bookswelike

Books reviewed by Tony Pratt

A Day Like Today by John Humphrys

Humphrys' mixture of knee-jerk overpraise for some colleagues and score-settling for others is not always appealing and his arguments can be laboured but an enjoyable, perhaps an important book. Enjoyable for his Welsh childhood, beginnings in journalism and insights in interviewing 8 prime-ministers. Important for incisive views on the BBC's 'group think' which blind-sided it to comprehend that anyone could vote for Brexit. Part curmudgeon, part vital critic of the powerful, Humphrys shows himself an upholder of Orwell's definition of liberty: . . . the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.
(bwl 95 Winter 2020)

A Hundred Million Years and a Day by Jean-Baptiste Andrea

This French prize winning novel follows a palaeontologist and his companions as they search the high Alps for a dinosaur skeleton rumoured to be hidden by a glacier. The effort takes the palaeontologist to his limits, driving him into deeper introspection about his life and reinforcing his obsessive quest. Tensions develop as the dangers increase and winter approaches then things take a dangerous and dramatic turn, full of twists and surprises. The story keeps you gripped, partly by its spare but superb evocation of the icy world. Wouldn’t recommend reading this during a cold spell!
(bwl 108 Spring 2023)

A Life Discarded: 148 Diaries Found in a Skip by Alexander Masters

148 diaries are found in a skip. Masters sets out to understand the life of the unknown diarist, picking up identity clues as he goes, but giving the life as it was experienced priority over detective work. The result is a steady, if at times possibly stage-managed, stream of surprise discoveries - the greatest one at the end. The moving story of an utterly individual existence written from the inside. Vital to avoid spoilers before reading.
(bwl 82 Autumn 2016)

A Little History of Poetry by John Carey

Any history of "language made special" covering 4,000 years on four continents is bound to be highly selective but, if the test is to communicate a love of poetry making you revisit poets you know and try those you don't, this passes the test triumphantly. English and American poetry of the last two centuries dominate but there are delights from earlier eras and different cultures. The comments on Chaucer and Yeats are especially illuminating but there are any number of insights. A good escape from the world of lockdown.
(bwl 99 Winter 2021)

A Pair of Blue Eyes by Thomas Hardy

A highly readable narrative of the life and loves of a naive but attractive girl who learns some hard lessons about taking right and wrong turnings. You always want to know what happens next thanks to shrewd psychological insight and a, literally, cliff-hanging plot. One scene in particular is a tour-de-force by a great writer in the making. Free for Kindlers!
(bwl 62 Autumn 2011)

A Quiet Life by Beryl Bainbridge

A Lancashire family in the 1940's. Their lives, individuality and limitations are seen through the eyes of the adolescent son in a story told with great economy and never a false note. At the end there is a quietly stunning shift of perspective.
(bwl 60 Spring 2011)

A Splendid Little War by Derek Robinson

Russia after the Great War: The British Government intervenes, unofficially, on the side of the White Russians against the Bolsheviks, sending the Merlin squadron of Sopwith Camels and bombers into battle. The result is an arresting mixture of historical narrative, action, tragedy and black comedy. Nothing is quite as vivid as the aerial combat in which the men dice vulnerably with disaster in their flimsy machines, but Russian banqueting and the long journey north come close. This is getting your history the entertaining way.
(bwl 101 Summer 2021)

A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell

The comparatively little known fate of the Jews in northern Italy 1943 to 1945. In a community torn between optimism and panic, many stay but many flee over the Alps to be helped by villagers, communist partisans and, not least, priests and nuns. Betrayal and death are constant threats as the retreating Nazis grow more ruthless and many do not make it. A vivid story told through a gallery of characters ranging from Jewish teenagers to Gestapo fanatics.
(bwl 88 Spring 2018)

A Very English Scandal:Sex, Lies and a Murder Plot at the Heart of the Establishment by John Preston

The tragicomedy of Jeremy Thorpe's trial for attempted murder, also featuring, among others, his gay henchman, a supportive MP, a male model and Rinka the dog. Add in a 'chicken-brained' hit man and an outstanding but drunken defence counsel and you have rich entertainment. The author had access to new material plus the freedom which the death of most of the principals allows. They took some of the story with them however. What remains almost defies belief.
(bwl 87 Winter 2018)

Act of Oblivion by Robert Harris

After the Stuart Restoration, the Parliamentarians were pardoned except for the 'regicides,' signatories of Charles I's death warrant. Many were dead or soon captured and executed, but two prominent regicides escape to America where fellow Puritans offer hiding places. On the run, they have an obsessed pursuer. Years go by. The fugitives live in increasing misery, while their pursuer contends with growing official indifference. A gripping story, building to a final dramatic confrontation and conveying much of the sadness of a lethally divided society.
(bwl 106 Autumn 2022)

After Europe by Ivan Krastev

In 120 pages this Bulgarian thinker offers multiple insights. The refugee crisis has been the catalyst for an identity crisis and a loss of confidence in the EU, democracy and the liberal order which underlies it. Adrift, a secular Europe is sustained by borrowing from the future and an unwillingness to face up to its challenges one of which is disaffection in Eastern Europe. A summary of a summary can't do this justice but hope, he argues, has not gone if we face up to things.
(bwl 85 Summer 2017)

All for Nothing by Walter Kempowski

East Prussia, January 1945. An aristocratic household waits out a bitter winter under the twin shadows of a Nazi regime and impending Russian invasion. A gripped society disintegrates slowly then all at once and the people we follow suffer varying fates. This German novel is vivid, compassionate and even-handed. We come to know and understand individual lives and why people behave as they do, as well as the world they live in. Deserves to be better known.
(bwl 80 Spring 2016)

