Regeneration Pat Barker
1917 Siegfried Sassoon at Craiglockhart. What to do with one of theirs who protests the war. With Wilfred Owen.
The Eye in the Door Pat Barker
The next in the series. I don’t find Prior a realistic character. Certainly not as realistic as the Poets.
Pandora’s Jar Natalie Haynes
Women in the Greek Myths. Eris is the one to watch out for. A real troublemaking Goddess.
Bad Actors Mick Herron
The latest in the series Slow Horses. Diana Taverner faces problems…
The God Equation Michio Kaku
The Quest for a Theory of Everything. Before the Big Bang. And after.
Rise and Kill First Ronen Bergman
The secret History of Israel’s targeted assassinations.
Gripping. Shocking. Fantastic. Extraordinary great history.
Charles Darwin’s Barnacle and David Bowie’s Spider
How scientific names celebrate Adventurers, Heroes, and Even a Few Scoundrels.
Doesn’t mention Monty Python’s extinct snake. Or the fact that the human need to name everything in the Universe is destined to be hopeless as there aren’t even enough words to fit the stars in our Galaxy.

June thru August
A Short History of Humanity Johannes Krause and Thomas Trappe
And a whole new science, the genetic journey of human kind, history found in DNA . Fascinating.
Tales from the Colony Room Darren Caulfield
All alcoholics are alike. Like junkies, people addicted to their own poison are often less interesting than they think. Despite a foreword by Barry Humphries I failed to be captured by these less than legendary tales from The Colony Club.
The Fall of Robespierre Colin Jones
I found this one of the most dissatisfactory books on one of the most fascinating reversals of fortune in all history – the fall of the monster Robespierre. I feared the worst when the opening sentences contained three of the most awful cliches in modern journalism: “all about optics,” “getting up close,” and “drilling down.” Unfortunately this is precisely what he promises to do, and indeed delivers, constantly shifting from one scene to another a bit further down the road, a few minutes later. Eschewing all attempts to keep the dramatic flow focused, instead we get tons of not on the spot reports. This is bewildering, confusing and irritating. I have never put down a book more frequently or picked it up to try again so frequently. The man may know history but he doesn’t know drama or storytelling at all. Constantly leaping from place to place, some fascinating, some not, he is always cutting away from the moment to pick it up elsewhere. It doesn’t work. A large blue pencil and the book would be shorter, simpler and more clearly defined. It is way too long, rambling, discursive and deeply frustrating. My tip is to skip – not the book – but when reading. Who doesn’t like what happened to that tyrant? I mean apart from Putin I guess…..
All My Friends Are Going to be Strangers Larry McMurtry
Containing one of the least attractive female leads of all time. You wonder why he puts up with her for more than a date. Sixties coming of age writer. I like him, but this one I found annoying. He should have left her behind in Houston….
Slouching Towards Bethlehem Joan Didion
Ages since I read this so I thought I’d give it a go and I enjoyed it. Essays from the mid Sixties and an examination of the West. LA, Vegas, Freeways. Her title essay is all about hippies in San Francisco, whom she examines with the pitiless glare of someone ten years too old to be fooled by the hippie dippie bullshit. But it is chilling to remember that there is a war on and these kids are being sent away to fight it. Who wouldn’t want to get stoned? Interconnected essays, for instance the Vegas Wedding Chapel sees 67 couples married on the last day that this will be allowed to delay the draft….Her reflections are ironic, and sometimes plain old funny. She cast a cynical eye on the emptiness of SOCAL life.
La Place de la Concorde Suisse John McPhee
Love John McFee. Re-read. About the Swiss preparedness for war.
All That Glitters Thomas Maier
Anna Wintour, Tina Brown and the Rivalry inside America’s Richest Media Empire.
A rivalry that would not be apparent if they were men, and that is in fact inspired by and encouraged by their employer. A man of course. Fascinating tales of publishing, Vanity Fair, Vogue and The New Yorker.
