A Delicate Truth

I have two paperbacks by Paul Micou: Rotten Times and The Last Word. You wouldn’t judge a book by its cover, would you?

Well I would. There is no acknowledgement of the artist for the front cover of Rotten Times. I know the feeling. I was not credited for a photograph of mine used on a dust jacket. My annoyance was compounded by my brother getting my credit. It was somewhat assuaged by the credit going to “Brian Belle”.

Paul Micou’s illustrator is Peter Goodfellow and he has done five Micou covers including The Last Word.  Rather a dapper chap.  I’m not going to re-read either novel but I have ordered The Music Programme, his 1989 debut.

“Paul Micou’s first novel The Music Programme (1989) is a comic satire on the comfortable lifestyles of overpaid international development workers. Set in a fictional African country called Timbali, the novel was published to favourable reviews. The New York Times called it “an excellent, accomplished example” of satirical fiction and compared his comic talents to those of Evelyn Waugh and William Boyd.” (Wikipedia)

If it’s anywhere close to anything by Evelyn Waugh set in Africa or William Boyd’s first novel, A Good Man in Africa, I’m in for a treat. Meanwhile I found John le Carré’s A Delicate Truth in my diminishing pile of books to read. It didn’t last long – a page turner I read too quickly. Not everything is such a success.

The Light of Common Day, published in 1959 by Rupert Hart-Davis, should have been right up my rather snobbish street. The title is a quote from a Wordsworth ode and it is the second volume of Lady Diana’s Cooper’s memoirs covering her life from 1923 to 1939. It is not gripping and I’m going to read her husband’s (Duff Cooper) diaries instead.