All Human Wisdom by Pierre Lemaitre

This sequel to The Great Swindle (bwl 96) begins with the funeral of a banker, his fortune inherited by his daughter whose life is changed by catastrophic injuries to her young son. She faces the enmity of a relative, a failed suitor trying to part her from her fortune and betrayal by servants. Revenge requires the help of some dubious characters. Set in the corrupt and venal world of pre-war France, this a fantastically entertaining story with never a dull moment.
(bwl 102 Autumn 2021)

Alys, Always by Harriet Lane

Frances, a lowly literary journalist, comes across a dying woman after a car crash. This incident gives her a foot into the household of a major novelist. Sensing opportunities to advance her career and the possibility of important relationships, she subtly insinuates herself into his family. Her behaviour is manipulative but the admixture of genuine feeling make her a convincing human being. I found the resolution unexpected and satisfyingly credible and the writing and psychology struck me as excellent.
(bwl 93 Summer 2019)

An English Affair: Sex, Class and Power in the Age of Profumo by Richard Davenport-Hines

A highly entertaining analysis of the Profumo Scandal and what it said about 60's Britain. No heroes although Steven Ward and David Astor emerge as principal victims, with Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice Davies runners up. Principal villains: the establishment, press, police and Lord Denning. Profumo's career started impressively and finished badly and he was rampant all the way through. If only we'd known all this at the time!
(bwl 69 Summer 2013)

Answered Prayers:England and the 1966 World Cup by Duncan Hamilton

Leading sportswriter Hamilton comes up with new perspectives on the world of football in those days. Central is Alf Ramsey - reserved, difficult, intensely private - who commanded his players' intense loyalty but never the full recognition he deserved. Highlighting the differences between todays and yesterday’s underpaid stars - mowing the grass, going to church rather than writing-off expensive cars - he goes wider than football and paints a portrait of a different nation. I watched the Final on TV and have read yards on it since but this account gave me new insights.
(bwl 110 Autumn 2023)

Arlott, Swanton and the Soul of English Cricket by David Kynaston and Stephen Fay

For cricket lovers of a certain age! The contrast between the liberal, poetic, working class radio voice and the pompous, establishment TV figure gives way to a more complex story. The two men, never close, were united by a deep love of cricket, a recognition of the need for change and their opposition to racial oppression - Arlott by nature, Swanton when it mattered. Their story is also that of post-war English cricket.
(bwl 89 Summer 2018)

At Freddie's by Penelope Fitzgerald

A West End theatre school in the 60's, the National is at the Old Vic, TV an emerging force: a tawdry, makeshift backstage world nevertheless gives rise to theatrical magic. Pretentious directors, world-weary actors, irritating child hopefuls are there but it's the pupils, staff and above all its legendary principal who are centre stage. Missing the theatre? This evocation by an outstanding novelist will fill the gap. Written with humorous nostalgia, a dash of cynicism and penetrating insight.
(bwl 97 Summer 2020)

Balancing Acts: Behind the scenes at the National Theatre by Nicholas Hytner

If you've enjoyed the National Theatre in the last 15 years this may be for you. An insightful account by its Director of great productions ranging from Shakespeare performed by Russell Beale and Kinnear, through new plays like The History Boys and War Horse, to Jerry Springer the Opera. The story spans ups and downs for public funding, live transmission and the cheap ticket scheme but I enjoyed most the anecdotes about actors and writers, hits and flops and the chance to re-live great theatre.
(bwl 85 Summer 2017)

Be Good, Love Brian: Growing Up with Brian Clough by Craig Bromfield

The loudmouth football manager might not be everyone's idea of an interesting subject, but this is a remarkable story. Eleven years old, the author encountered the famous Clough by chance on a beach. Clough recognised that this undernourished kid from a dysfunctional, criminal family needed setting on a better path and responded with unsuspected depths of kindness and humanity, displayed in his unique style. What followed was extraordinary, moving, sad and, in total, uplifting.
(bwl 104 Spring 2022)

Beautiful Animals by Lawrence Osborne

Wealthy expatriates, and their family tensions, in Hydra - the Greek island is superbly but unhurriedly evoked. Two daughters become friends, discover a refugee and want to help, triggering an increasingly dramatic series of events. If the plot sometimes flirts with being far-fetched, it still adds up to a real page turner, not least because you are interested in the people. Some contemporary social and political resonances add spice to the story.
(bwl 90 Autumn 2018)

Berlin 1961: Kennedy, Khruschev, and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth by Frederick Kempe

The confrontation of an inexperienced JFK and the rough and wily Kruschev. At stake the future of Europe, nuclear war and world domination. Drawing on all that has become known since, this book follows the unfolding crisis almost day to day. An extraordinary cast of characters - from Adenauer to a young Kissinger - act out a drama which culminated in the Berlin wall. Gripping reading which makes you feel Kennedy's dilemmas in particular and throws new light on the period.
(bwl 81 Summer 2016)

Booth by Karen Joy Fowler

John Wilkes Booth, assassin of Abraham Lincoln, came from a famous theatrical family. The novel follows the Booths, from a Maryland country childhood through to the assassination and beyond, interspersing the narrative with Lincoln’s rise to the Presidency and greatness. In a vivid portrait of nineteenth century America, with slavery and the theatre as known to the family in the foreground, you see the drama unfolding in the lives of the characters. A long novel, perhaps too leisurely at first, it gathers pace and excitement as the fateful moment approaches.
(bwl 107 Winter 2023)

Border: A Journey to the Edge of Europe by Kapka Kassabova

A Bulgarian writer, who left her home country as a teenager, returns to the sparsely inhabited border region, taking in parts of Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece. For all the beauty and remoteness of the terrain, its hills, forests and valleys are haunted by a past which has seen lives blighted by the cold war, religious and ethnic conflict and nationalist tensions. The borders themselves are the manifestation of these tensions. A beautifully written experience of one of Europe's unknown and far frontiers.
(bwl 89 Summer 2018)

