This is a list of some books I've read since mid-2003, each one with observations
of varying (sometimes zero) depth and quality.
David Thomson's Woodbrook.
He lived from 1914 to 1982, and spent much of his twenties in rural
Ireland.This book has had a lot of recognition, though not from the
library, who have relegated it to reserve stock. Tressa recommended it to
me in our library, who did get it for me. See
an excerpt,
(copied from a personal page within
this Irish site ), also
My notes and maps. Buy it for about £20
hardback or £3 paperback through AbeBooks.
A.S. Byatt. Well. See reviews of Whistling Woman. What about that Christian Science Monitor guy? An idiot! See my diagram of relationships in Babeltower.
Uncle Rudolf: Paul Bailey
The Asquiths: Colin Clifford, John Murray, 2002.
The Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon: Henry Fielding, Tom Keymer(ed), Penguin, 1996.
In Parenthesis: David Jones
The Anathemata: David Jones
Diana Mosley - A Life: Jan Dalley, Faber and Faber, 1999. This includes the information that Hitler thought Mosley's use of the term 'Fascist' for his party was unwise, recognising that it did not ring for the English. AH suggested that 'Ironsides' would have been better.
What an absolute cracker of an observation this is!
OM attracted tens of thousands, in spite of all his dressing up, out of despair with
the old order. It could all have been very different with him as Cromwell, and his
background was not unlike.
Suppose he had come to power as leader of a Parliamentary majority of Roundheads,
how would he then have got on with Germany?
Might he have been OK, and turned AH away from beastliness?
Dalley is probably a bit of a GuardiaToynebeeste, but writes clearly & well, with not much nonsense.
She gives the words of the BUF anthem, new to me, to the tune of Horst Wessel:
Comrades: the voices of the dead battalions
Of those who fell that Britain might be great
Join in our song, for they still march in spirit with us
And urge us on to win the People's State!
We're of their blood, and spirit of their spirit,
Sprung from the soil for whose dear sake they bled
'Gainst vested powers, Red Front, and massed ranks of reaction
We lead the fight for freedom and for bread!
The streets are still, the final struggles's ended;
Flushed with the fight we proudly hail the dawn!
See, over all the streets the Mosley banner waving -
Triumphant standards of a race reborn
(You can hear Germans singing the H-W, if you've got Real Player installed, or Install it now).
It's cleverly composed, but I'm not sure it would have done for us, whose National Anthem asks the Deity to "Confound their politics, Frustrate their knavish tricks". 2003
Horst Wessel reminds me of my time working in Montreal in 1960. Ed Schultz, one of my colleagues, had been a German fighter pilot in the war, and he wrote down the words for me. The whole business of the Germans and the war was then seen in a curious and intense light. And for long after: in 1976, working in Darmstadt, it still seemed incredible that there we were, where actual Germans lived who had done their stuff (and, more so even, visiting Berlin). Jennie summed it up in the humorous tape she made after her visit: "...he might be the very bloke that dropped the bomb on Myrtle Ferret's riding school in Cainscross there."
The Map That Changed The World: Simon Winchester, Viking, 2001. The story of William Smith, pioneer geologist and author of The Map, which is the first geological map of Britain.
This has set me off on a geology enthusiasm. Smith found himself doing surveying, and did a Somerset mine and the Somerset Coal Canal. He saw a lot of strata, and it seems Somerset was a lucky place for him to have sliced up, as it's moderately orderly & holds a good set of fossils. Smith realised you could date rocks from fossils; and he was the first to do so.
I owe the book a large debt (thanks Mr W), and it is packed with information. But I do find the
style
irritatingly overblown; not unlike that of Richard Fortey, who has had successes in the same field,
with The Hidden Landscape and Trilobites.There is a feeling I suppose that the pill
must be sugared to sell well; though Winchester's Surgeon of Crowthorne, about the mad
OED doctor who amputated his own penis, was steadier.
Fortey reminds me a bit of 'Steve' Jones, who famously attributed "Malt does more than Milton can..."
to Chesterton! They are, I imagine, first class scientists with a
gift for clear writing; but they get tempted beyond their literary range.
--Richard Dawkins, of course, is similarly tempted, though there I'm not so
sure of his science.
Feb04
The Solace of Leaving Early: Haven Kimmel, Flamingo, 2003.
