December
This has been the year I discovered Mick Herron.
There are two series of thrillers. The Slough House series, which is more modern Le Carré territory and The Oxford series. I read both series in order. They are completely addictive. Perfect for the road. I began with Slough House and I recommend that to start. Welcome to the world of Jackson Lamb.
I ended up with The Oxford Series, which is also terrific and consists of:
Down Cemetery Road Mick Herron
The Last Voice You Hear Mick Herron
Why We Die Mick Herron
Reconstruction Mick Herron
Wonderful. Just brilliant. Tense, taught and totally unexpected. Everything you’d ever want in a thriller. Set in Oxford, at a Nursery school, which ends up involving the Police and MI5. A master of suspense at the top of his game. I thought this was magnificent.
Smoke and Whispers Mick Herron
An Oxford novel. But this time Zoe Boehm is dead. Drowned in the River Thames. Or is she? A masterly piece of character detective fiction. He keeps you gripped to the page. Absolutely addictive. Read one, read the lot.
Nobody Walks Mick Herron
A stand-alone book. But brilliant. Totally absorbing. I seem to have read everything. Such a joy to discover a new writer (to yourself) and to binge. I’m sad because I seem to have done the lot in such a short space of time. I hope I missed something.
Brief Answers to the Big Questions Stephen Hawking
My new Bible. Beautifully and very simply written, from lectures and talks, this is a mind blowing, very simple summation of what we believe to be true in the Universe. It makes belief in a God created Universe somewhat simplistic. Many of the things described defy belief. I now give it to people. Don’t panic, there’s not an equation in sight. With an introduction by Eddie Redmayne and a very beautiful postscript by his daughter about his funeral which is both touching and amazing.
Maigret Enjoys Himself Georges Simenon
As always the perfect appetiser, or palate cleanser for longer reads. Maigret is on holiday but stays in Paris and can’t resist watching how his colleague Janvier goes about solving a crime. It’s his perspective on the reader who follows cases in the newspapers.
Moonglow Michael Chabon
I ran out of books and picked up this and the Doer in Sydney. The hallmark of a great book is you can read it again. This was even better for the second time. I find this a lot with this amazing author. Basically about his (fictional really as he admits in the intro) maternal grandfather. It skirts a lot of territory, memorable chapters being about Werner von Braun and his attempted capture by the Americans at the end of the war, and his real involvement with the foul camp that kept the V2 running until almost the last month. The camp that killed more than the victims of the flying bomb which would soon become the Saturn rocket that would take America to the moon. He ends his days in an old peoples home in Florida searching for a Python. Funny, witty, exquisitely written, I was hooked once again from the start.
This is what happened. Nick Herron.
Spy thriller. Or is it. Spoiler alerts. Latest thriller. Always surprising, always entertaining.
About Grace. Anthony Doer.
Running out of books in Sydney I picked up two I was fairly sure I’d read, and re-read half of this before economising on my packing, knowing I have it at home. Very fine writing about a boy who dreams the short future. Bad things will happen. No one will believe you.
The Affair of the Poisons Anne Somerset
Murder, Satanism and Infanticide at the Court of the Sun King. Reading on I Pad after enjoying the Netflix series Versailles. It makes you want to discover whether it is all true. This one confirms the poisoning and is very interesting about the sexual activity. But of course it is France. Nicely written and a good perspective on the most extraordinary of monarchs and his amazing creation of Versailles. The gap between the glittering court and the poverty of the over taxed peasantry would of course soon be closed by the Revolution.
The Sun King Nancy Mitford.
I picked up my old copy of this excellent history, and dipped into it.
November
Milkman Anna Burns
A very powerful, original, incredibly well-written and highly deserved winner of this year’s Mann Booker Prize. An interior monologue about a young girl in Northern Ireland during the troubles. Her skill in capturing the voice and the attitudes of a community under siege and locked into its prejudices, as the political ice slowly starts to melt and things begin to change is extraordinary. I found it gripping, fascinating, fresh and honest.