Brooklyn by Colm Tóibin

Despite Jenny's reservations in her review in bwl 56, this for me was an absorbing exposition of how situations, the plans of others and our own vulnerabilities draw a person into making fateful choices in life and it passed the "what happens next?" test. The limitations of life in rural Ireland and among those clinging on in Brooklyn are convincingly portrayed although one development stretches credulity a bit. A clear and gripping story.
(bwl 72 Spring 2014)

Charlie Chaplin by Peter Ackroyd

From the shadow of the workhouse to the first man in history known by sight the world over, Ackroyd illuminates how Chaplin's genius for comedy and its choreography, first deployed on English stages, found its home in the new medium of cinema. Early deprivation was reflected in an isolated adult with a difficult and destructive personality which marred his relationships. But he often gave the best of himself uncompromisingly when it came to his art. An extraordinary story rivetingly told.
(bwl 80 Spring 2016)

Churchill and Orwell: The Fight for Freedom by Thomas Ricks

A Pullitzer prize winning account of two very different men who had much in common, notably that each stood out against his respective political mainstream with courage and eloquence. Both looked facts in the face and spoke out in ways which redounded to their ultimate reputations. Each admired the other for their work in the 1940's but they never met. An admiring but objective account which provides new insights.
(bwl 91 Winter 2019)

Civilisations by Laurent Binet

Columbus's voyage west ends in failure but the Inca Emperor, Atahualpa, does better travelling in the opposite direction, starting with the invasion of Spain. This intriguing idea, from a French prize winning author, gives rise to a lot of fun, often at the expense of Christianity. The clash of cultures is well exploited, as the Emperor, now a disciple of Machiavelli, gets heavily involved in European affairs but I got rather bogged down in the detailed course of events and interest waned - even when the Aztecs put in an appearance.
(bwl 103 Winter 2022)

Cold Skin by Albert Sanchez Pinol

A weather official is landed on a remote antarctic island for a year's tour of duty, his only companion a lighthouse keeper who is a) naked and b) unwelcoming. And where is the weather man's predecessor? Rapidly the official finds himself dealing with a wholly unexpected and very menacing situation. He needs the lighthouse keeper as an ally. This gripping story raises issues about man's range of sympathies and capacity for violence. A Spanish novel that is miles shorter than Don Quixote!
(bwl 81 Summer 2016)

Conspiracy by S J Parris

Very much in the mould of the Shardlake detective series by C J Sansom, this adventure of Giardano Bruno adds an extra dimension by being set in the less well-known world of Paris under Henry III and Catherine de Medici - a time of vicious dynastic infighting. Add in murderous religious conflict, led by the Duc de Guise and the Catholic League plus the murky world of English espionage and the result is plenty of action and suspense. Good entertainment.
(bwl 88 Spring 2018)

Defectors by Joseph Kanon

Moscow, 1961: An American arrives to handle the publication of his brother's memoirs. A notorious defector, might he still be playing deceiving tricks? A vivid portrait of the expatriate traitors' community, packed with action, woven around the brother's complex relationship, building to a dramatic climax which keeps you guessing until the end. I'm a bit Philby'd out and It might be heresy to say it, but I preferred this to the more verbose and elliptical Le Carré - perhaps that's a literary equivalent of treason.
(bwl 96 Spring 2020)

Devils and Saints by Jean-Baptiste Andrea

An elderly virtuoso pianist plays only in stations and other public places, capturing the sublime in Beethoven sonatas while reviewing his life. Tragically orphaned, placed in a joyless Catholic orphanage in the French Pyrenees, he and other rebellious boys form a resistance group concocting a dangerous all or nothing plan on means of escape. A compelling narrative and vividly drawn characters – from a bigoted, cunning abbé to a young boy clutching a soft toy. It had me waiting impatiently to know what happened next.
(bwl 111 Winter 2024)

Empire Falls by Richard Russo

An intertwined group of lives in a Maine town which is in long term decline. Sometimes grim things underlie the lives and befall the characters. Doesn't sound like a lot of fun? Actually it is rich in humour, sometimes laugh out loud, and the characters and their setting are compelling. You feel that you can see them across the street. Not sure about the ending but getting there was absorbing and plugs you into the American experience.
(bwl 76 Spring 2015)

Empireland: How Imperialism Has Shaped Modern Britain by Sathnam Sanghera

This investigation by a British-born Sikh journalist reveals plenty of negatives, notably racism, slavery and looting, plus conspicuous episodes of discrimination and brutality, but most surprising is how much we have neglected our imperial past and its legacy. As a Brit, Sanghera, his knowledge informed by the immigrant experience, is often very critical but also often admiring. Better historical education is seen as important. You don't have to agree with everything but his attempt at fair-mindedness and the wealth of fascinating information are impressive.
(bwl 102 Autumn 2021)

Engel's England: Thirty Nine Counties, One Capital, One Man by Matthew Engel

The journalist Matthew Engel takes an entertaining series of journeys around an England disfigured but not defeated by the misconceived 1974 reorganisation of the counties. Engel makes an engaging companion; funny, unexpected, occasionally angry, and with his sympathies firmly on the side of the quirky and independent and against the idiocies of money and power. He made me want to go to all sorts of places, I'd never thought of - a good test.
(bwl 78 Autumn 2015)

False Alarm: How Climate Change Panic Costs us Trillions. by Bjorn Lomborg

A Danish economist accepts the reality of global warming driven by human activity but regards our current 'panic' as far too simplistic in its remedies. We can adapt and mitigate if we have the economic resources to do so. These in turn will allow us to address the education and poverty issues which are critical in addressing climate change in future. They will also fund vital energy innovation. His forecasts may be a bit too glib for an uncertain long term but he makes a good case for cost/benefit analysis in place of hysteria.
(bwl 99 Winter 2021)

Finest Years: Churchill as Warlord 1940-45 by Max Hastings

Not another book about Churchill? Yes, but worth it because this account of him in WWII is clear, notably balanced and prepared to highlight his many faults. Set against them his greatness emerges with new force. The largest human being, and the strongest willed, ever to occupy his office.
(bwl 59 Winter 2011)