Kimmel is I guess well-read & proud of it, and it shows, though she is uncertain of Latin plurals.
Dale Peck might grumble about the whiff of the Creative Writing class (and indeed the wrapper
discloses she did attend); but this is a cracking good novel - and DP doesn't like AS Byatt...
24Feb04
A Computer Called LEO: Georgina Ferry, Fourth Estate, 2003.
SW gave me this for my 71st birthday; I'd glanced at it before, but this time found it
gripping. A grim tale of crushed innovators and loss of English leadership.
Recommended to old codgers who were computing in the 60s. I had an
extremely
brief glimpse of the LEO III with Stuart Loney at Smiths in 1963, but know nothing about
it. Caminer, well known at ICL, is a key figure. I suppose he joined when
English-Electric-Leo-Marconi-Uncle-Tom-Cobley-Computers was formed.
Mar04
Dennis Potter A Biography: Humphrey Carpenter, Faber and Faber, 1998.
This is a huge and successful effort, 590 pages of text, then 80 of reference material.
As I remarked to Dave Evans, who runs a
Potter site,
the personal letters to La Seebohm
should maybe not have been published, even though she was naughty enough to hand
them over - a bit like Alan Clark's widow finishing off his Diaries with
pungent tales of his incontinence.
03Apr04
No Highway: Nevil Shute, Heinemann, 1948.
There's quite a lot about this old favourite on the web. I remember it being filmed
when
I was at Farnborough; we laffed when a crowd of extras pretending to be workers
(instead of the actual workers) were filmed going
in through North Gate.
It also got a lot of attention for seeming to adumbrate the Comet disasters.
Mar04
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time: Mark Haddon,
Vintage, 2004.
Reserved (me and about 80 other people) on April 18th 2004, after a review in Telegraph Books.
Curiously, the fee was only 20p, maybe because it's such a long wait.
(Steve will fetch it perhaps).
I cancelled the reservation & read Sallie's copy in the end, as Daisy has chosen it for
their book group.
It's a quick read, important & moving. See what the
Guardian
had to say.
May04
The Smoking Diaries: Simon Gray, Granta, 2004.
Wanted to reserve on April 18th 2004, after a
review
in Telegraph
Books, but not yet in the catalogue. You can see the appeal, man
born in 1936 grumbling about, though resigned to, his inability to affect
the modern world...
Tokyo: Mo Hayder, Bantam, 2004.
Reviewed in Telegraph Books, 24Apr04. An 'Historical Novel'. This appellation
often rules out serious consideration, a fact much objected to by Zoe
Oldenbourg, author of my most-read books "Destiny of Fire" and "Cities
of the Flesh". These are fictional treatments of the
Albigensian Crusade,
of which she also wrote a
history.
In the preface to DOF she says
The author has endeavoured to convey...the spirit of the Catharist religion as it really wasand here is a serious excerpt from the book.
...
The present work is neither a chronicle nor colourfully embellished history. The action takes place marginally to history proper, which serves as a backcloth for it...The struggle in which these fictional characters are involved takes place beyond strict historical time.
The Next Big Thing: Anita Brookner, Viking, 2002.
An old Jewish chap mulls over his life and wonders what to do in the time
before the title overtakes him.
Doesn't sound too promising, but is actually riveting, at least to an old chap
mulling over his life and so on...
Apr04
Cevennes Journal: Robert Louis Stevenson
Mentioned in an outrageous puff, TB 01May04, written by ++Richard Holmes for a new
Folio Society publication to which he contributes the introduction. He
mentions a mountain with a spring at the top, and I
was interested as SW & I had a walk up above Dourbies, with my Webley
firing. This also had a spring at the top. RLS's was called Mont Lozère,
about 25 miles NEN. See
here
. Not yet read
The Sword and the Cross: Fergus Fleming,
Faber & Faber, 2004
TB 01May04. Story of the French colonisation of North Africa. Moroccan interest, after
our penetrating 1-week Jules Verne visit.
My reading programme is cribbed for a bit by my resolve to read and take notes
on my OU A220 set books.
Lighthouse: Jeanette Winterson,
Fourth Estate, 2004
TB 01May04. "Straightforward by Winterson's standards"...Interesting Stevenson
connections, both in characters (Pew, Silver) and his family business of
lighthouse building.
