What are you reading now?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

William Trevor's Love and Summer - completely the opposite of the DeLillo epic, this is small-scale, intimate, narrow-focussed; beautifully written and utterly asorbing, it's a novel for grown-ups about young love - and the differences between passion and compassion. The humanity of it I found quite astonishing.

[umslopogaas]

I have several books on the go, as is my wont: some people start a book and wont look at another until they've finished it, but that's not my way, I need to match my mood to the book and my mood varies, so I need more than one book. At the moment, Frederick Forsyth's 'The Day of the Jackal', which I've read several times, but never found a better thriller; Joseph Conrad's 'Victory', which is the first proper grown-up book I ever read nearly fifty years ago and is a great pleasure to re-visit; JL Borges' 'Labyrinths', as mentioned before on this thread, just wonderful glimpses of astonishment; AG MacDonell's 'England, Their England', the whole book is very comic, but ch. 7, the village cricket match which falls apart at the seams because everyone has one pint too many in the pub on the green, is priceless, it almost displaces '1066 and All That' as the funniest book I ever read. Not quite, but almost. And for even lighter relief, as also mentioned before, a selection of Asterix comics.

[Richard Tarleton]

AG MacDonell's 'England, Their England', the whole book is very comic, but ch. 7, the village cricket match which falls apart at the seams because everyone has one pint too many in the pub on the green, is priceless, it almost displaces '1066 and All That' as the funniest book I ever read. Not quite, but almost.

Immortal and much anthologised. Archie MacDonell a cousin, somewhat removed.

I've been reading about another member of the MacDonell of Glengarry clan (from which I'm descended on my father's father's mother's side), in two books about the Battle of Waterloo - Andrew Roberts' brief but well-told "Waterloo: Napoleon's Last Gamble", and Alessandro Barbero's "The Battle - A History of the Battle of Waterloo", an excellent account translated superbly from the Italian by John Cullen. Wellington entrusted the defence of Hougoumont Farm, on his right flank, to a small (around 2,600) detatchment of Coldstream and Foot Guards supported by Brunswickers and Nassauers. The troops in the farmhouse were commanded by Colonel James MacDonell, the younger brother of the then clan chief (who was a friend of Walter Scott, and model for MacIvor in Waverley and depicted in a painting by Raeburn).

Napoleon had hoped that the attack on Hougoumont would weaken Wellington's centre, by sucking in tropps to defend the farm. Far from this happening, around 14,000 French soldiers were tied up for the whole day in Jerome Bonaparte's unsuccessful attempts to take the farm. The closing of the gates at Hougoumont by MacDonell and Corporals James and Joseph Graham (immortalised in another famous painting) after some French soldiers had burst in was singled out by Wellington as a pivotal point in the whole battle, and MacDonell was named by Wellington as "the bravest man in the British Army". Byron etched his (Byron's!) name on the walls of Hougoumont when he visited the following year.

Roberts compares the siege of Hougoumont to the defence of Rorke's Drift. I've just ordered "Hougoumont: the key to victory at Waterloo" by Julian Paget.

[umslopogaas]

#903 Richard Tarleton, very many thanks for that reply and I envy you your relationship to Mr MacDonell, he wrote something very special, and though I have written many thousands of words in my life because the job descriptions said I had to, I never attempted the comic uplands of 'England, Their England'. If readers of these posts dont know this book, get down to your local bookshop first thing tomorrow and demand a copy. But before it arrives, make sure you have enough cushions, because you will surely fall off the sofa in uncontrollable laughter, and you need to cushion your fall.

I shall look into the Waterloo history, it isnt something I know anything about.

[Richard Tarleton]

If readers of these posts dont know this book, get down to your local bookshop first thing tomorrow and demand a copy. But before it arrives, make sure you have enough cushions, because you will surely fall off the sofa in uncontrollable laughter, and you need to cushion your fall.

Yes, my copy lives on my bookshelves next to Stella Gibbons' Cold Comfort Farm, the other funniest book in the English language IMV and published a year earlier (1932).

[Pabmusic]

I have just finished Peter Lovesey's The Tooth Tattoo. It's the thirteenth Peter Diamond whodunnit - why they've never been made into a TV series escapes me, but there you are.

This one concerns a murder (two, actually) that is connected with a first-rank string quartet, The Third Man and the world of professional agents. The musical talk is believable and the dialogue is as ever witty and erudite.

