What are you reading now?

[Joseph K]

Marvellous, and he’s right about Cultural Amnesia. It’s a real treasure trove.

Some of it's ok, some not. He devotes a few pages to rubbishing John Coltrane in the most idiotic way, not mentioning any specific recording...

[un barbu]

You're not keen on the TLS or London Review of Books?

I subscribed to both in the past but find them very patchy now and very expensive.

[Bryn]

Love, Icebox: Letters from John Cage to Merce Cunningham

Sadly, only Merce appears to have retained the letters received in the exchanges, so the picture is a bit one-sided.

[Felix the Gnat]

Antonio Vivaldi: The Red Priest Of Venice, Karl Heller. Not enough focus on the operas, but makes Venice sound unmissable.

[un barbu]

John Betjeman, Letters 1926-1951. A re-read and much enjoyed. I was amused by this comment to the editor, JB's daughter, from Pamela Mitford, on whom he had a pash in the very early 30s: "He said he'd like to marry me but I rather declined. I think he would have been much too shy to have advanced on one. He wasn't like that at all." Apart from the lovely wording ('rather declined' and 'advanced on one') there is a marked difference in attitude here from what we see in the public prints. To paraphrase the possibly apocryphal Victorian governess on first seeing a performance of 'Antony and Cleopatra', "How different, how very different from the home life of our own dear Prime Minister."

[gradus]

John Betjeman, Letters 1926-1951. A re-read and much enjoyed. I was amused by this comment to the editor, JB's daughter, from Pamela Mitford, on whom he had a pash in the very early 30s: "He said he'd like to marry me but I rather declined. I think he would have been much too shy to have advanced on one. He wasn't like that at all." Apart from the lovely wording ('rather declined' and 'advanced on one') there is a marked difference in attitude here from what we see in the public prints. To paraphrase the possibly apocryphal Victorian governess on first seeing a performance of 'Antony and Cleopatra', "How different, how very different from the home life of our own dear Prime Minister."

Too shy perhaps but still waters and all that... to which one might perhaps add Sir John's reply when asked if he would have changed anything in his life, 'More sex would have been nice'.

[un barbu]

Too shy perhaps but still waters and all that... to which one might perhaps add Sir John's reply when asked if he would have changed anything in his life, 'More sex would have been nice'.

[vinteuil]

Too shy perhaps but still waters and all that... to which one might perhaps add Sir John's reply when asked if he would have changed anything in his life, 'More sex would have been nice'.

... and not forgetting the ditty he co-wrote with Auden and MacNeice:

“Sometimes I think that I should like
To be the saddle on a bike.”

.

[Jonathan]

Currently reading Ben Aaronovitch's first book in The Rivers of London series. Excellent, clever writing and an intriguing plot. Ignore the person who described it (however favourably) as "imagine Harry Potter grew up and joined the Metropolitan police" - it's far darker and cleverer than that.

[DracoM]

Pullman: The Secret Commonwealth.

[LMcD]

Currently reading Stephen Bishop's 'Air Force Blue' - a 'twofer' which also includes his 'Target Tirpitz'.

[Richard Tarleton]

Currently reading Stephen Bishop's 'Air Force Blue' - a 'twofer' which also includes his 'Target Tirpitz'.

If you don't already know it, you might also enjoy (as they say on Amazon ) David Wragg's "Swordfish", a blow by blow account of the Taranto raid and its aftermath (my future godfather flew on the first wave)

[LMcD]

If you don't already know it, you might also enjoy (as they say on Amazon ) David Wragg's "Swordfish", a blow by blow account of the Taranto raid and its aftermath (my future godfather flew on the first wave)

Thank you - duly added to my already substantial list of 20th-century history books to read! I didn't consciously set out to read lots of military history - perhaps it was the discovery of my great-uncle's name on the Thiepval memorial that started it all off. Yesterday, a copy of Hugh Sebag-Montefiore's 'Dunkirk' turned up in the EACH shop - praised by Max Hastings, which is a good sign. I'm also on the waiting list at the library for 'Chastisement'.

[Richard Tarleton]

Just - finally - started Max Hastings's Vietnam. Gripping already. (I'm most of the way through a second viewing of Ken Burns's harrowing documentary)

[LMcD]

Just - finally - started Max Hastings's Vietnam. Gripping already. (I'm most of the way through a second viewing of Ken Burns's harrowing documentary)

A commendably even-handed account I think. Are you watching the edited version of the Ken Burns - the one shown on the BBC - or the unabridged version that's recently been shown on PBS America?