The Paper Lantern

by Will Burns

THE PAPER LANTERN, a single speaker charts and interrogates the shifts in mood and understanding that have defined a surreal, transformative period in both his own history and that of the surrounding area. Set in a shuttered pub – The Paper Lantern – in a village in the very middle of the country adjacent to the Chequers estate, the narrator embarks on a series of walks in the Chiltern Hills, which become the landscape for evocations of a past scarred with trauma and a present lacking compass. From local raves in secret valleys and the history of landmarks such as Halton House, to the fallout of the lockdown period, climate change and capitalism, THE PAPER LANTERN creates a tangible, lived-in, complicated rendering of a place.

Genres: Fiction, Nature, Contemporary

224 pages, Hardcover

Published July 1, 2021

Reviews

[Sara Hughes · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book is literally just a man walking around his british village during the first few months of lockdown in 2020 and thinking about his past experiences growing up there, brexit, privilege, politics, covid, etc. it sounds boring but i really enjoyed it! so much of what he was saying was not only relatable to me but really powerful and moving. "How can we pass this strange kind of judgement on ourselves in hindsight, mistrust the motives of our own memories, at the same time knowing, beyond all doubt, that their essence still colours each day of our lives? Is there no end to the hardness with which we will deal with ourselves?"

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 rounded down

Musings and ramblings (of the walking kind) around and about the Chilterns in lockdown 1.0. I could never quite work out if this was auto-fiction or semi-fictionalised -- both the author and protagonist are poets whose parents run a pub although the pubs have different names -- but I guess it doesn't really matter. I particularly enjoyed the nature observations/connection to the outside world which the protagonist/author seems drawn to even more during the early days of the pandemic (which I, too, experienced at the same time in a village with my parents as my only company whilst finding solace in nature on my own walk a day), as well as the earlier sections on the dislocation and disruption to life brought about by Covid. Felt almost psychogeographical at times which is never a bad thing.

[Sophy H · Rating 5 out of 5]

July 2023- Remains an excellent read on a second go around. Will Burns cuts right to the chase and really captures the sanctimonious posturing of some "country dwellers" and the complete bastard underhandedness of the government. You tell them Will.

Original review: - A brilliant lamentation on lockdown, the reality and hypocrisy of community, the fabricated vision of privileged "country" living and the ever moulding attachment to place, space and people.

I like that Burns is unapologetic in his writing, calling out wealthy landowners and "hard done to" farmers with their menageries of brand new Land Rovers and Range Rovers!

He really shines the spotlight on the double standards in society, particularly in countryside society where history, ancestry and entitlement seems to take precedence over decency and humanity.

There is real poetry yet brutality in the writing here and I really immersed myself in it.

Brilliant. Highly recommended.

[Neil Denham · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is absolutely right up my street (almost literally) and read it in 24 hours! Having taken to the footpaths of Buckinghamshire myself during the pandemic, and having lived within easy walking distance of 'The Village' previously (near the canal basin of the awful Aylesbury which is mentioned in the book) and now still within walking distance on a longer day walk, I could picture this place well. I share the views expressed about the Grammar school system in the area (which seems so bizarre and unfair to anyone who grew up in an area with 'normal' schools) and love his descriptions of the paths and wildlife of the area, but mostly I just loved the flow of thoughts, mirroring the thoughts I have while out walking. I really hope to bump into this author one day in a pub near here, and congratulate him on a wonderful piece of (dare I use the word)... psychogeography.

[Albert Kadmon · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Pese a tratarse de un texto profundamente lírico la verdad que no renuncia a un ejercicio de fina política. En primer lugar están todas las reflexiones de conciencia de clase del trabajador de clase media de un bar que vive en una zona de clase alta y contempla sus privilegios a diario que de repente son arrasados por el virus mostrando su fragilidad. En segundo lugar están las confesiones sobre alcoholismo que a muchos resonarán porque no fue Burns el primero ni el último que necesitó duros horarios sobre consumo de bebidas mientras estaban encerrados en casa viviendo un apocalipsis de baja intensidad. Finalmente resuenan los ecos del Brexit y el descontento político general de una parte de la población con toda la nueva generación de políticos ingleses".
https://theobjective.com/cultura/2022...

[Ilse Wouters · Rating 3 out of 5]

Post-Brexit lockdown musings from a poet in an English village. Recommended in the literary supplement of a newspaper and my husband surprised me with this book earlier in the year. As we have lived quite near the village where the action takes place (or rather where the walks the author makes during the lockdown start from), I can relate to the thoughts expressed here. On the cover I read how fellow-writer Will Ashon describes the work : "Offers a portrait of contemporary England and Englishness which manages to be critical and empathetic all at once"...that ´ll do for me too.
The sentence I like most (on p.172) : "The philosophical mendacity that had soaked so deep into our national myth making made deluded idiots of us all." On the other hand, the sentence I most identify with is the final one : "A pint of Landlord, please, landlord,..." ;-)

[Declan MacGinley · Rating 4 out of 5]

A morose work of psychogeography. At times a fascinating portrait of a piece of middle England, others a sad one of a man who lost grip on the ability to drive his life and can't quite seem to find it again. Strongly recommend it to anyone who can deal with a wonderful book occasionally punctuated with diversions into terrible, British bitterness.