Good light entertainment.

[Richard Tarleton]

This one concerns a murder (two, actually) that is connected with a first-rank string quartet, The Third Man and the world of professional agents. The musical talk is believable and the dialogue is as ever witty and erudite.

Ah, another string quartet book! Must try that, thanks.

Whodunnits - after hearing her on Private Passions I thought I'd give Donna Leon a try - but found the two I've tried so far (Death at La Fenice and Beastly Things) pretty feeble. After a couple of Michael Dibdin Aurelio Zens (recommended by somebody up-thread), I'm left feeling Italian detective fiction is not for me. Italian detectives don't seem to do any work - they just smoke and drink espressos in cafés, and occasionally have flashes of intuition. There is no discernible procedure, everyone is corrupt, and the whole milieu is frankly difficult to get to grips with.

Looking for some pulp fiction to read on the plane I picked up Labyrinth by Kate Mosse. On a scale of 1-10, with Dan Brown on 1 and, say, Umberto Eco on 10, this is about 1.5. The stuff on the 13th century actually quite interesting, Albigensian crusade etc., but the contemporary bit poorly written, plus a scene nicked from Indiana Jones at the end.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Looking for some pulp fiction to read on the plane I picked up Labyrinth by Kate Mosse. On a scale of 1-10, with Dan Brown on 1 and, say, Umberto Eco on 10, this is about 1.5. The stuff on the 13th century actually quite interesting, Albigensian crusade etc., but the contemporary bit poorly written, plus a scene nicked from Indiana Jones at the end.

[Nick Armstrong]

I'll raise you a couple of

Super stuff, RT

[Warwick]

Started, Marie Antoinette
by Antonia Fraser.

[umslopogaas]

I am reading Salman Rushdie's "The Moor's Last Sigh" and finding it a bit of a struggle. I enjoyed "Midnight's Children", "Shame" and "The Satanic Verses", but his verbal gymnastics in this one are rather hard to follow.

[Richard Tarleton]

I enjoyed "Midnight's Children"

I took this as holiday reading on a birdwatching trip to Mallorca in 1982 and to my chagrin found it unreadable. I was reduced to reading Jonathan Livingston Seagull in Spanish (Juan Salvador Gaviota), picked up in a bookshop in Puerto Pollensa.

Our little weekly Spanish conversation group or tertulia has decided to have a book club session every month or two. (We have an authentic Spanish person in our midst). To get us going, the group decided on "La Sombra del Viento" by Carlos Ruiz Zafón . Dare I ask if anyone has read it, perhaps in its English incarnation as "The Shadow of the Wind"? Easy reading, but I'm puzzled as to its genre - elements of pulp fiction and womens' magazine serial, with a dash of Phantom of the Opera, with a serious historical novel set in 1950s Barcelona struggling to get out. It appears to have been translated into 50 languages. One review indicated the author was a former screenwriter, which perhaps explains it.

[umslopogaas]

"Midnight's Children" unreadable? Oh dear, I dont remember any problems, but I cant comment any further, because I dont have it, I must have borrowed a copy. Have you tried "The Satanic Verses"? Wonderful writing, but my only criticism is that it's rather big, and could probably have been split into three (?) separate stories. As I recall, the joins show, though that may have been a deliberate device, to show how cleverly the author could then fuse them together.

I am building up a shopping list for my next visit to Waterstones, so I'll add Carlos Ruiz Zafon, thanks for the tip, I admit I've never heard of him.

[verismissimo]

James Shapiro's 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare.

It's jam-packed with contemporary references to the Bard. So much for all the fantasists who believe that it was all written by someone else.

Off to As You Like It at Stratford, Saturday.

[Petrushka]

Stolen Journey by Oliver Philpot

Another one of the classic Second World War POW books which I love reading. It's hard to obtain but I picked up a copy of a 1950 edition off an Amazon Marketplace seller for a reasonable amount.
Philpot was the 'third man' in the famous Wooden Horse escape and he tells a terrific story. Though I thought the dialogue a bit stilted and unconvincing in the early pages covering his capture in Norway, he really comes to life once behind the wire. Incidentally, my copy was inscribed 'To Peter from Harry, Christmas 1950' and I just love reading old books like this. Peter and Harry (perhaps ex-POW's themselves?) have no doubt long gone and that distant Christmas present is now in my hands.