Rather shockingly, the last time I read a good book, it was two years ago when I took a break from technical manuals and immersed myself in Polly Samson’s ‘The Kindness’… twice.
I felt transported by her lyrical and descriptive phrasing. The lives of the characters developed at a pace that compelled me to turn the pages. I was hungry to find out what Julian and Julia did, and thought, from their respective positions in the same situation. It’s all about betrayal, different perspectives and ‘more than one side’ to every story.
Living on Hydra, where life is constantly under scrutiny and every situation real or otherwise is hotly debated from everyone’s point of view, ‘The Kindness’ was reassuring for me. It confirmed the normalcy of life’s perceptual misunderstandings. It’s a book of two parts and I feel sure, like me, you will read it twice so you can go back to assess it from your perspective as well. Were you too judgemental of Julia when reading from Julian’s point of view? Did you miss something crucial, where did they go wrong or right? I would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys the complexity of human relationships.
More recently after reading 'The Kindness', I called into the Piato Restaurant for an abortive video interview with Tony about his plate collection. I say abortive because after filming I found that the environmentally good LED lighting, which I approve of, is awful to film in because it flickers appallingly with a camera. So that’s another project on my list for next year.
But I did take some good photos of plates in Tony’s collection painted by visitors such as Vivienne Westwood, Kate Moss, Pamela Anderson and Charmian Clift …. err Charmian Clift?
“Come on Tony, she left Hydra decades before you opened” I exclaimed. A laughing Tony explained, “that one was done by Polly Samson for her new book about Charmian Clift”. She’d been to the restaurant doing research. It immediately grabbed my attention.
