Category: Literature

Comfort Reading

In the autumn of 1972 I was invited to stay with Baron and Baroness von V-S on their estate in Germany. A Mercedes was at the station to meet me driven by a tweedy type who spoke no English. It dawned on me that this was not the Baron but his chauffeur. A parp on… Continue reading Comfort Reading

For Starters

There are two great American novels narrated through the eyes of children – both girls, as it happens. One is To Kill a Mockingbird and the other? Here’s how it starts.

A Round on the Links

FTWeekend is a must-read for me. It is delivered in hard copy to my door and if I’m away I can usually find a copy. The overseas editions have most of the same content as the UK edition. One regular item that you will miss if you are an overseas reader is A Round on… Continue reading A Round on the Links

Barry Lyndon

Cast your mind back a few years – to 1844, when Thackeray’s The Luck of Barry Lyndon came out. I may have started it years ago but I’m pretty sure that I got bogged down and didn’t finish reading it. Stanley Kubrick read it all and his 1975 film eclipses the book to such an… Continue reading Barry Lyndon

Sweet Caress

Does the title indicate that on the Internet a bit of soft porn always goes down well? A not-so-subtle shift to find a new readership? It most certainly does not and you won’t have been fooled as you recognise Sweet Caress as the title of William Boyd’s latest novel.

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Categorised as Literature

Le Corbeau

Alan Furst writes atmospheric espionage novels, usually set in WW II. His first successful book was Night Soldiers, published in 1988. It is excellent but it left him with a problem, one he shares with Simon Raven, whose Brother Cain was published in 1959.

Professor Lord Pinkrose

Professor Lord Pinkrose is a fictional character in Olivia Manning’s Fortunes of War.  Alan Bennett plays him to perfection in the 1987 BBC adaptation. He is portrayed by Manning as being self-important, self-centred, snobbish and rude. It’s interesting to discover that he is not entirely fictional.

The Schartz-Metterklume Method

It is inevitable when thinking about World War One and the Battle of the Somme (where my Bellew grandfather was seriously wounded) to be confronted by a roll call of the dead. Memorials to the fallen are ubiquitous and rightly so. 

A Walk in the Park

The Yellow Earl’s London house was in Carlton House Terrace. It was in fact two houses knocked into one. Here is an extract from The Yellow Earl, Douglas Sutherland’s excellent biography of the 5th Earl of Lonsdale.