#6Degrees 6 Degrees of Separation: From Daisy Jones and the Six to The Pilgrim’s Progress

It’s the first Saturday of the month (and the year, and the decade!) so it’s time for 6 Degrees of Separation!

Here’s how it works: a book is chosen as a starting point by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best and linked to six other books to form a chain. Readers and bloggers are invited to join in by creating their own ‘chain’ leading from the selected book.

Kate says: Books can be linked in obvious ways – for example, books by the same authors, from the same era or genre, or books with similar themes or settings. Or, you may choose to link them in more personal or esoteric ways: books you read on the same holiday, books given to you by a particular friend, books that remind you of a particular time in your life, or books you read for an online challenge. Join in by posting your own six degrees chain on your blog and adding the link in the comments section of each month’s post.   You can also check out links to posts on Twitter using the hashtag #6Degrees

This month’s starting book is Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid. It’s a book I haven’t read, although I’ve seen plenty of people raving about it. The book concerns a rock group who, for reasons unknown at the time, split up on the night of their final concert.

Politician turned author Alan Johnson also harboured ambitions to be a pop star and played in a number of bands during his youth. His book In My Life: A Music Memoir records, amongst other things, the ups and downs (there was more of the latter than the former, it has to be said) of his musical career. I was lucky enough to hear Alan talk about his book at Henley Literary Festival in 2018.

Alan Johnson worked as a postman before entering politics. In The Lost Letters of William Woolf by Helen Cullen, William works in the Dead Letters Depot as a ‘letter detective’ trying to reunite letters with their intended recipients.

A relationship conducted via letters is the subject of Anne Youngson’s novel Meet Me at the Museum. In the book, the correspondence between Danish Professor, Anders Larsen, and English farmer’s wife, Tina Hopgood, is initiated by a shared fascination with the Tollund Man, the subject of a Seamus Heaney poem. I had the pleasure of hearing Anne talk about her book at Henley Literary Festivalin 2018.

A book with a title inspired by a poem is The Mirror Crack’d From Side To Side by Agatha Christie, the poem in question being Tennyson’s The Lady of Shalott in which the sight of Sir Launcelot brings down a curse on the aforementioned lady.

Another Launcelot, namely Launcelot Wake, is a key character in John Buchan’s 1919 adventure novel Mr. Standfast.

The book’s title refers to one of the characters in John Bunyan’s allegorical tale The Pilgrim’s Progress.

Where did your chain take you this month?