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 Emily Maguire’s Stella Prize longlisted Rapture which I’ve not read but I’ve seen described as inspired by ‘a thousand-year-old story of female empowerment’ which makes me want to.
I’m linking by title to Claire McGlasson’s The Rapture about a millenarian sect known as The Panacea Society based in Bedford where I lived for several years, unaware of its existence.
John Bunyan lived, preached and was imprisoned in Bedford. About the only thing I remember from my childhood reading of his The Pilgrim’s Progress is the Slough of Despond.
Bringing to mind John Betjeman’s poem in which he, somewhat unkindly, urges ‘friendly bombs’ to fall on Slough, included in his Collected Poems.
St Pancras has a statue of John Betjeman which I featured on one of my travel posts and saw again on Monday on my way to Ghent. He looks as if he might be checking the sky for those bombs. I read Megan Bradbury’s Everyone is Watching on the same holiday which features photographer Robert Mapplethorpe.
Leading me to Susana Fortes’s Waiting for Robert Capa, about the founder of Magnum photos and his lover, fellow photographer, Gerda Taro, who lost her life in the Spanish Civil War.
Georgina Harding’s The Gun Room is about another war photographer whose life is changed by an iconic image of a soldier in Vietnam.
This month’s Six Degrees has taken me from the story of a nineth-century woman who disguises herself as a man to attain her ambition to a war photographer’s experience of unwanted fame. 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.
I’ve just got a different Georgina Harding from the library, but as ever, your choices intrigue me. We too read Pilgrim’s Progress at school (I imagine it was a set text for you too, rather than a free choice?) and of course Betjeman is well known to me too. But I might head for the Bradbury or the Fortes first. I’m not sure I’m ready for a millenarian sect. Hope your little escape this week was rewarding and fun!
I did and the Slough of Despond sums up the experience of reading it for me. The escape was lovely, thanks, if a tad hotter than expected.
We’re never happy with our weather! I was lucky with our English teacher. She helped bring the Pilgrim and his Progress alive.
She must have been very talented!
I remember her still. She really was.
My memorable one was my Latin teacher who gav me a love of words and their roots.
Hope it wasn’t my mum! She was a Latin teacher.
Ha! It was Mr Jackson – kind, clever and inspiring. I wish I could tell him but he’ll be long gone.
Like my mother. Neither would have a job in these latin-free times.
Sadly, true
Great chain. The Gun Room sounds interesting – would it be a good place to start with Georgina Harding, do you think?
Thank you. I think it would. It’s the first of a loosely linked trilogy, all of which are excellent.
Friendly bombs? Hm… Okay. Very interesting chain here, and your inclusion of a poem is very creative!
Thank you. It’s certainly a quote that sticks in the mind!
I don’t know many of these books but I love that you included John Bunyan! And poetry! Well done.
Thank you! Although I can’t say Bunyan brings back happy memories….
What a fun-to-read post–nice touches. I need to look up a few of the books–especially The Gun Room.
Thank you! I hope you give The Gun Room a try. Harding’s one of my favourite writers.
I think like other commenters The Gun Room sounds fascinating. I’m not sure why but it reminded me of a photography exhibition I saw in France in 2002 – it was outside along the Seine and of portraits of people throughout the world. I hadn’t thought of that exhibition for many years
I hope it was a good memory. Highly recommend Georgina Harding’s writing. It’s a shame it doesn’t get more attention.
I also linked to another book called The Rapture, but different from yours. Interesting, so many similar titles!
It was a pleasure to be reminded of Liz Jensen. I’ve enjoyed several of her novels.
I was lucky enough to meet her and do a workshop with her in Geneva. She is really lovely and very thoughtful as a person, as well as a writer.
Great connections. I have only read Bunyan’s.
https://wordsandpeace.com/2025/05/03/six-degrees-of-separation-the-struggle-for-identity/
Thank you, and for your link.
I have such fond memories of reading a kids version of Pilgrim’s Progress.
Fun chain!
Thank you. I’m glad your memories are happier than mine!
A very interesting chain, Susan. All I remember from Pilgrim’s Progress is the land of Beulah–and wondering why when one had learnt to be content in whatever state one was, one needed to reach a land of plenty at all! I also only more recently found Enid Blyton had done a version of Pilgrim’s Progress which I should look up!
Thank you, Mallika. That’s an excellent observation!
Thanks, Susan. It’s something I’ve felt across religious texts/stories–heaven or its equivalent seems far more opulent than it needs to be. And considering that the lesson to be learnt is that one shouldn’t be hankering after material riches, I feel it shouldn’t be an inducement at all, like it ends up being.
Loved how you linked the books in your chain, and how cleverly you wove in a collection of poems too! my post is here – https://www.ladyinreadwrites.com/full-circle-from-rapture-to-more-and-back-again/
Thank you, and I see you worked a play into yours.
I love the link between the war photographers at the end!
Thank you. I’ve often thought it’s a very difficult position to be in, witnessing and documenting abhorrent events
this activity always makes me realize how many books I haven’t read. Your list is fantastic, but also overwhelming in that I knew nothing of any of the books at all.
Late to the party but finally got my chain up.
Rapture
Thanks for your link, Anne. I’m often surprised at what resurfaces in my book memory when putting these posts together – Bunyan, for instance. Part of the fun!