[Charlie Gill · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 -
Had me at times. Pleasingly local to Oxford and where I grew up, was nice to visualise home.

[Vincent Coole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Given that I went to school in Wendover and my father still lives there, it’s no surprise that so much of this resonated with me. I also used to drink in the ‘Paper Lantern’. One wonders if it was written for people who know the area or not. However much of the countryside ramblings become so specific in their detail, that they become other-worldly, obscure . It’s a book to get lost in, a clever device, and is punctuated by almost ghost-like characters that weave in and out. The language is poetic and measured, even though at times it can be difficult to grasp exactly what Burns is trying to say. His descriptions of my hometown Aylesbury made me laugh and the section on the 11-plus and the effect it had on families, strongly resonated with me, having gone through the experience myself. I can imagine people finding some of this hard going if you have no idea about the place; but Burns succeeds in letting you into his world while making you feel that there is something mythical about it all. I intend on popping into the King and Queen in the near future!

[Gary Homewood · Rating 3 out of 5]

Middle aged poet narrator lives through lockdown 1 in his parents pub in middle England market town, walking in the surrounding countryside. Psychogeography and dissection of English monoculture, status, politics. Seemed pretty accurate to me, poignant, a bit nostalgic and slightly depressing.

[Tom M (London) · Rating 5 out of 5]

The unnamed small town/village is immediately recognisable as Wendover, and I declare an interest: I know these chalky hills, quiet streams, silent churches, and enormous landscapes where on a summer's day, far away from everyone and everything with only animals, plants, birds, and trees for company, you can explore the inner landscape of your own thoughts, giong over and over them again and again, as the Author walks the same paths over and over again, ruminating about his personal experiences, long-lost friends, the characters in the village pub where he lives with his parents, but also about the big things: the politics of power that have decided to wreck this ancient landscape with the monstrous and unncessary construction of the HS2 railway. His long walks are described as cataloguings of bird species, flowers, how trees are grouped, enormous fields. How to be oneself by being completely alone and joyful. The writing flows as clearly and quietly as one of the little chalk streams that cross these landscapes; the writing is like the streams: you can walk swiftly on, taking in the wide views around you, or you can pause, look into the depth of it, discover hidden eddies and sub-streams, and gaze directionlessly into the writing, just savouring it, before moving on. I can't separate my fellow-feeling for the Author, as one who knows and loves these places, from the literary merits of his beautiful writing, which seems to be in the tradition of ancient, little-known chronicles of country life. But ultimately, I feel, the book is a lament that mourns the destruction, by stupid politicians and greedy opportunists, of the last bit of unspoilt country that was accessible by train from London in less than an hour; accompanying the beautiful descriptions of the life of these places is a biting, revolutionary political intent.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book Review

The Paper Lantern is one of the publications that sits between genres. It is part novel, part factual re-telling, part state of the nation study, part political diatribe.
It is 2020 and the first Lockdown is trickling in. The book’s narrator works in the pub that his father owns in a small Buckinghamshire town that relies on passing trade and tourism to keep going. Lockdown and Covid19 put a stop to all of that, and so the family struggled on, missing the camaraderie of working in a pub, missing the certainty of an income, missing the certainty of their small lives continuing.
As the weeks drag on, and uncertainty becomes despair the author finds his walks around the small village taking on more meaning. The history of the place becomes of great interest, the legacy of the pubs, his pub, its history, and the people who have left become more important.
He remembers old school friends who have left, and ones who have died, and grows to welcome the ones who have stayed, for their connection to his past, which seems to be slipping away from all of them.
The book is both completely of its time, and would not exist without Covid 19 happening, but at the same time, some elements are timeless, that look at the natural world, and how it continues without the traffic, the people, the pollution.
The book is also set in a post-Brexit world, and this also has some sway over the narrative direction that the book takes. Will Burns is an award-winning, published poet, who writes about nature, and these two elements of his life are pushed to the fore in the writing style, and telling details of his book, which is an important snapshot of a time that many of us have lived through, and would hopefully never have to again.