Footnotes: A Journey Round Britain in the Company of Great Writers by Peter Fiennes

From Swanage to Skye, from The Lizard to London, Fiennes traces the footsteps of a varied collection of writers including Enid Blyton, 12th C. Gerald of Wales, Dickens, Dr Johnson and Beryl Bainbridge, whose journeys were equally varied but what matters more is you are in the company of a civilised mind and likeable person, capable of both frivolity and seriousness. It would be fun to retrace his route, book in hand. Meanwhile this is excellent fireside reading.
(bwl 94 Autumn 2019)

Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss

A family dominated by a father fanatical in his pursuit of authenticity and a dilettante professor of Archaeology and his students spend a summer in Northumberland trying to experience the life of Iron Age Britons. Tensions building within and between both groups come to a head when the father and professor form an uneasy alliance to embrace imagined Iron Age rituals. Told by the family's daughter, this is a brief and gripping story which builds to a dramatic conclusion. Stays in the mind.
(bwl 93 Summer 2019)

Going to the Wars by Max Hastings

Stimulating insights into war and war correspondents in places as diverse as Vietnam, Rhodesia and the Falklands. The first man into Port Stanley, Hastings himself is the star of this book - independently-minded, patrician, ruthlessly ambitious, self-critical, candid - at once both sympathetic and objectionable. Quotes with gusto devastating remarks made at his expense.
(bwl 61 Summer 2011)

Great British Bus Journeys: Travels Through Unfamous Places by David McKie

Hazlitt judged the coach talk from London-Oxford more rewarding than that at Oxford's high tables. McKie takes 24 bus journeys often to out of the way places which tell a lot about the country we live in. Dundee, Winchelsea, Leeds and Taunton you know but Slaidburn, Irthlingborough, Louth, Witley and Nevern? McKie unearths fascinating and forgotten histories and eavesdrops on the life around him. Delightful.
(bwl 65 Summer 2012)

Hack Attack: How the Truth Caught Up with Rupert Murdoch by Nick Davies

The Guardian's campaign to expose phone hacking in News International. In Davies's account the ruthlessness of NI's journalism was deployed with equal menace in its counter-attack on the Guardian. Politicians and police also come out very badly. The book ends with a wider critique of our society but this afterthought cannot equal the impact of the portraits of the Murdochs, Rebekah Brooks, Coulson et al in action.
(bwl 75 Winter 2015)

Half Time: The Glorious Summer of 1934 by Robert Winder

Three sporting heroes: Hedley Verity, who bowled out the Australians at Lord's; Fred Perry, who won Wimbledon and Henry Cotton, who won the Open Golf - all in a matter of weeks. Fascinating for the very different personalities whose lives amounted to a social history of the times. Vividly related with insight into the role of sport and into Britain at half-time between the wars.
(bwl 79 Winter 2016)

Harold Larwood by Duncan Hamilton

Prize winning biography of England's great pre-war fast bowler, a 'villain' of Bodyline. Not just for cricket enthusiasts - his rise from a mining community, treatment by the grandees of the MCC and fall back into obscurity then his resurrection in, of all places, Australia speak eloquently of class-ridden mid- century Britain. Much more of a journey than Tony Blair ever contemplated.
(bwl 58 Autumn 2010)

Heads You Win by Ferdinand Mount

One of a series - Chronicles of Modern Twilight - which gives a cumulative picture of modern life; this novel concentrates on its later stages as retirement is held at bay, accepted and then used or misused. It has a lot to say about love, friendship and even death but this is only as an accompaniment to an entertaining story and some very funny writing and amusing set pieces. A good holiday read in intelligent but not too demanding company.
(bwl 85 Summer 2017)

Her Brilliant Career by Rachel Cooke

Portraits of ten pioneer women achievers of the 1950s. The range is broad, from cookery writer to barrister and some - such as Nancy Spain, Sheila van Damm and Jacquetta Hawkes - were better known to me than others. But all are brought vividly and sympathetically to life and their fascinating lives illuminate the England of the time. Much to admire in the subjects and even more to like in the author.
(bwl 72 Spring 2014)

Here We Are by Graham Swift

Wartime evacuation and the last years of end-of-the-pier shows are the context for the story of a magician, his glamorous assistant and the show's 'star', told from varying perspectives and present day retrospect. Lucid and economical, if a little detached at times - I didn't get deeply involved in the characters - but Swift brings out the flavour of the times and by implication makes some interesting comments on Britain and perhaps on the analogies between 'illusions' and fiction. A short but good read.
(bwl 96 Spring 2020)

I Fear for This Boy: Some Chapters of Accidents by Theo Fennell

The anecdotal and self-deprecating memoirs of a London jewellery designer, his attempts to break into pop music and make his way in the jewellery trade. Star Wars memorabilia and the American rich feature with large scale alcohol consumption and some unforgettable people the source of many scrapes. The 'narrative' ends more peacefully with domestic mishaps. If Chelsea types getting drunk and the luxury trade don't appeal,"they didn't to me", some of the stories are so entertaining and the telling so good that this still makes a great holiday read.
(bwl 106 Autumn 2022)

Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory and the Conquest of Everest by Wade Davis

It's not death that matters but how you live. Everest expeditions of the 1920's - courage, cock-ups and the clash of cultures. A dramatic and gripping story tracing a generation of climbers through early life and the Great War to what happened on Everest. Mallory, the greatest climber of his time is, despite faults, the authentic hero, though not the only one. He stayed on the mountain, I came down feeling changed.
(bwl 67 Winter 2013)

Iran - Empire of the Mind: A History from Zoroaster to the Present Day by Michael Axworthy

Accessible account of three thousand years of history from Zoroaster to the Ayatollahs, Xerxes to Ahmadinejad, enlivened by opinions on topics as diverse as Catholicism, Persian poetry, democracy, Islam and the failures of Western diplomacy. If you want to know more about where the Iranians came and are coming from, this is an enjoyable way of doing it.
(bwl 58 Autumn 2010)

