The book our readers dug into this month was an epic one! Save me from the waves is the story of Jessica Hepburn’s journey to the summit of Mount Everest, by way of the entire back catalogue of Desert Island Discs episodes. Charmingly arranged into themed sections, each mini chapter is dedicated to a track and is used to tell us how Jessica made it from a break up and moving in with her mother, to being the only woman ever to have completed the Pond to Peak Challenge of swimming the English Channel, running the London Marathon and climbing Mount Everest. The book has hundreds of numerical endnotes running through it, tying back to the final pages of the book which boasts a wide range of statistics and facts about the music tracks chosen in episodes. Taken from Jessica’s extensive cataloguing of each Desert Island Discs broadcast, it presents a mammoth feat in itself.
Several of our readers had dipped into the playlists and tracks detailed in the book. One in particular read it with 2 bookmarks (one in the story and one in the endnotes) and Spotify open to listen to the music as she went along. We enjoyed the short chapters on the whole, finding it an easy book to dip in and out of, although some found it more difficult to lose themselves in the book. One of our younger readers knew less of the music recommended, and there is an inherent bias towards older music and musicians in the radio programme’s archives as the people they invite on tend to have already achieved significant things in their lives- it’s also been running a LONG time. Many of our group had rediscovered forgotten favourite music, or found new songs to add to their playlists. More than one of us had started categorising our musical playlists differently- by mood or activity rather than by music genre. In the book Jessica develops lots of playlists for emotions, events, loved ones… she even has ones for feeling sad, which wasn’t something that appealed to our readers. We also heard of people producing playlists of the year to send to family and friends.
A criticism levelled at the book was that it didn’t live up to the blurb on the cover. Some of our group were expecting a rip-roaring adventure epic more focussed on her physical achievements, and felt a little short changed when the book was more of a journey through Jessica’s training and Desert Island Discs marathon. We noted that she has written other books, with one specifically on her channel swim. We also felt she was undersold as an “unlikely athlete” when she obviously had huge tenacity and determination.
There’s a twist in the story, which we won’t give away, except to say that we were mostly blindsided by it. We understood and respected her indirect way of discussing this monumental event, and also felt more compassion and admiration for her as a result.
A couple of our number had either started to reread the book, or had intentions of doing so whilst listening to the music. There’s no greater recommendation really- already on the must re-read list!
To finish, here are some of our “Saved by the waves” tracks (each castaway is able to save just one track at the end of their episode).
Take on Me by A-ha
Kiss from a rose by Seal
Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield
I like to move it by King Julian
Handel’s Messiah
One day like this by Elbow
Bring me sunshine by Morecambe and Wise