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This is the first in a planned quartet of novels from Ali Smith using the seasons as both direct reference and metaphor. In this book the main events are taking place during the transition from midsummer to autumn 2016, as Daniel (100 years old) is near the end of his life. Elisabeth,32 years old, has known Daniel since she chose him as the focus for a homework project when she was eight. Sitting at Daniel’s bedside, she reflects on her life, her career, and post-referendum Britain, but, most of all Daniel’s legacy of the stories and the discussions they had on art and books.

Autumn has been described as the first Brexit novel, possibly more by an accident of timing than overwhelming political intent; however in a brilliant two-page chapter, which encapsulates the way she uses language to describe emotions and to paint pictures, the author describes the schism affecting the country, divided by different beliefs, hopes, fears and a huge feeling of uncertainty. As we learn more we wonder whether Daniel has seen better times in the post-war years of social change, but, we also learn about the wartime experiences that he had not shared with Elisabeth. With her he was always positive, his first question was always ‘what are you reading’, and then they would talk about books, mind pictures, or artists he had known.

Smith conjures dream landscapes of organic imagery and contrasts this with some of the harsher realities of what is happening to the countryside and by extension to the country as a whole. It is a thought provoking read, shot through with a love of life, colour and contrast; we also fall slightly in love with Daniel and wish we had had such a teacher. It is a novel you will probably want to quickly re-read to pick up on all the imagery you missed first time, and I am now looking forward to Winter, the second novel, which is published this month.

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This book by the Dutch author, Tonke Dragt, was originally published in 1967; it is a very well written adventure story for children (suitable for reading to children from 8+ and equally enjoyable for adults). It is set in a fantasy world where the schoolteacher hero (Frans), who tells his pupils stories to capture their interest, finds himself in a real adventure involving treasure, magical tricks, an intelligent cat, coded messages, a mysterious House of Stairs and the Secret of the Seven Ways. The plot whizzes along as our hero, with help from an interesting cast of characters, solves clues and helps to save Geert Jan from the machinations of his evil uncle.

It is a very good introduction to Tonke Draght’s other books for older readers: The Letter for the King and The Secrets of the Wild Wood, which are suitable for readers from 12+ to all ages. One can only wonder why these excellent children’s books were not available in English before now, but, three cheers for Pushkin Children’s Books which has published these and other gems of children’s literature from different countries and different cultures.

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Sometimes books fall into your hands at the right time, and just last week was one of those occasions. Whilst digesting the news about the apparent extent of sexual harassment in Westminster, I read these two essays by Mary Beard, Professor of Classics at Newnham College, Cambridge, and herself a victim of very public, very abusive social media trolling.

The first essay, written in 2014, ‘ The Public Voice of Women’, illustrates how in the Western world men have been exerting and abusing their power over women, preventing them from fulfilling public roles and therefore of having a public voice, since the early days of Ancient Greece and Rome. Her argument is that this moulding of the female role into that of silent passivity was hard-wired into our patriarchal society, and only after millennia of gradual progress towards equal rights do we find this behaviour less acceptable but still prevalent today.

The second essay ‘Women In Power’ (2017) discusses how our cultural mind set of the image of power is still essentially masculine, and that women wanting to challenge this stereotype, all too often have to mould themselves into that image to be successful. Women in positions of power are still often seen as having achieved something they are not really entitled to, and they still often have a greater challenge to get there. Mary Beard suggests we may not be able to rid ourselves of these outdated attitudes, until we change our concept of what it means to be a woman with power.

Progress towards a more equal society, in which more women are appointed to positions of power, and to job roles previously dominated by men, is generally viewed as a healthy indicator. However to others this progressive equalisation can be threatening and they choose to give vent to their frustration, often through the anonymity of social media, in an explosion of vicious verbal abuse. The aim of such behaviour is an attempt to ‘silence’ these women, to inhibit them from articulating their power in the public domain, even if that is their role. The perpetrators feel more comfortable with the stereotypes of history, rather than a progressive society which can respect individual achievement regardless of gender.

These two short essays present an excellent analysis of ‘why we are where we are’ looking back into history and at current behaviours. It is an enlightening read, and whilst Mary Beard is describing our cultural legacy in its wider historical context, her analysis also helps to explain why we are still discovering so many instances of the abuse of power in our workplaces, which are only now being brought into the critical light of public awareness and wider scrutiny.