Islands of Abandonment: Nature Rebounding in the Post-Human Landscape by Cal Flyn

The author hauntingly describes abandoned sites : Chernobyl and Detroit; a Scottish island inhabited by cattle gone wild; a polluted desert; deserted botanical gardens and collective farms; a ships' graveyard and a World War One battle site amongst them. Parts are poisoned beyond repair but in others nature's ability to find new ways of thriving asserts itself. Her message is that there are warnings of potential mass extinction but also causes for hope. Don't rush to panic. A fascinating meditation on places vividly evoked.
(bwl 105 Summer 2022)

Jeeves and the Wedding Bells by Sebastian Faulks

For fans of the master, just when you had accepted that there couldn't be any more, a new Jeeves and Wooster story. Faulks comes up with amusing dialogue and some classic Wodehouse situations: a scene in which Wooster, impersonating a butler, disastrously serves dinner, is up there with the best. But he lacks Wodehouse's deft economy with plot and character and sometimes the pace slackens. Still an entertaining read.
(bwl 72 Spring 2014)

Jeremy Hutchinson's Case Histories by Thomas Grant

One of the great Advocates - defender of Blake, Vassal, Lady Chatterley, Christine Keeler, Duncan Campbell, Tom Keating and others - his cases were landmarks for a society changing from secrecy, deference and prudishness to something better. His sympathy for those up against the big battalions makes him something of a hero. All that, plus an interesting war and marriage to Peggy Ashcroft, means an entertaining and instructive read. Undiminished at 100, Hutchinson adds a postscript tearing Chris Grayling's changes apart.
(bwl 78 Autumn 2015)

Jerusalem by Patrick Neate

Interleaved narratives of a Boer War veteran, a contemporary junior minister sent to Africa, the minister's "cool" entrepreneur son and a rapper with a reinterpretation of 'Jerusalem' - all in collision with Africa. Very entertaining. It implicitly suggests that there is only one thing worse than contemporary Africa: England.
(bwl 60 Spring 2011)

Killing Thatcher: The IRA, the Manhunt and the Long War on the Crown by Rory Carroll

This detailed, exciting account places the Brighton bombing in its context of evolving political strategies and operational capabilities. From the Mountbatten assassination to the to the hunger strikes which made Margaret Thatcher a hate figure, the war pitched the IRA against skilled and persistent pursuers. A tense, gripping story with much hinging on sheer chance. Magee, the bomber, and Thatcher, the Prime Minister. It was her finest moment – she showed her mettle and ‘it gleamed’ – but was also the central act of an unfolding drama which culminated in peace. The covert, claustrophobic world of the terrorist and the tragedy of innocent victims are vividly evoked and stay in the mind.
(bwl 112 Autumn 2024)

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

It's a masterstroke that Klara the humanoid robot, who is as much in the dark as we are as to what is going on, is the narrator. The absorbing plot prompts all sorts of reflections about what it is to be human with our imperfections and compromises and what happens to the robot throws up thought provoking parallels with human life. In the background, a future and not very sympathetic society is sketched in. A deceptively simple story, straightforwardly told, turns out to be something more.
(bwl 100 Spring 2021)

Larkinland by Jonathan Tulloch

The tale of a new Librarian in Hull, living in a 1950's boarding house, his love life - if you can call it that - and his first success as a published poet. With an amorous landlady, struggling commercial travellers, incompetent policemen, the limitations of provincial life and frustrated lust, it is frequently very funny but undershot, like his poetry, with that layer of sadness. A highly entertaining literary read but without any literary pretentiousness. Delightful for Larkin fans and may get him a new reader or two.
(bwl 96 Spring 2020)

Last Days in Old Europe: Trieste '79, Vienna '85, Prague '89 by Richard Basset

The fascinating reminiscences of a man who started as principal horn in Ljubijlana Opera House in Slovenia and finished as Times correspondent in central Europe. In 1980's Trieste and Vienna, he encounters the survivors of the Habsburg aristocracy, including the last Empress, and an Austria which has an ambivalent Cold War status. Moving on to Germany and Poland he witnesses the fall of communism. A journalist in the era before instant communication meant competing for getting the story first and put a premium on local insight.
(bwl 98 Autumn 2020)

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

A story about a female victim of mid twentieth century male chauvinism, thwarted in her chosen chemistry career and hit by personal tragedy, who becomes a TV chef by accident. Not a light sounding storyline, perhaps, but an unusual lady who is no ordinary chef. While the feminism is a strong part of the mix this very individual novel is anything but preachy. The witty writing keeps you eagerly reading until the last page.
(bwl 106 Autumn 2022)

Let's Do It: The Authorised Biography of Victoria Wood by Jasper Rees

The story of 'the greatest entertainer of the television age' based on extensive interviews with family, friends and contemporaries. Her life and career are traced from a lonely and neglected Lancashire childhood through a shy, unfulfilled student life to ultimate show business stardom and her own family life. Often spiky and demanding, she nevertheless gave and inspired great devotion in her close circle and was extending her range creatively before being cut short by sadly premature death. Above all she was uniquely funny and this book has plenty to make you laugh again.
(bwl 105 Summer 2022)

Letters to Venetia Stanley by H H Asquith

How do you attract a pretty girl 40 years your junior? By being powerful and famous and constantly reminding her of the fact. Asquith, Prime Minister during WW I, became infatuated by a young aristocrat to whom he wrote daily - sometimes during cabinet meetings - astonishingly indiscreet and increasingly desperate letters. They provide a unique insight into the running of the nation and the psyche of a man in the last-chance emotional saloon. An utterly riveting story.
(bwl 62 Autumn 2011)

