What are you reading now?

[Belgrove]

Patricia Highsmith is an example of a female thriller/crime writer whose subjects are mostly men. They are invariably bad men who do bad things, and yet they are compelling, and even sometimes sympathetic, characters. Moreover the novels have made highly successful transfers to the screen, possibly because her spare style gives actors plenty of space to develop a character. A variety of actors have played Tom Ripley, for example, and each found intriguing character traits which fit with Highsmith’s creation on the page (with the possible exception of Dennis Hopper). Looking forward to seeing Andrew Scott’s latest incarnation.

[french frank]

I wonder how many women read them. Holmes is sometimes suggested to be what today would be called a misogynist.

I haven't read them recently but do still value the full-length works. It's irrelevant whether Holmes, a fictional character, is a misogynist: Watson is the gentle counterbalance.

I read the online newspapers - more accurately, I pay £75 pa to read the Guardian, but I also read the selected stories in the populist papers. I haven't had a TV for 20 years and no longer listen to radio other than for research purposes - as I will read the Mail, Express or Telegraph (know thine enemy).

[Ian Thumwood]

Smittims

I read a wide range of books but prefer things which are well written when it comes to fiction. As I said, I have no axe to grind with female writers but have to say I do not really like American writers if I have any prejudice. I have read Anerican novels and there are some I have enjoyed . However, there are booksike Grand Circle I have had to give up with. It is rare for me to abandon a novel....the last was 'The Essex serpent ' which was a Victorian pastiche.

I would never pick up any chick lit as I do not have time to read all the books I want to. They do not appeal and even some of the crime stuff like The Girl in the train ' did not resonate. What I did find is that my sympathies with the characters was a bit harsher that the author probably anticipated. It is also reading things written from a female perspective that has an attraction. In my mind, it is the relationship aspect in the wider that piques my curiosity . Not sure I would want to read anything sexual from the point of view of a woman, though!

It is intriguing to see what the different sexes make of books. My wife never reads and see books as a waste of time. This is in contrast to me as I love reading and discussing books.

One issue I do have is blokes writing in the first person as a woman. I am a big fan of William Boyd but felt that Sweet Caress was unconvincing because of this. Do any female readers feel the same as me on this ? Oddly, I think some female writers deal with male characters well. Again , I think Kate Atkinson is excellent but you could add Pineiro or Karen Blixen to the list. I particularly like books with good dialogue and not fussed what era they come from if the writer is of a good standard. Atkinson really gets how the opposite sexes speak to and think about each other. She is very accurate and probably one of the best writers who can do this.

[french frank]

I've read the obituary of Elizabeth Jane Howard. Couldn't see anything that remotely suggested a man-hating female. I read the obituary of Penelope Mortimer. It was written by a man and the opening sentence states that she 'might not immediately be thought of as a feminist', though she 'took up the cudgels' on behalf of women. I had heard of The Pumpkin Eater. Both women were praised as 'good writers'.

Salley Vickers wrote a novel called Miss Garnet's Angel which I remember reading. At least, I remember that it was set in Venice and the protagonist was an historian or archaeologist or something. I don't recall anything particular about men.

I couldn't trace any novels by Carla Lane who seems to have been a writer of TV series and couldn't identify any writer called Kate Sharam. There was a Kate Sharma but she appears to have been a character in a Netflix film.

So my search for supporting evidence of pernicious feminism drew a blank, I'm afraid.

[smittims]

Well, you find what you want to look for, perhaps,,and vice versa.And as for obituaries, de mortuis nil nisi bonum seems to be the rule .

[french frank]

Well, you find what you want to look for, perhaps,,and vice versa. And as for obituaries, de mortuis nil nisi bonum seems to be the rule .

And other explanations available. I think official obituaries of well-known people are under no obligation to be flattering. They can be short, objective and factual (Ayn Rand). Or again (Barbara Cartland). Both of these capture the essence of the writer's work: why would they need to be unduly flattering? In both the obituaries I quote, the essence of the writings is captured.

I'm not sure how your first sentence applies. I wanted to find evidence to support your claims. It would be easier for you to quote examples - even going from memory without needing to find the exact quotes - than for me to read through several novels by several novelists in order to find what may or may not be there. To simply declare that the evidence is there if I care to look properly might be dismissed as akin to invoking the logical fallacy of petitio principii. That is, the evidence is there to prove your point when the whole point of seeking the evidence is to discover whether your point is valid or not.

