Constable on the Hill (1979) by Nicholas Rhea

👮🏻 Constable on the Hill could be put in the same category with James Herriot's All Creatures Great and Small series. Both were written based on the writer's daily working lives. Just change a vet (in Herriot's) to a police constable. Nicholas Rhea himself was a police officer in a rural Yorkshire village in the 1960s, and this book is all about that experience. I won't call it memoir, because, like All Creatures Great and Small, I believe there are many fictional quality in every events presented to us.
👮🏻 Rhea was posted in the village beat of North Yorkshire at the beginning of the book. He moved into the house allocated for policeman, together with his wife Mary and his three children. It was located up on the hill, overlooking the moors. He had been posted in the city before, so there's much he needed to be accustomed to. Since he was the only policeman, it means that he takes care of almost anything that happens about the village; from animal shenanigans, neighbors' disputes, to checking vehicle or stock licenses. His main job was to maintain peace and harmony in the village; thus in many occasion, the constable needs to think creatively, instead of rigidly following the rules and systems.

👮🏻 The book is structured as collection of clustered anecdotal stories. For instance, all incidents related to animals are clustered in one section. Some chapters would talk about different stories of animals shenanigan, than the next cluster would be about craftsmen: a smith, a cobbler, etc. There's always a mixture of hilarious incidents, simple people with either quirky or friendly characters, and of course, the idyllic landscape of the Yorkshire moor. One of the interesting and unusual "cases" that Rhea handled was when a sculptor who had a commission of Madonna and Child had difficulty in unloading the cargo of a huge stone to arrive safely in the small house. It needs an inventive thinking of a constable to arrange for everything. Another time (quite often, really), Rhea must deal with neighbors' dispute. The funniest one is with a 'Houdini' pony who enters neighbors' locked-gates, and steals or breaks things. It's amusing to follow what Rhea do to make everyone happy - humans and pony.

👮🏻 Strayed animals and found money should be dealt too by the police. You would laugh out loud reading a strayed donkey and a missing dog sharing a new-architected dog house, with an angry rich woman (owner of the dog) in the bargain. Rhea's boss (Sergeant Blaketon) was having a good time pranking Rhea at that incident. Well, with good result, because only that way Rhea could learn the way of dealing with eccentric village people (and animals). Other hilarious events ranged from a naked woman on the loose, Rhea leading a circus procession and his encounter with the elephants, a batty spinster who imagined her neighbors pranking her, to Rhea running out of petrol for the bike, and received unexpected title of super performance of the month.

👮🏻 Beyond the funny anecdotal stories like those I mentioned, there's some touching moments. Of these, an abbot of a Catholic church showed a good example of 'loving your neighbors'. Interestingly, the Anglican and Catholic churches in the village had a lovely relationship. When one of them needed an organist, for example, the other supplied it. Thanks to the generous abbot, his assistants and people in the parish could learn to accept differences, and how to live in harmony in the small village. All in all, this book might not be written as eloquently as All Creatures - it's rather the milder version of it - but I love to learn about police procedure at that era; the eccentric personalities that peopled the village; and above all, the picturesque description of the landscape. I love it especially because Rhea chose to end the book with a beautiful snowy winter scene, which you can only find in the countryside. For me, the ending of a book is the second most important thing about the book besides its content. A book can lack of plot or characters-development, but when it ended beautifully, I will be satisfied nonetheless. And it works the other way round too.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

Offshore (1979) by Penelope Fitzgerald

🚢 Set in the 1960s, Offshore is Penelope Fitzgerald's third novel, which won her the Booker Prize in 1979. It tells the story of a houseboat-dwellers community, which was closely inspired by her own experience of living in an old sailing barge moored along the bank of river Thames, at Battersea Reach, London. It was difficult times for her, which was also reflected on this book's characters. If I must sum it up in two words, this book is about restlessness and uncertainty.

🚢 The story opens with a sort of community meeting, which took place at Lord Jim, a barge owned by Richard Blake, who lives there, childless, with his wife Laura. Richard was looked up to as the unofficial leader of the community, partly because of his virtue, and partly because he had been involved in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. Lord Jim, a converted minesweeper was also in the best condition compared to the others. Dreadnought, owned by an elderly marine painter called Willis, was in the worst condition with its serious leaks, though Willis was reluctant to sell it, because it meant that he'd have to live on shore with his sister. 🚢 Grace was another barge, owned by Nenna James, who lives there with her two daughters Martha and Tilda. She was anxious to get her estranged husband Edward to move back with them - he loathed living in a boat and chose to live in his friend's house instead. Nenna is the most interesting character in this book, to whom I was rooted for. Interestingly enough, the boat on board which Fitzgerald had been living was also called Grace. Nenna was pestered by Martha and Tilda's school, who claimed that both children were often absent from school, and seen running wildly on the muddy foreshore. Tilda, at least, enjoyed living on Grace, although it's not a good environment for raising children. Especially when their neighbor was Maurice, an old boat owned by a male prostitute, also called Maurice, who allowed his boat to be used for storing stolen goods by his shady friend Harry. There's also Woodie, a retired businessman, who owned Rochester. After Dreadnought sank - the dramatical scene was so beautifully written! - Woodie and his wife took charge of old unfortunate Willis, and let him live contentedly with them - converting Rochester into a sort of boarding house. 🚢 Like I said above, this is a story about uncertainty and restlessness. Even the ending is inconclusive. Normally I dislike this kind of novel, but in this case, I think it fits most perfectly with the whole sense of the novel. I rather like Wikipedia's description of it: "The book explores the emotional restlessness of houseboat dwellers who live neither fully on the water nor fully on the land." I caught the sense of dejectedness of these houseboat dwellers - they were generally frowned upon by the society. And yet, when we dive into their daily lives, they are mostly affectionate people, who wouldn't hesitate to help one another in difficult times. Maurice, for instance, always provides sympathetic ears for Nenna James' worries; Willis is always fond of Tilda; and of course, Woodie and his wife taking Willis under their care, which resulting in their change of plans, is the sweetest of all. Sometimes, one just need to be loved by others, before one can stand by one self - the life in the houseboat community might be that bridge towards brighter future for all characters. At least I wish them all the best. Again, I agree with Fitzgerald for not providing conclusive ending to the story; since it is just a phase that every one of us sometimes must face during our existence. How one would go from there, is one's own choice. Just as the ending of this story, would be how each reader would choose for themselves. Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