Light Perpetual by Francis Spufford

Five south London children are killed in a V2 attack. This is the story of the lives they might have lived, dropping in on them at intervals through to the present century. Scenes as diverse as a Margate Bank Holiday, the classroom, a family get together, fascist street violence, and a London bus, feature. Mental illness, marriage, and love of music are central experiences. London - whether shabby and suburban, gentrifying or absorbing immigrants - is a constantly evolving sixth character. Add in fine writing and you have a very good read.
(bwl 100 Spring 2017)

Look Who's Back by Timur Vermes

It is 2011: Adolf Hitler wakes up in Angela Merkel's Germany. What will he think of it and how will he get on? What would you make, in his shoes, of ladies who follow their dogs around the park with little plastic bags? This ingenious novel, translated from the German, is funny in its own right as well as adding up to a satire on modern life. Who said the Germans had no sense of humour?
(bwl 74 Autumn 2014)

Maigret and the Hundred Gibbets by Georges Simenon

Unjustly, Simenon has dropped out of sight. One of the first Maigret stories. Has Maigret's humanity and insight, a gripping game of cat and mouse with the perpetrator of an unknown crime and Simenon's matchless economy in giving a sense of person and place. The green second-hand paperbacks slip perfectly into the pocket for a train journey. Smaller than a Kindle!
(bwl 59 Winter 2011)

Maigret and the Man on the Boulevard by Georges Simenon

Classic Maigret as the detective slowly homes in on what was going on in the life of a murder victim. Maigret's shrewd appreciation of the dark lives of people clinging on to modest status, or living on the raffish fringes of society, comes to the fore. All this and a vivid impression of mid-century everyday street life in Paris. All done with great economy.
(bwl 89 Summer 2018)

Making it Happen: Fred Goodwin, RBS and the Men who blew up the British Economy by Iain Martin

Don't understand the complex financial instruments behind the economic meltdown of 2007? Neither did Fred Goodwin. This clear and lively account of how a conservative Scottish bank came to lead the charge to disaster shows Fred the Shred with all his considerable faults but others - from Gordon Brown to Mervyn King - don't emerge unscathed. Educational and, in a grisly way, highly entertaining.
(bwl 70 Autumn 2013)

Man at the Helm by Nina Stibbe

The younger of two sisters searching for a partner for their mother narrates their efforts. Both knowing and naïve, as children are, she shows you not only the often hilarious situations which arise but also village life. You enjoy seeing what she and her sister see - and more. The narrator's adult perspective sometimes gives a sadder, more serious edge to things but this is essentially a highly individual and very funny novel which keeps you reading.
(bwl 79 Winter 2016)

Missing Person by Patrick Modiano

An amnesiac's attempts to find out who he is take him to a loose grouping of expatriates in occupied France and to the traumatic experiences which may have triggered his amnesia. By implication our lives are as murky and shifting as the life of the nation itself. In both cases, memory fades, the scene changes and betrayal hovers. Not for you if you dislike loose ends but it resonated with me for the way hidden lives slip out of sight.
(bwl 76 Spring 2015)

Mister: The Men Who Taught The World How To Beat England At Their Own Game by Rory Smith

The extraordinary story of British football coaches, unknown and unappreciated in their home environment, who, starting a century ago, set the foreign game on the road to superiority. A gallery of diverse and sometimes extravagant personalities - mavericks and loners - and a humbling tale of English insularity. Some of that insularity persists, the author argues, but it is the account of the pre-war era which is the vivid heart of the book.
(bwl 91 Winter 2019)

Mr Scarborough's Family by Anthony Trollope

A flawed father, two flawed sons, an inheritance - all the ingredients for a classic Trollope easy read with its good plot and clear-eyed cynical appreciation of the importance of money, status and reputation to the middle and upper classes. Yes, there's his world's underlying anti-semitism but here this is popular cliché rather than malice and it's balanced by his sympathetic understanding of the constraints on women. Add a comical sub-plot and you have something which helps hours of confinement slip by.
(bwl 96 Spring 2017)

Next Season by Michael Blakemore

I'm pleased to have caught up with this 1960's novel, which got a passing nod in the review for Blakemore's autobiography: Stage Blood (bwl 70). It gives an excellent feel of life in a theatre company at work in a seaside town, and the joys and disappointments of being an actor, while telling an absorbing story. Interesting on the plays and you can have fun guessing identities as well - Vanessa Redgrave? Peter Hall? Olivier?
(bwl 71 Winter 2014)

No Way to Treat a First Lady by Christopher Buckley

The First Lady is accused of murdering the President. An entertaining and fast-paced story packed with outrageous and highly cynical humour at the expense of politicians, lawyers, the CIA, Hollywood and the media. A very good holiday read.
(bwl 61 Summer 2011)

Nobody's Fool by Richard Russo

Set in Russo's territory of small town America, the story features an entertaining group of the nation's losers, an endearing, if often feckless, bunch. None more so than the main character, Sully, his own worst enemy but a fertile source of very funny dialogue. Other characters - a retired schoolteacher; her irritating friend and unscrupulous son; the town Don Juan; ineffectual husbands and disgruntled wives - add to the fun. Drawn with compassion and a clear sense of America as a two speed society.
(bwl 84 Spring 2017)

Nourishment by Gerard Woodward

Wartime Britain. The family sits down to a superb joint rescued from a bombed butcher's . . . but might it be the butcher's leg? You never quite know what is coming next in this quirky, original saga in which the twists and turns of a life are set against a background of war/post war England. Funny, intriguing, sad by turns and very, very enjoyable.
(bwl 62 Autumn 2011)

Nutshell by Ian McEwan

Rewriting a truly great play as a contemporary novel is bound not to match up but this is still a very enjoyable reinvention - enjoyable for its ingenuity in making 'Hamlet' a thinking foetus, for its insights into the state of the world outside, for its sundry reflections and for the murder plot at the story's heart. Shakespeare fans will enjoy spotting the 'translations' of the soliloquies into modern idiom. To read or not to read - no question: go ahead.
(bwl 83 Winter 2017)

