Liking the cut of Palin’s jib in story of the ill-fated HMS Erebus

Erebus

Michael Palin Sea stories have always fascinated Michael Palin, so when HMS Erebus was found in 2014 submerged off the Arctic coast of Canada, having been missing for 170 years, his appetite was whetted. The disappearance of Erebus and its companion Terror constituted "the greatest single loss of life in the history of British polar exploration". Palin traces Erebus's story, from its construction in 1826 to its rediscovery. It's a tale of two voyages: one a triumph, the other a disaster. It was built as a warship but in the period of peace between the end of the Napoleonic Wars and the Crimean War, the Royal Navy contributed to scientific discovery (in the ultimate cause of imperial expansion). Erebus spent 1839 to 1843, captained by James Clark Ross, exploring the southern ocean and proving an Antarctic continent existed. In 1845 it set off to discover the Northwest Passage, under Sir John Franklin, who was ill-equipped for the role. Palin, a skilled writer, makes extensive use of diaries, letters and other sources to anchor his story in clear detail in this highly recommended read. Brian Maye

Nina X

Ewan Morrison

Nina X has never been outside. She has no idea with the real world is like. She has no parents. She has never met another child. All she has is the Cult. Until she finds herself in Freedom and all of the rules change.

The novel unfolds through a series of journals kept by Nina X, between 2018 and 2019 when she is 28. Some are childhood journals from the days when she was known only as “the Project”, a child member of the Maoist cult of Comrade Chen. And it’s Nina’s voice that carries the novel, as Morrison uses the power of the first person narrative to articulate her trauma, personality and agency. Morrison makes use of a clever typographical conceit to chart Nina’s movement from self-censorship through to self-expression. But implicit in the novel is the acknowledgement that this can only ever be an attempt to linguistically represent an interior life.