The Age of Louis XIV Will & Ariel Durant
We had been watching Versailles on Netflix and I was intrigued to know just how much was actual history. I knew many scenes were completely made up obviously, so I turned to the masters, Volume VIII of their incredible Story of Civilization, a complete set of which was presented to me by my wonderful Spamalot Producer Bill Haber. Beautifully written this is the finest historical record ever and an amazing achievement. Louis’ Age was of course 66, and he dies sadly, amidst the financial collapse of the gilded honeytrap he created to destroy the nobility. The Revolution would complete the work in only a few more years.
The River in the Sky Clive James
A long epitaph poem by Clive musing about his own life and forthcoming death. Like his life, I enjoyed lots of it.
Love is Blind William Boyd
After being blown away by his short stories his latest novel somewhat disappointed me. It’s a romance. In the cinema sense. Fascinating, and occasionally very moving, I never quite believed in this 19th Century tale of the love of an Edinburgh piano tuner for an enigmatic Russian beauty. Mainly, I failed to believe in her. And I often felt manipulated, in so far as things happened, because the plot needed them to happen. That’s what I mean by cinema writing. It might make a very fine movie. I was never bored, I was engaged, until perhaps the last quarter, where I felt him thrashing around to find an end, and when he did it was pure movie writing. Novels are bloody hard work, and I often wish novelists would write the end first, because even the best of them tend to run out of steam. I think William Boyd is up there with the best of them, but this is not his best novel.
The Gifts of Reading Robert Macfarlane
Somewhere along my book tour, possibly Manchester, some fan slipped this tiny Penguin book into my hand. Like an idiot I signed it and tried to hand it back. Mercifully I took it away with me. It’s tiny, delightful and extraordinary and one I shall continue to re-read and I thank the anonymous donor.
“Broadsword calling Danny Boy” Geoff Dyer
An extraordinary book, musing on the movie Where Eagles Dare. Almost a scene by scene description of what happens in a movie I haven’t seen, with Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood, it is hilarious, very witty, occasionally wonderful rude, and captures something quite original, managing to talk about telling a tale on the screen and how unreal that world usually is. I picked up a beautiful signed special edition published by and at Hatchards. One for the stocking.
October
I spent this month largely on the road. So, I packed some preferences for travel, Maigret of course and some Mick Herron, the new essential travel companion for binge reading, but then, a superb discovery, that William Boyd has become my all-time favourite short story writer.
Spook Street Mick Herron
This, the fifth in his Slough House series, was easily my favourite, intensely plotted and very well written, kept me happily entertained during a long trip across America and many changing scenes and airports and hotels. What a joy he is. And so much as yet unread, waiting for me in the wings. It’s such a pleasure to stumble on a new writer you’re going to treasure. I began the month with him and ended it too.
The Drop Mick Herron
I found this at the end of the month in Waterstones and it was here almost before I was. Very impressive to shop on a Saturday in London and start reading on a Tuesday in California. Short and sweet and almost a tease, as I want to know more, but I like his short Maigret length novellas, like a good appetizers it whets without satiating the palate. Oo you pretentious git, says the inner editor.
Maigret Travels Georges Simenon
Maigret out of his depth, a fish out of water, amongst the rich in a luxury Parisian hotel, with an attempted suicide by a countess and the sudden death of a billionaire. He is particularly good describing his inadequate feelings in the strange backstage world of the hotel, while plodding on regardless with his investigation into what does not feel right to him.
The Dreams of Bethany Mellmoth William Boyd
I stumbled across this book of short stories in Hatchards and was totally blown away. I have never read a collection of stories like it. He was always good, but now seems to have evolved into the finest short story writer I have ever read. It was never my favourite form, but I devoured these, immediately bought the previous collection and then thoroughly enjoyed reading some of the earlier ones I remembered, such as On The Yankee Station, and Nathalie X now republished in a more recent collection as:
The Dream Lover William Boyd
I re-read these. This is what I wrote before. “These funny, surprising and moving stories are a resounding confirmation of Boyd’s powers as one of our most original and compelling storytellers.”
Fascination William Boyd.
I enjoyed this, the second recent collection, even more than the republished older ones. They seem to come out of nowhere with so much detail and precision, I found them over-whelmingly great. Powerful, germane, and almost out of nowhere. Impressive and extremely enjoyable.