O My America!: Second Acts in a New World by Sara Wheeler

The experiences of six middle-aged English women who went to and wrote about the USA in the nineteenth century. They included Fanny Trollope: the actress Fanny Kemble; Jane Austen's niece and a poverty stricken wife setting out, with her husband, to make a new life for her family. Their ups and downs are vividly evoked by an author who makes clear that she has ups and downs of her own. An absorbing read.
(bwl 74 Autumn 2014)

Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald

Set in 1960's Battersea Reach, Fitzgerald's short, early novel, a Booker prize winner, features a community of disparate characters living in houseboats or barely seaworthy former barges. They include a ramshackle painter, the highly organised unofficial leader of the fleet, a rent boy, a woman wondering if her husband will return and their two streetwise children. There is scruffy charm and some poignancy in the backwater life, and much passing interest to be had in everything from changing tides to comments on Whistler and Turner.
(bwl 98 Autumn 2020)

One Leg Too Few by William Cook

Two great talents: Cook - a brilliantly, original comic mind, instrumental in launching the Sixties' satire boom and Moore - an exceptional musician, a winning performer, who achieved film stardom. Both flawed, their quality overshadowed by womanising or drink, and their lives ended sadly and too soon. The account, in evoking their achievements, is a reminder of how much sheer entertainment they provided. While the relationship of ‘Pete’ and ‘Dud’ was often difficult, the frustrations, it is clear, reflected an underlying love, making this ultimately a very moving account
(bwl 110 Autumn 2023)

One Summer: America 1927 by Bill Bryson

Typical Bryson; well-researched, full of fascinating information and amusingly written. It's really the story of what was in the papers that summer and there was plenty. If much of it is well known - Lindberg, Prohibition, Al Capone, Babe Ruth - other subjects, the unintentionally amusing President Coolidge being one, are less so. A light, superficial but enjoyable read.
(bwl 74 Autumn 2014)

Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene

A real surprise. Laugh out loud funny, a gripping and prophetic story line and a heart-warming endorsement of the little man up against the big battalions. A vacuum cleaner salesman finds himself caught up in the absurd but dangerous world of international espionage and inadvertently triggers a lethal series of events. Greene had the knack of anticipating historic flash-points and here gets in on the Cuban missile crisis a year or two before it happened.
(bwl 64 Spring 2012)

Patricia Wants to Cuddle by Samantha Leigh Allen

The finalists of a TV Reality show, manipulated by a cynical production team, bitchily battle it out on an island in the Pacific North West. A swarm of social media follows them. But there is a dangerous primitive force at work on the island, aided by certain locals, and matters come to a drastic head. The novel has a bang up-to-date feel, with feminism and LGBT involved, and is richly entertaining, skewering the world of TV and keeping you guessing to the end. Good holiday reading.
(bwl 109 Summer 2023)

Perfidious Albion by Sam Byers

Contemporary Britain, a society losing its grip on truth and identity in a welter of social media hysteria manipulated by large corporations and unscrupulous politicians. People are trapped in multiple lives as commenters, trolls, fantasists, consumers and propagandists. Relating to one another on a simple human level and knowing what is real suffers. Overreaction is rife and violence is in the air. A few twists too many perhaps but an often funny tale which feels bang up to date.
(bwl 90 Autumn 2018)

Phineas Finn by Anthony Trollope

Story of an Irish MP which paints a convincing and sophisticated picture of Parliamentary politics in the mid 19th century and weaves into it the MP's romantic adventures. If that sounds unexciting, Trollope is a great storyteller who makes you keep turning the pages. Never heavy and a good free download standby for the kindle when the weather drives you indoors.
(bwl 69 Summer 2013)

Putting the Rabbit in the Hat by Brian Cox

Having enjoyed Brian Cox from 'As You Like it' in the Sixties to 'Succession' today, I was pre-conditioned to like this tale of a hard Dundee childhood followed by acting success. Plenty of entertaining anecdotes and put-downs, including Gielgud and McKellen, are balanced by heroes like Fulton Mackay and Paul Scofield, although there is also rather too much routine luvvie praise. The most appealing aspects are his candour and his dedication to the craft of acting. Directors who get between the actor and the text get a deserved roasting.
(bwl 103 Winter 2022)

Roy Jenkins: A Well Rounded Life by John Campbell

The fascinating story of a politician whose gifts would have entitled him to be Prime Minister had he not lacked the common touch and had he seized his opportunities. Instead he was an outstanding Home Secretary, whose reforms still affect our lives, and a very successful Chancellor. His taste for the high life and 'interesting' private life add colour. Perhaps too detailed in parts but still a very good read.
(bwl 73 Summer 2014)

Shadowlands: A Journey Through Lost Britain by Matthew Green

An historian takes a fascinating look at eight places which have disappeared, whether abandoned, destroyed, or fallen into the sea. Their well researched and evoked stories, what they were like and what survives, vary, but from, St Kilda to Winchelsea via Wharram Percy and the lesser known Stanford or Trellech, each fascinatingly illuminates a part of our history. Coastal erosion is still actively at work as are impersonal economic forces and climate change. The past lives on.
(bwl 105 Summer 2022)

Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson

Set in post WW I London, the novel tells the story of a family run set of night clubs, venues for frantic gaiety and widespread criminality. The police want to nail the family’s matriarch who is simultaneously under attack from a corrupt employee and rival criminal interests. Intrigue and deception rule but the matriarch is alert to much of it. A vivid portrait of 1920’s London emerges and, despite some grim realities, the feel tends to be light and breezy with the emphasis on entertainment. A very enjoyable read.
(bwl 107 Winter 2023)