[Serial_Apologist]

I acknowledge the need for posters to back up as factually or evidentially as possible on views they may hold, having come near to capsizing myself on this very issue of insistence on not wavering from my own initial positions. Perhaps - dare I say? - there's enough of this kind of thing going on in the world right now to wind down on all sides? After all, this isn't a court of law.

[smittims]

In my experience obituaries are not 'unduly flattering' maybe not flattering at all, but they tend to avoid anything disparaging or controversial. They wouldn't say that EJ Howard or P Mortimer were obsessed with spite against their ex-husbands (Kingsley Amis and John Mortimer) thus fuelling their novels. As I said earlier,they may not even have been aware that they were retaliating.

I've already said that I'm not providing chapter and verse, because I no longer have the books to hand and I won't quote unless I'm sure it's verbatim. Moreover, I'm not sure it's good for you to keep tugging at this point like a dog with a bone; I think for your own peace of mind you need to let go. You've said more than once that it isn't interesting to you but you've gone on for pages. Why not treat it like so many other opinions expressed on these boards : Ian's low opinion of Mozart, for instance? Repeatedly demanding 'evidence' isn't I think proportionate to the nature of this discussion .

We had a cantankerous old chap in our office of whom it was said that if you said 'Good Mornng' to him, he'd shoot back 'How do you know that? Where's your evidence? What meteorological qualifictations do you have for that claim? ' etc. I think he was just lonely and wanted someone to sound off. You'll be delighted to know he was a lifelong bachelor.

(By the way, Kate Sharam's novel Power Cut ('Jenny embarks on secret war against her husband') was published in 1995 as a Sceptre book by Hodder and Stoughton, just in case you thought I'd invented her.)

[french frank]

Moreover, I'm not sure it's good for you to keep tugging at this point like a dog with a bone; I think for your own peace of mind you need to let go. You've said more than once that it isn't interesting to you but you've gone on for pages.

I'm grateful to you for your concern over my wellbeing but I actually enjoy this type of debate (possibly more than you do? In which case I do apologise (and to whom it may concern) for being boring). What is very interesting to me is not the novels themselves but your opinion and why you hold it. It's an investigation, if you like. Yes, finally, after drawing several blanks, with your help I have discovered Kate Sharam's one-star rated novel Power Cut ("A novel about the battle of the sexes in which a vengeful wife eventually snaps when her adulterous husband wounds her beloved cat") but I can find nothing about Kate Sharam herself. Does she exist? Is she even a woman? I've been fiddling with the anagram - was it perhaps someone called Mark? I've carried out researches to find someone born in the UK called Kate or Katherine Sharam; or someone called Kate or Katherine who married a Sharam. Is it a pen name? Perhaps the blurb on the novel casts more light?

It's not that I'm trying to disprove what you say: I'm seeking to verify it.

[AuntDaisy]

I'm grateful to you for your concern over my wellbeing but I actually enjoy this type of debate (possibly more than you do? In which case I do apologise (and to whom it may concern) for being boring). What is very interesting to me is not the novels themselves but your opinion and why you hold it. It's an investigation, if you like. Yes, finally, after drawing several blanks, with your help I have discovered Kate Sharam's one-star rated novel Power Cut ("A novel about the battle of the sexes in which a vengeful wife eventually snaps when her adulterous husband wounds her beloved cat") but I can find nothing about Kate Sharam herself. Does she exist? Is she even a woman? I've been fiddling with the anagram - was it perhaps someone called Mark? I've carried out researches to find someone born in the UK called Kate or Katherine Sharam; or someone called Kate or Katherine who married a Sharam. Is it a pen name? Perhaps the blurb on the novel casts more light?

It's not that I'm trying to disprove what you say: I'm seeking to verify it.

Do these help? New to me...
Link1 Link2 Link3

Kate Sharam (Kate Furnivall)
1950-
Kate Furnivall Sharam was born and brought up in Penarth, Wales. She studied at London University before pursuing a career in advertising. She lives in Devon with her husband Norman Sharam who writes under the pseudonym 'Neville Steed'. Visit also this site (which does not mention the novels written as Kate Sharam).

Dust jacket info...

