Love him. Love it. He is one of the best American writers, not just of detective fiction, but of prose. I have read them all before but enjoying them even more a second time. Re-read with great enjoyment. Chandler is one of my favourite writers.

A brilliant book. Quite stunning in fact.

My Con Man. A very short but true story about the writer plagued by a charming con man.

An account of the 400 men who pretty much decided the Battle of Waterloo, by defending the farmhouse of La Haye Sainte during the battle of Waterloo, fatally delaying Napoleon’s advance and ensuring time for the Prussians to arrive, to save the day and all Europe from the relentless dictator.

A very finely written memoir by this very funny man, of his total addiction to movies, and the growth of a brilliant comedian. I was fortunate to see him interviewed by his brother at The Writers Guild, and then again interviewed and doing Stand Up at Largo.

Another in the brilliant new series of Penguin Maigret novels. They are very short and simply written, but deceptively great.

Finely written Irish novel.

A Shortcut Man novel. I really enjoyed this, as I did a previous one of his. It’s a Crime Novel and an excellent one.

Since the New Year I have been working through Dan Jones’ long story of The Kings Who Made England or who nearly unmade France as they might better be known. Violent, arrogant, aggressive, assertive, muddle headed and very often wrong, they seem to have only two flavours: mad and violent, or mad and sneaky. Two deposed: Ed 2 and Dick 2, both as it turns out far shittier, tyrannical, and less sympathetic than Shakespeare and Marlowe present. Hard not to sympathise with the French, the Welsh and the Scots, and all who suffered under them, not the least being the poor English caught between taxation, endless wars and the plague. Nicely written narrative history.

In hindsight it’s hard to see what all the fuss was about Thorpe. Once removed from the scene he was never missed. A man whose confident sense of his own superiority led him to get away with (attempted) murder. I skimmed. This was the man in the silly hat who hit the beaches to the Monty Python theme tune. Always a charming clown and of course stalked by the singularly unattractive looney Norman Scott with whom he had an affair in the days when that sort of thing, though widespread, was illegal. Between the Kings and the Upper Classes it’s a relief the Sixties happened.

A fascinating biologists account of the ten great inventions of Evolution. A little smarter than I am, but I learned a lot more about evolutionary biology and filled in a few glaring gaps in my biology knowledge. He explains things I know nothing about very well, even with my poor science background. O level Physics with Chemistry. (45%. A bare pass)

A nicely written thriller about a man confusingly picked up and put into the hands of the Feds for an unwanted change of identity. What does he know, what did he do, what did he remember? The State as tyrant. Good yarn nicely told.