Shantaram: Greg Roberts,
, 2004
Telegraph Feature 04May04. By a convicted & escaped criminal who did good works
in India.
Film: Bus 174,
, 2004
Not yet seen
Cryptonomicon: Neal Stevenson,
Heinemann, 1999
I stumbled across this in the library, and became obsessed by it.
It's a huge
book of about 900 pages, and I read it twice. It's a cult,
googling in
at 77,000 (plus one now I've written this). As part of my obsession I
started a tabular
chapter summary, but only
got to page 200 odd.
It's not literature, it won't tug the heartstrings; but NS is a true writer,
master of complexity,
and master story teller. To enjoy it you'd maybe need to like WW2,
computers, and code breaking.
Maybe not though, consider this
excerpt:
Feb04
Telegraph Books 15May04
Lancelot Andrewes'
Private Prayer (presumably the
Manual of Private Devotions) is mentioned today by
++Christopher Howse, who tells us that his original notebook, written in Greek,
is in the Bodleian. It is he who was denied Canterbury by James, who
seems to have vacilated between Puritan & Arminian appointments. Andrewes
served on the 'King James' translation team, and, I believe, wrote the (or a)
preface.
Which of AS Byatt's FQ books included the snails? And was it maybe David
Brown, in today's obituaries, who provided the advice.
B1.
Wood, J.(2004)
The Irresponsible Self, London, Jonathan Cape.
Collection of literary criticism by one seen by Sam Leith as the new, or
current, Leavis.
Here
he is in the Guardian.
B2.
Patrick McGrath
"The reader can settle comfortably into an uncomfortable tale..." and thus,
we are told, a new book by him is always welcome.
What We Lost: Dale Peck,
Houghton Mifflin, 2003
A
brilliancy
by the stern critic of the creative writing school noticed above.
It's just too grim at first, but mercifully (I shouldn't like to have missed it)
I persevered, as did the missus.
May04
Telegraph Books 29May04
B1.
Griffiths, Neil.(2004)
Betrayal In Naples, London, Viking.
A first novel.
The author has a weblog; this
page mentions the Telegraph review, and also that
the Telegraph's and Spectator's politics do not suit Mr G.
Ancient Greek Religion: Jon D. Mikalson,
Blackwell, ?2004, flyleaf states 2005 in July 2004
This is American, with spelling, BCE, worshiping, etc, to match. M is a Classics
Professor at the University of Virginia.
Here are some things I learned:
Chapter 1, An Overview: Greek Sanctuaries and Worship pp.1-31:
asylum is an alpha privative plus
'stolen'. Things within a
sanctuary were not to be stolen; also people within it were not to
be removed.
temenos, from temnein is the enclosed
space forming a sanctuary.
votive is from vow. You vow a gift
to the god if he helps you; when he has helped you, you put the promised
gift in his sanctuary.
Another class of offering is made in gratitude,
not coupled to a vow. All offerings, or dedications, are placed in the
temenos of a sanctuary of the god honoured.
Telegraph Books 25Jul04
B1.
Woodward, Gerald.(2004)
I'll Go to Bed at Noon, London, Chatto.
His first novel was August, 2001, (in Bagshot library) and
this is a sequel.
It's about a family at WW2 time, but "not the usual collection of
cardboard cutouts thinly strung on a frame of social history".
reviewed by Tom Payne.
Probably won't read it, I disliked August.
B2.
Baddiel, David. (2004)
The Secret Purpose, Little Brown.
This review by Sam Leith is notable for the remark:
"It reads like
a more intelligent version of Sebastian Faulks: a faintly sentimental
potboiler lent grandeur by the borrowed intensity of its subject matter."
Imagine being Faulks and reading that. Deadly for being so accurate.
I too hated Birdsong, unlike Hannah Morris, who
wrote:
"Birdsong is a fantastic book. It gives a real insight to the emotional
drama that many soilders went though at that time and an unbeilable
love story is in the mist of it all.
I couldn't put the book down once I had started and picked it
straight up again once I had finished. A compeling read to say the least."
Even so, Faulks must have done something terrible to Leith (achieved fame perhaps),
for him to be so wounding. Just as detraction is a graver sin than
calumny, so the publication of a cut is more hurtful if true.