[eighthobstruction]

....while I do have a couple of non fiction social histories on the go at the moment (on stall would be more accurate). I have recently finished the Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S Grant....(so should I decide to wage war in the seemingly always/endlessly wet and boggy terrain of the Southern States of USA, I shall be well boned up on the logistics of such a task) [a needless bracket, but then that is my style]....What I have done for some time is to take a waterproof pillow (improvised) down to the wooded streams and rivers hereabouts and just sit puffing on my vape; watching, not a lot excepting water passing by....The passage of leaves churning and hesitating is a joy of wonderful random....not much need for the socratic, nor Reid or Kinesic methods ....Today I saw a Kingfisher and a Goosander and hardly thought about ¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬ ¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬at all

[HighlandDougie]

I had forgotten all about Jocelyn Brooke. 'The Orchid Trilogy', and the Denton Welch Journals are in Scotland. I'm in France so, in the interim, have ordered, 'The Dog at Clamberdown', through Abe Books to remind me of how much I enjoy his writing. Un grand merci, M. Vinteuil for the reminder.

While giving my (French) garden its final trim of the year and trying to avoid clipping the increasingly large number of Orchis Militaris plants which start springing up at this time of year, I had a sudden memory that the first book of 'The Orchid Trilogy' is of course 'The Military Orchid' - which Brooke was determined to find in England. My brother - who knows his plants - told me that orchids produce plentiful seeds from the flowers which then get dispersed by the wind. That would explain why two plants ten years ago must now be almost 100. 'The Dog at Clamberdown', is an interesting, if, at times, slightly discursive (that Marcel Proust has much to answer for) meander through various incidents in Brooke's life, complete with a mention of 'Vinteuil' (not that the latter in forumista guise would necessarily approve of the context as in a discourse about a piano piece by John Ireland) . I've been alternating between it and the latest Alan Hollinghurst. Definite whispers of the former writer in the latter.

[french frank]

Do these help? New to me...
Link1 Link2 Link3

They do indeed: Kathleen Furnivall b 1948. Second wife of Norman Sharam. How the deuce did you find those links? (Not that I'm surprised - you are a professional ferreter out of facts, a miner of salt grains). She's bit tight-lipped about her fixation with evil men.

[AuntDaisy]

They do indeed: Kathleen Furnivall b 1948. Second wife of Norman Sharam. How the deuce did you find those links? (Not that I'm surprised - you are a professional ferreter out of facts, a miner of salt grains). She's bit tight-lipped about her fixation with evil men.

Cum grano salis. Link 2 was the key.

BTW Her literary agent claims...
" ... that inspired her first book, THE RUSSIAN CONCUBINE which became an international bestseller..."

Perhaps her fixation predates the historical novels? An earlier relationship with a non-cat person?
From the Power Cut dust jacket front flap...

Until you have read Power Cut, you will never know how truly shattering a woman’s power can be...
For years Jenny Cranshaw has put up with David: his infidelities, his patronising attitude and his thoughtless neglect.
Constantly exposed to her husband's condescending criticisms and open contempt, she has lost her self-respect. Or so she thinks...
Then David goes too far in a fit of temper he strikes out with unforgivable results. He has opened an old wound, the catalyst that triggers Jenny’s latent anger. And she embarks on a secret war against her husband. As Jenny Cranshaw executes her extraordinary revenge, her carefully-laid plans snowball with devastating, and sometimes totally unexpected, effects.
Power Cut is an intense and gripping novel from a highly original new writer, who carries the battle of the sexes into chilling new territory.

[Ian Thumwood]

I love the idea of Smittims doing his research for our benefit so that we need not have to unnecessarily plough through so much chick lit ourselves. I am sure that it is attricious but regret that no examples have been presented for our amusement. Like Frank, i am amused by this debate.

I wonder just how much of this is smut ? I was given a copy of 50 shades of grey as a secret santa present at work. All the women had read it and someone bought it more me as a wind up. I never opened the cover and ended up giving it to a female colleague who accepted it rather too readily. Her enthusiasm and keen interest for this gift gave me some pretty unpleasant images in my head to such an extent that I could not look her in the eye again.

I think there are sometimes things in books concerning woman that us blokes are pleased to remain ignorant about !

Fair play to Smittims for taking the plunge and saving the male contributers the job so that we can read about more niche topics such as Islamic art between 800 and 1700 AD.

Apologies to anyone here who enjoys erotic literature. Is there a point at which you become too old to read this stuff ..... a bit like middle aged blokes wearing replica football jerseys ?