Otherwise Known As The Human Condition Geoff Dyer
Selected Essays and Reviews.
The Last Days of Roger Federer Geoff Dyer
Mercifully not a book about tennis.
This sweet sickness Patricia Highsmith
Another cracker up to scratch. “No one has created psychological suspense more densely and deliciously satisfying” says Vogue, and who would argue with that. She seems to get better and better as time goes on. The sign of a great writer.
The charismatic life and times of Tony Stratton Smith
He founded Charisma Records which was not particularly charismatic nor terribly successful. But he did support a lot of drinking in Soho Pubs, including Graham Chapman and Vivian Stanshall of the Bonzo’s who gave his life for booze. Python found a home on his label, and were later sold on to Neil Bogarde at Buddha Records, aided and encouraged by Nancy Lewis, perhaps the best help we ever had.
Tony also supported Python finding the funds for The Holy Grail movie from Led Zep and Jethro Tull and Pink Floyd. He even had a horse called Monty Python, and was famous down at Lambourne for extravagant enjoyment of life. A good man, and I was happy to read about him. In the same vein…
Miss O’Dell. Chris O’Dell with Katherine Ketcham
My hard days and long nights with the Beatles, The Stones, Bob Dylan, and Eric Clapton
A short memoir with a long subtitle. I think George Harrison wrote the song about her. What did they call them? – Apple Scruffs. Rock stars have always depended on the comfort of strangers. Any Autobiography that starts off with Derek Taylor is fine in my book. Highly readable and good fun.
Arctic Summer Damon Galgut.
A very fine novel about E.M. Forster and his writing A Passage to India. Jeremy found it recommended by Richard E. And he’s right, it is very good writing indeed.
Call for the Dead John Le Carré
I picked this one up and read it again. It’s a favourite of mine and I like it very much. It may be the first Smiley book, but in Mendel he has a very fine character. It begins with Smiley being married and it lead me on to re-read:
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy John Le Carré
This is really well written. Smiley of course. He seems to be on the top of his game. I noticed that large amounts of the book are dialogue. This differs noticeably from
The Honourable Schoolboy John Le Carré
Which has tons of description. This makes it harder to read and a bit less inspired than the former. Still it is very well plotted and a good yarn, it just hasn’t quite the flow. I barely put down Tinker, Tailor and finished it in a day.
Less Andrew Sean Greer
Less is more, more or less. It’s really Beck a Book (John Updike) with a gay protagonist. Not to mention three volumes of Zuckerman’s adventures from Phillip Roth. Or even Holly Martins from Graham Greene (The Third Man.) It’s not a new trope, the not very good writer facing the world, but the problem with it is that not very good authors tend to outsell very good authors by about a hundred to one. Often they make a great deal more money than great authors. Time washes them away eventually, but only long after all their readers are dead. I don’t object to it, and it is a way for authors to write about themselves and mock themselves and their profession. And this is amusing and often funny. But is it really Pulitzer Prize worthy?
The Promise Damon Galgut
Winner of the Booker Prize and deservedly so. Beautifully written, his prose is magnificent and his story telling wonderful. How did I live without knowing about this amazing author? It came from Richard E. Grant via Jeremy Clarke both of whom are no slouches when it comes to writing. Jeremy gave me the first one, but I bought the rest myself and will continue until I have exhausted his canon.
About a family and their struggles to survive, or not in the fast-changing world of South Africa, from apartheid to Invictus.
The Good Doctor Damon Galgut.
A Doctor in a small, fading hospital in the homelands of South Africa (impoverished and underdeveloped areas of land set aside by the apartheid government for the slef-determionation of its various black ‘nations.’ From this tiny backwater, it encompasses everything about the great changes in that society from Vorster to Mandela. He can make the smallest details significant. His eye is remarkable and his control enviable. It reads beautifully. A new doctor who wishes to do good upsets all apple carts. Beware those who wish to do good is his message.