The most influential book

Ever asked yourself (or been asked) what the most influential book has been in your life?

It seems that a standard question particularly for authors is the one about your favourite novel and you aren’t allowed to mention your own. You get asked which author has inspired you and shaped you, both as a person and as a writer. For a long time, I have battled against answering these questions, believing and sharing that I have soaked up so many different influences that it would be unkind to pick just a few, leaving out the many that have had meaning in my development. But for a long time, there has been one particular book that has stood out and still does amongst all those that I have read.

When I wanted to skim down on possessions (there were several such stages throughout my life), I got rid of things, including all my books. But sooner or later, I would get the itch and felt a house without books was no home.  Each time this happened, there was one book that I made sure I ordered before any others, to start off a new collection. This book, I must have re-bought five or six times by now; I would lend it to people, my copy would get lost, whatever. I bet you would never guess what this book is, so I tell you.

The Loves and Journeys of Revolving Jones by Leslie Thomas.

Thomas has written several novels, but this is the one that stands out, at least for me. And no, I have not even read the others.

Revolving Jones tells us (in first person) the life story of Welsh sailor David Jones. And what a story it is! Conceived on the night of the great armistice, David grows up with his aunt and uncle in Barry, a small coaling town the Welsh side of the Bristol Channel. We are with David when he meets the great love of his life, Dora. We are with him through adolescence, his first job, his first encounters with the female sex, his marriages. We are there when he joins the ships, leaves Dora behind, loses her and goes on a journey that takes him to war in foreign countries, till at the end, he gets back to Wales and Dora. A story told with humour, sentimentality and a quirky understanding of how things work. The characters are so lifelike that you think easily of them as your friends, that they live just down the road from you, and you just got back in from a natter across the fence. It makes you feel as though you are right there with them, with David and Dora, through life’s up and downs.

First published in Great Britain in 1991, I must have come across it early on, because I loaned my first copy of it around 1993 to my best friend Denise who told me that she loved the book because she saw me as a female Revolving Jones. Which is funny, because I am not Welsh, have never gone to sea. But, like David Jones, my life has not been easy, there were roadblocks all along the way, but no matter what, I kept my humour and got up when something or someone got me down. Denise liked the book so much that I presented her my copy and bought myself a new one. I must have read the book about five times by now – I rarely re-read books – and now that I look at the copy that sits on my desk, I feel like it is time I should read it yet again.

If you are looking for an easy read, a book you cannot put down, this is a book for you. You will not find high literature, but you will find something that catches you and keeps you enthralled, turning page after page because you want to know how David gets out of the next scrape that he finds himself in.

If I had to give stars, this book would get the full five out of five!

Thomas, L. (1991). The Loves and Journeys of Revolving Jones. London. Mandarin Paperbacks

You find ‘used’ copies online. To my grief, Revolving Jones has never been translated to German.