Six Degrees of Separation is a meme hosted by Kate over at Books Are My Favourite and Best. It works like this: each month, a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six others to form a chain. A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the titles on the list, only to the one next to it in the chain.
This month we’re starting with Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, a book I’ve read many times as a child and as an adult.
Both Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking-Glass are stuffed with riddles, puzzles, wordplay and a multitude of allusions which Martin Gardner helps elucidate in The Annotated Alice
I’m distinctly unkeen on annotations in novels but Jonathan Coe’s footnotes in The House of Sleep had me in hysterics.
Coe is best known for his state of the nation novels, a sub-genre I find hard to resist. A recent favourite was Amanda Craig’s The Lie of the Land which looks at the divisions between town and country through the story of Lottie, furious with the philandering Quentin but too broke to divorce him.
A particularly grisly murder brought Stella Gibbon’s Cold Comfort Farm to mind for me while reading Craig’s novel. A couple of pages later she pleasingly tips her hat to Gibbons with a quote.
Gibbons’ comic novel is widely acknowledged as a parody of the floridly romantic historical style epitomised by Mary Webb’s Precious Bane, set in Shropshire during the Napoleonic Wars.
Shropshire is the location for one of my childhood favourites, Malcolm Saville’s Seven White Gates which has some wonderfully atmospheric scenes on the Long Mynd.
This month’s Six Degrees of Separation has taken me from Alice’s adventures down a rabbit hole to a childhood favourite set in Shropshire. Part of the fun of this meme is comparing the very different routes other bloggers take from each month’s starting point. If you’re interested, you can follow it on Twitter with the hashtag #6Degrees, check out the links over at Kate’s blog or perhaps even join in.
How is it that I don’t own Annotated Alice?!
It’s very old but I’m pleased to say still in print. Stocking filler?
Just bought it. Online shopping is both a curse and a joy…
Hurrah! I know exactly what you mean.
I need to rebuy the Annotated Alice – I’ve lost my copy over the years, and The House of Sleep is the Coe I really must re-read. A lovely chain of great reads.
Thanks, Annabel. I hope you enjoy rereading the Coe. That footnote passage had me almost incapacitated!
Such an entertaining chain, as always, Susan. I’ve not read anything by Coe but he sounds like fun.
Thanks, Liz. The early Coes are hard to beat – witty and incisive satire.
These books all sound pretty rabbit hole-like! Great chain!
Thanks, Davida.
Such a clever chain Susan! I remember reading The House of Sleep on a long train chain journey and being that annoying person snorting into the pages 😀
Thank you, Madame Bibi! It’s so good, isn’t it. I remember crying with laughter.
Anything that includes Cold Comfort Farm is great in my humble opinion! Well done!
Thank you! You might enjoy The Lie of the Land, then. Amanda Craig is clearly a fan.
I’ll look into it! Thanks
How have I never heard of The Annotated Alice?
It’s a wonderful book to dip into if you’re an Alice fan, Karen.
Its one I’m definitely going to get for my niece who is more of a fan than I am
The only one on your chain that I’m familiar with is Cold Comfort Farm, which I read for my book club, but as usual, it’s so much fun to see how the different chains end up.
It is, isn’t it. I’m tempted to say the cards are always thrown up in the air for Six Degrees!
It sounds as if I need to add Coe to my TBR. Thanks for sharing your chain.
You’re welcome, and if you’re after a good giggle I think you’ll find it in The House of Sleep.