is one of my favourite writers of all time. It comes from my - rather protracted - time studying the language at university. It sounds so utterly pretentious but I do and this next one is a great example of not just French writing but an amazing young author called Françoise Sagan: who is everything you want and more from a woman writing in the Fifties:

Bonjour Tristesse was published in 1954 when she was just eighteen years old and was an overnight smash; following two failed marriages she went on to have affairs with both men & women; she wound up in a coma after speeding in her Aston Martin in 1957; she loved driving her Jag to Monte Carlo to go gambling; she palled around with Truman Capote and Ava Gardner; in the ‘90s, she was convicted of possession of cocaine and just two years before she died, she was convicted of tax fraud in a case that involved the former French President François Mitterand. As far as I’m aware, there hasn’t been any kind of film about her life; but sure, we definitely need the 478th instalment of the Marvel Universe…

If you are looking for a summer read either to enjoy on a sun-lounger or to make you feel as though you are indeed on the French Riviera yourself then look no further than Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan.

Cécile is ‘summering’ (it’s that kind of book) at a villa on the Riviera with her rake of a father Raymond and Elsa, Raymond’s rather younger lover. Cécile lives a life of easy privilege; her father puts no pressure on her to do anything in particular, she gets on with Elsa and she even has a holiday romance with the next-door neighbour Cyril. So far, so not a Cinderella story.

However, when her late mother’s friend Anne shows up, Cécile’s fortunes take a turn for the worse. Anne soon winds up ousting young Elsa from Raymond’s bed, gets herself a ring on it and in turn starts clamping down on Cécile’s freedoms. Up with this Cécile will not put and so plots are hatched to get rid of this dreadful imposition of a woman. It’s sultry, funny & oh-so-French.

Oh and The Spectator review at the time of publication referred to it as a ‘vulgar, sad little book’ which to me is a hugely ringing endorsement if ever there was one!

This one isn’t based during the summer necessarily but I would highly recommend it as a summer read. I read The Road to McCarthy when it first came out way back in the mists of time, also known as ‘2002’.

The book is actually a follow-up to author Pete McCarthy’s earlier work “McCarthy’s Bar” where he decided to follow the maxim “never pass a pub with your name on it” and so went to all sorts of pubs called…? You guessed it.

The Road to McCarthy took him further afield than the West of Ireland (not that there’s much call for that too often, mind) this time travelling to places as far flung as Alaska, Montserrat and Tasmania in search of other McCarthys. Another funny book, this time more modern, but well worth your time on that sun-lounger.

WATCH

Indian Summers abounds with beautiful costumes, terrorist plots, sumptuous sets and forbidden love. It is 1932 in Simla, the (& I’m not even joking when I say this) summer capital of British India, tucked into the foothills of the Himalayas, all the Brits decamp to the Royal Simla Club for their socialising and they all have secrets.

None other than Dame Julie Walters embodies the hilariously-named Cynthia Coffin to a tee. The owner of the Simla Club, Coffin pulls people’s strings to her own ends. She wants to see her choice installed as Viceroy of India to improve her own influence. There’s Aafrin Dalal who works for the British whilst secretly working for Indian independence. Ralph Whelan is an official in the Indian Civil Service with high aspirations: he’s dreaming of becoming Viceroy, but he has a secret that could prevent that from happening. Oh & someone tries to kill him, which isn’t very nice. Ralph’s sister Alice has shown up with her son, claiming her husband is dead. But er, she also has a secret.

You can practically feel the oppressive heat tumbling out of the TV screen at you as you watch and there are plenty of smouldering looks and stolen kisses in stairwells. Another great period drama with a lot more bite to it than most - what with an assassination attempt and the independence-seeking bombers etc.

If, like me, you love a whodunnit and you adore Lesley Manville (let’s face it, who doesn’t?) then may I seriously recommend Moonflower Murders. Currently available on BBC iPlayer, may I apologise to Irish readers: I’m not sure how you can watch just yet - but I’ve no doubt it will pop up on Netflix some time very soon.

This is actually the second series with Lesley Manville as book editor Susan Ryeland to the curmudgeonly author Alan Conway (played by Game of Thrones’ favourite eunuch Conleth Hill). Solving Conway’s murder was the focus of the first series Magpie Murders (that link there is to Prime Video, so Irish audience, go for your lives) which isn’t really as summery as the second season.

As part of Moonflower Murders is set in Greece, it feels far more suitable to our theme this week. The long & short of it is: Susan Ryeland solves murders by having regular chats with Detective Atticus Pund. Which all sounds above board however, Pund is merely the main character in author Alan Conway’s series of murder mystery novels. Basically, it’s a woman of about menopausal age talking to herself a lot - this is no bad thing because let’s face it, she’s solves the damn thing. So more power to her I say. A great twisty, turny way to spend a few evenings should you choose to binge. Which you should.