Telegraph Books 14Aug04
B1.
Kermode, Frank.
Pieces of my Mind
B2.
Cartwright, Justin.
The Promise of Happiness
The Making of Henry: Howard Jacobson,
Jonathan Cape, 2004.
This naturally appealed, as it centres on a chap considering his last years.
It has been widely
reviewed.
I finished it, well worth it although complex.
Here is a quote:
The world was a blank to him; he noticed nothing unless he was in love with a woman. Then he approved and noticed nothing but her.
Here are some notes I made, where I thought he should have been better edited:
On page 2, lunatics expelled and
made to wander the streets would be more
forceful.
On page 148, I think penetralium is probably an
error. Penetralia has passed into English as the plural of
the Latin penetrale. The OED gives penetralium as an "erroneous
back-formation from penetralia".
On page 193, I was taken aback to see "Crist if
my love were in my arms". 56 of 62 googles give that, which I
remember, and which has more force. But Stravinsky did set a version,
"Westron winde", which has if and Crist.
On page 217, mordant is just carelessness.
On page 284, "Never seek..." is riddled with errors. Maybe I'm missing some
literary point in the misquotation.
On page 331, I was puzzled by "heart of a division".
Telegraph Books 25Sep04, 02Oct04
B1.
Wolitzer, Meg.(2004)
The Wife
B2.
Mount, Ferdinand. (2004)
Mind the Gap
B3.
Galgut, Damon. (2004)
The Quarry
The second book from a white 'New South African". Well received, as was his
first, The Good Doctor, a Booker nominee last year.
B4.
L'Engle, Madeleine. (Puffin, 1967 [1963])
A Wrinkle in Time
'For Older Children'. Mentioned by the author of The Da Vinci Code,
which is recommended by HBM.
The Information: Martin Amis,
Flamingo, 1995.
Not an easy read, but you don't want to miss it. One curious thing: the metaphor
"like trying to put a raw oyster into a parking meter" is used (p.168) for
inadequate sexual activity. The same words occur in a rap lyric by Bob Schneider,
but I couldn't find out which was first; certainly there's no acknowledgement.
Oct04
Don't Move: Margaret Mazzantini
Literary Review Aug04.
Eichmann: David Caesarini
Literary Review Aug04.
I finished it, but didn't find it memorable.
Youth: J M Coetzee
Steve was reading this, and by chance I found it in the library
& devoured it. S said the hero had a job as a programmer with IBM
which was deadly dull (Programing? Dull? Eh??). But it turns out he
moved to ICL at Lily Hill House in Bracknell, where he became duly
obsessed with programming the Atlas.
So that's all right...
Jan05
Telegraph Books 16Jan05
B1.
Goldman, Francisco The Divine Husband ("a real novelist" - Colm
Toibin, see his earlier works, but T thinks this the best)
B2.
Forster, Margaret
Is There Anything You Want?
Valerie's recommendations 18Jun05
Dalrymple, William From the Holy Mountain
Dalrymple, William The White Moguls
For some reason, not interesting.
The Kite Runners
The Bookseller of Kabul
Miss Garnet's Angel
Telegraph Books 14Jan06
B1.
Botsford A Life of Privilege, Mostly
B2.
O'Hear Plato's Children (Will Cohu)
Christopher Bray on civilisation - Asquith "a buttress of the Church, supporting it from the outside"
Telegraph Books Mar06
B1.
Evans The Coming of the Third Reich
B2.
Healey, Edna Part of the Pattern
B3.
Tombs. That Sweet Enemy (us & the French)
Unsorted Notes I don't want to lose
BOOKS & RECORDS
-------------------
Schutz: Christmas, 12/12/99 Kuijken, DHM05472 77511 2
.Rachel Ames
Night Falls on the City
Design for Dying
Timothy Leary 8.99
The Lyttelton Hart-Davis Letters
Hart-Davis (ed), 1978-84
6 vols
(see obit. 9/12/99)
!ntellectual History of Europe
Friedrich Heer. 1953
(article 12/12/99)
The Quest for C.
Alan Judd (review 13/12/99)
The Code Book
Simon Singh (review 13/12/99)
read 28/6/00
Uncovered Editions
HMSO ..(13/12/99)
David Beaty. Obit 23/12/99
Which of his books did I read?