[Chris Organ · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sometimes I wish I could ignore the Mastermind edict “ I’ve started so I’ll finish” . Took me a month to read 179 pages which has put a severe dent in my annual target of reads
Will Burns is a poet and has a very lyrical way of writing but oh dear what a negative gloom fest this was . We all know that there is a lot wrong with the world but there is still a lot of joy and beauty to be found and not just in nature but you have to go out there and seek it out .I found the head in hands “ woe is me , I am no good at anything” morbidly depressing . If you stay in one place and indulge in introspective self pity and criticise just about everything then no wonder the skies seem grey and full of drizzle. Here is a typical example “ Wrote my own shabbiness into mediocre poems and stood n silence behind the bar while the old men raged. …..Nothing, in short . As always I did nothing”. He might do better to heed the advice of Stephen’s mother who he describes as a brilliant woman “ Living and thinking are at odds ….put the bloody books away and go outside” to which I would add “ and do something” Not for me but I would be interested in reading some “glass half full writing” which they may not serve in the Paper Lantern .

[Carlton · Rating 3 out of 5]

The rambling thoughts of the author as the country goes into lockdown in 2020 and his life working in his parents’ village pub stops. The author considers that his life has perhaps been marked by failure, as he quickly dropped out of university, for many years was unable to become a published poet, and after so many of his contemporaries have moved away (mainly to London), he has returned to the Middle English village he was brought up in. He discusses (moans about) the ills of private property, the environmental damage to be inflicted by HS2 (the High Speed rail line passing close to the village), the inequity of the educational system etc. The book is good at reminding us of the material facts of the past and its inescapable impact upon the present.
The book is interesting as a collection of reminiscences and reflections on late twentieth and early twentieth first century English village life, and of the immediate experience of England’s initial pandemic lockdown. But the book also feels relatively unstructured, woolly, rambling.

[Fi Price · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the style of Burns writing and given I’m a local it was lovely to know the people and places he writes about. There is an underlying quandary in the book in that Burns can’t go anywhere due to lockdown but has never really wanted to go anywhere else, hasn’t been content elsewhere and yet still has a vague ache that he ought to go to other places but the desire is never strong enough.
The social commentary in the book is spot on for the village, yet there is a lack of empathy or understanding for parents working within a system they’d rather not have but have to make the best of. In some ways it’s an indulgent commentary by a single guy with no commitments, obligations, and the opportunity to drift through life.

[Paul Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have just finished reading The Paper Lantern, and I was trying to think why it left me feeling sad. I think it’s a combination of him talking about a pretty downbeat time, together with his analysis of Middle England from a thoughtful, somewhat left of centre perspective. Add to that the fact that he’s describing places I knew and visited as a child, and have some very mixed feelings about. It’s a beautiful part of the world, but never one that I would be part of. Just not wealthy enough. I loved trips out there as a boy, but knew in my bones that living there was reserved for another class of person.
It’s beautifully and thoughtfully written and evokes this period well, but I don’t think “enjoyed” is a word I would use to describe this book.

[Tom King · Rating 3 out of 5]

Books that take place almost entirely in the narrator's mind are an acquired taste. This has passages of sheer indulgence partly because the narrator (who, it's never clear, may be a version of the author), is a self-confessed indolent and lazybones. What small drive or motivation he has is used up on the walks around the Chilterns that make for the book's very loose structure and progress.

Where this is at its best is in its capturing of a fading rurality and a degraded country. A place where the people who most 'enjoy' the trappings of the traditional - beauty, peace, nature - vote most eagerly for the party most likely to tear it apart or Disneyfy it in an orgy of marketing.

[T P Kennedy · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's very much the tale of the pandemic. A narrator goes for long rambling walks around his neighbourhood and thinks about this life and his place in things. I enjoyed it but it didn't engage my interest that much. It was a good book to dip in and out of. It felt biographical even though it's probably not. It's a bit like the memory of lockdowns - not something I'll be returning to with any speed or enthusiasm.

[Matthew]

Under the backdrop of the pandemic, both the beauty and the BS of Buckinghamshire living is explored. Wildly veering from vexation to sentimentality, the narrative ends up numb, or perhaps more accurately void of connection to the people who live there. This could simply be the single speaker approach that enhances that feeling though!

[Martin Raybould · Rating 3 out of 5]

The post Brexit, post Covid reflections on how life has changed in middle England is a curiously detached piece of work that, like most of our days during the pandemic, drifts along without any obvious purpose.

[Tilde Andersson · Rating 2 out of 5]

A book rambling through thoughts and experiences through lockdown 2020. Found it rather mundane overall with a couple of more gripping stories. It was a charity shop find and perhaps I would of felt differently if I knew what I was getting myself into if I knew what I was buying.

[M · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF.

[William Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

brilliant, affecting meditation on the Now.

[Mientras Leo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gran recorrido de un pueblo, lugareños y charlas durante la pandemia
https://www.zendalibros.com/la-linter...

[Frankie Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like it!