LISTEN

I’m not great with ‘talky’ podcasts to be honest. I tend to prefer narrative-driven, planned-out shows that are telling a specific story as opposed to people just having a chat. Though it does depend on who is chatting; which is why I really like Wander Woman.

Phoebe Smith is a writer, photographer and broadcaster who has created a magazine-style series made while actually travelling - as opposed to simply interviewing someone in a studio or over a Zoom.

Opting for monthly publication as opposed to weekly, Smith produces a really high quality and entertaining show every four weeks - featuring interviews, advice and hacks for travelling. In one episode, she walks the Camino with her seemingly genetically directionless friend in charge of their route, in another she shares tips on how to haggle and each episode features the story of the Wander Woman of the month, ranging from the Pirate Queen of Ireland Grace O’Malley to Dottie Frazier, the first woman to become a diving instructor in the USA. Smith is knowledgeable and easy to listen to as well as a good interviewer so it’s enjoyable to spend an hour with her each month.

And now for another talky podcast also with a ‘strong female lead’: I’m happy for this newsletter to be known as a fan (/stan?) account for anything Caroline O’Donoghue does. Her books do so well that the words “New York Times Bestselling Author” now appear before her name and she’s even adapting one into a TV show for Channel 4 because, well, of course she is. Her audiode (yes I invented a word, you heard it hear first) to pop culture that is of consigned to the scrapheap of cultural memory by critics Sentimental Garbage is a joy which I have highlighted previously. And last summer, O’Donoghue came up with the idea to take it on tour. Not with a series of live shows (though she does do that too - more info on that here) but by literally going on holiday with her friend Jen Cownie and making a miniseries dubbed Continental Garbage from various different countries around Europe.

There are thirteen episodes in the miniseries with each featuring a ‘postcard’ from where they are and a discussion about a movie, kicking off with the 2010 film Eat Pray Love starring Julia Roberts. Later episodes focus on subjects as varied Taylor Swift (both her Tortured Poets Department album and the movie of the Eras tour), the Fyre Festival Netflix documentary (as previously recommended in this parish) as well as the all-time classic Shirley Valentine.

O’Donoghue and Cownie’s partnership makes for delightful company; they are funny and observant and rarely fail to make me want to watch / rewatch whatever it is they’re talking about. Another great aural accompaniment to your time on holiday, or simply that time spent wishing you were.

WATCH

Before Sunrise is actually discussed in one of the episodes of Continental Garbage. The film was director Richard Linklater’s third feature - and when you consider the first two were Slackers and Dazed & Confused, he sure started strong. It regularly appears on “Best Film of All Time” and “Films to Watch Before You Snuff It” lists - so you may have heard of it. If you haven’t, or you have but not watched, do give it a go - it’s such a gloriously Nineties’ Linklater tale.

Ethan Hawke is Jesse and Julie Delpy plays Céline. They meet on a train in June 1994; Jesse is going to Vienna to fly home to the United States, Céline is going back to university in Paris. When they reach Vienna, Jesse convinces Céline to get off the train with him. Broke, they decide to wander the streets until Jesse has to go to the airport. They talk, they kiss, they don’t exchange contact details and instead agree to meet in the same place in six months time.

That’s all there is to it. But it isn’t. This is one I simply cannot convey to you with words - you have to watch it in all its glory. And when you finish it, you’ll be pleased to know that Linklater made two more films to create a trilogy with Before Sunset released in 2004 and Before Midnight in 2013 - all with the same casting. Enjoy!

And finally, I can’t wrap this up without a nod to the ‘back in the day when times were simpler, things were better and the sun was usually always shining’ film - or to give it its proper name: the ‘coming of age’ film. Now the big names (for my generation at least) in this niche are all very much summer-focussed films. You’re talking Now & Then, Stand By Me and of course, My Girl. But we know all these (& if you don’t, what’s wrong with you? Watch them all immediately), so instead I thought I’d flag something similar but a little more under the radar: The Sandlot.

This is a gorgeous little hug of a film that would be perfect for a Sunday afternoon. It’s about a baseball team in 1960s (very white) small town America. When Scotty Smalls moves to a new neighbourhood outside Los Angeles, his mum encourages him to go out and get into trouble so he tries to make friends with the boys who play baseball at the nearby sandlot (i.e. vacant patch of land). He’s not very good; but the biggest & best player Benny is a good guy who takes him under his wing.

The team get up to all sorts and even have a deadly enemy…a massive Mastiff, known as The Beast. All sorts of hijinks are gotten into and it’s sweet and endearing with mild peril in just the right doses. It even follows the trope seen in Now & Then in that we see the boys as adults: with Benny a player for the Los Angeles Dodgers (to the uninitiated in baseball, apparently, this is a very good thing) and Scotty a sports commentator. It’s really is heartwarming and sunshine.