The Heart of the Storm?.
Cone of Silence?
I hear in my mind's ear "Proving
Flight", not mentioned in the
obit.
Twentieth Century: A History of the World, 1901 to the Present.
J.M.Roberts. 906pp. 26/12/99
Headlong
Michael Frayn
Diary 1847-1889
William Allingham
(knew Tennyson & Jowett)
Private Angelo
Eric Linklater
(set where he worked 1944)
bought, started, failed, April?00
J.A.Gere (ed)
Bensoniana & Cornishiana
(incl Belloc Elevation story)
J ulia Blackburn
The Leper's Companions
Ouida - 'neglected genius' - A.Massie
C.S.Godshawk
Kalimantaan
Alan Sealy - novels of India
Hero
The Everest Hotel
Purcell King Arthur
W.G. Sebald - lecturer at U E Anglia
The Rings of Saturn
D.J. Taylor - journalist also
Trespass
M.John Harrison
Climbers
mentioned by N Royle in review
of Taylor above.
John Lanchester
Mr. Phillips
Bach St. Matthew Passion
Herreweghe HMC 95 1676
3 CD's
Meriol Trevor (obit 22-01-00)
Novels, also trad. R.C.
Alan Ross
Reflections on Blue Water
Patricia Highsmith (is a Texan)
Strangers on a Train
The Talented Mr. Ripley
Douglas Coupland
Review by V.Glendinning. 5/2/00
Carol Shields
Dressing up for the Carnival
Lit. Review Feb 00
Michel Faber
Under The Skin
Lit. Review Feb 00
Thomas Sowell
is an American conservative
economist:
The Vision of the Anointed
b,r,f May00
The Quest for Cosmic Justice
Chang-Rae Lee
A Gesture Life
(Jap-Korea,WW2,women)
Matthew Kneale
English Passengers
(Novel, history, Tasmanian Eden
Pilate: the Biography ...
Ann Wroe
M.D. Petre
Autobiography & Life of
GeorgeTyrrell. 1912
When you are a king White Plains.
Mackay Brown
Greenvoe l,r,f April?00
Magnus
Allan Bloom
The Closing of the American
Mind
Paulo Maurensig
The Luneburg Variation
about chess
Charles Bukowski 1920-1994
Post Office
Factotum
Ham on Rye
Chang-rae Lee
A Gesture Life
Michel Houllebecq
Atomised.
Translation of 1998 novel
Les Particules élémentaires
Penelope Fitzgerald - ob. 3/5/00
e.g. The Blue Flower
Ornet Coleman ? Jazz 1959
Poet to Poet. Faber series
"beautifully produced"
Douglas Dunn's includes
Garioch.
C.K. Stead
Novels rec by J de Falbe
Spec 27/5/00
Sarum
David Rutherford
The Leper's Companions
Julia Blackburn
The Natural Philosophy of Time
Gerald Whitrow 1960,
Trilobite
Richard Fortey 19/6/00
Karen Armstrong reviewed b on Orthodox Christianity 26/6/00
Don't read that book, by Victoria Clark.
Carter Dickson d.1977. Ingenious detective stories e.g. The House in Goblin Wood.
Terence Davis - autobiography read on R4 in June 2000. RC school 28Jun.
Schubert Piano Sonata in G D894, Brendl. 2nd movement played on DED 30-06-00.
Beethoven Piano Sonata #30 in E major, Ashkenazy. 3rd movement played on DED 30-06-00.
This was MP's favourite of the 8.
Dr Max Perutz, guest on DED above, sounds nice, & writes.
Telegraph Books 27May06
B1.
Saunders, George The Brief and Frightening reign of Phil
B2.
Homes, A.M.
"Well-known chronicler of suburban American family"
Later, Jun06
James Runcie Canvey Island
Telegraph Books 02Sep06
B1.
Kawabata The Master of Go
B2.
Faber,Michel The Crimson Petal and the White
B3.
Harris,Robert Imperium
Telegraph Books Oct06
B1.
Barry Unsworth [eliminated from the Booker]
B2.
Edward St Aubyn Mother's Milk
B3.
Michael Burleigh Earthly Powers and Sacred Causes
B4.
Michael Frayn The Human Touch [Philosophy]
B5.
Sisman The Friendship: Wordsworth & Coleridge