Speaking Out: Lessons in Life and Politics by Ed Balls

Political memoirs are frequently overlong, self-serving and only for junkies. Balls, by contrast, manages an entertaining mix of his own memoirs, reflection on the political process, self-criticism and gossip. Especially interesting are his claimed achievements (keeping us out of the euro/Bank of England independence) and personal struggles (his stammer, coping with defeat). He portrays his political life as over but this could be seen as a clearing of the decks just in case not.
(bwl 83 Winter 2017)

That Will be England Gone: The last summer of Cricket by Michael Henderson

Part lament for English cricket besieged by money men and part appreciation of the England of Larkin and Vaughan Williams. Written by a highly cultivated lover of the game and the arts who has enjoyed friendships in both worlds, it is best read as a celebration of good things by an agreeable pavilion companion, though there's also a slight sense of being drawn into the ranks of disgruntled old buffers. Nevertheless a true appreciation of the game shines through and just now is surely the time for nostalgia.
(bwl 97 Summer 2020)

The Blue Room by Georges Simenon

An illicit love affair in a country district - something which is difficult to conceal when community members are well-known to each other. There is a disparity in the emotional commitment of the two lovers and things take a murderous turn. As investigation proceeds, attitudes and the nature of the crime itself emerge by degrees and there is a dramatic end.-A haunting and intense tale full of Simenon's cold realism and sense of place. A brief but gripping and superb read.
(bwl 95 Winter 2019)

The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald

I'd endorse Annabel Bedini's praise (bwl 75) for this compelling account of a widow's attempt to establish a bookshop. Boosted by the scandalous success of 'Lolita', it nevertheless runs into powerful opposition from the locals accustomed to running things. There is much comic irony but ultimately its spirited protagonist finds herself struggling with dark forces. If it all seems rather small scale, then that merely throws the skill of the writer into sharper focus. It's not how big the story is but how well it is told.
(bwl 103 Winter 2022)

The Bride of Science: Romance, Reason and Byron's Daughter by Benjamin Woolley

In her short life Byron's daughter, Ada Lovelace, combined the mathematical interests and imaginative power, which had differentiated her parents, to produce the first ever computer programme. Her interests and aristocratic status brought her into contact with scientific and literary giants of the age but her passionate nature and stormy family background denied her lasting happiness. Rediscovered by Turing, her reputation stands high and she is well served by this grippingly readable biography.
(bwl 84 Spring 2017)

The Brothers York: An English Tragedy by Thomas Penn

The dramatic history of three brothers: the charismatic but dissolute Edward IV; Clarence, drowned in a butt of sweet Greek wine - not Malmsey; and Richard III, the last of the dynasty, more restrained in style but deadlier than his brothers. These vivid portraits dominate a narrative full of shifting allegiances, marital and diplomatic manoeuvrings and armed conflict. It was a nightmare world of mistrust which the author portrays in compelling detail. Richard went down fighting at Bosworth by which time, you feel, Henry Tudor could only be an improvement.
(bwl 98 Autumn 2020)

The Changeling by Robin Jenkins

The 1950's story of a well-meaning but naive Glasgow schoolmaster who takes a talented slum pupil, already embarked on a life of petty crime, on a family summer holiday to the west coast of Scotland. The families of the teacher and boy react in different ways with a lasting impact on both the teacher's family and the boy himself. It all comes to a dramatic conclusion. The shifting dynamics are subtly portrayed in an absolutely cracking story.
(bwl 92 Spring 2019)

The Day of Creation by J G Ballard

A kind of African Queen meets Heart of Darkness as a British doctor turned ecologist pits his wits against two opposing African factions and lives out his own obsessions. An eventful, at times exciting, story. Try also High Rise and Super Cannes for Ballard's ability to latch onto the dark side of contemporary developments. Thought-provoking and utterly individual.
(bwl 65 Summer 2012)

The Devil in the Flesh by Raymond Radiguet

17 when he wrote it, the French author was dead by 20. Set in a provincial society more concerned with appearances than morality but its core - told with economy and a total absence of sentimentality - is the tragic and seemingly real-life affaire between a teenage boy and the young wife of a soldier in the Great War. It's a story of love, obsession, desire and a heedless pursuit of the moment. The clarity, objectivity and insight would be an achievement for any writer and is stunning in the circumstances.
(bwl 103 Winter 2022)

The Dig by John Preston

The gripping story of the Sutton Hoo excavation, told from several points of view. A race against time and the onset of war as well as the archaeological event of a lifetime which gave rise to furious professional tussles and emotional change. Through it all, implicit themes of the rise and fall of civilisations, human impermanence and the possibilities for life after death are all the more powerful for being unstated. This one hooked me from the first line.
(bwl 75 Winter 2015)

The Durrells of Corfu by Michael Haag

For watchers of the TV series, the real story - with plenty of photos. Different in some respects from a narrative pepped up for TV, but still a remarkable story. Any set of four siblings which included a famous writer and a famous naturalist and some very different personalities is going to be interesting especially when combined with what happened before and after. The collision of an eccentric family with thirties Corfu is the centrepiece though and makes for an entertaining read.
(bwl 86 Autumn 2017)

The Fall Guy by James Lasdun

A successful banker, his attractive photographer wife and a friend - a man whose life appears to be on hold - spend a summer in the Catskills. The living, by the pool and among arty types, is easy. But the idyll has undertones. The men have a shared past while the wife has a secret. What are the real dynamics of this triangular summer? Matters become intriguing, suspenseful and then dramatic before ending in surprise. A very good read.
(bwl 86 Autumn 2017)

The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Halie Rubenhold

Posterity has stepped over the bodies of his victims to get to Jack the Ripper. Here are their stories, pieced together from inquest evidence and public sources including the census and workhouse records. Only one was a downright prostitute. Fascinating individually, collectively they illuminate the lives of London's underclass - stories of broken relationships, homelessness and alcoholism compounded by women's disadvantaged status. Rubenhold perhaps overstates her case - the fascination is always with the murderer - but this doesn't detract from a moving story told without a trace of prurience.
(bwl 94 Autumn 2019)

The French Art of War by Alexis Jenni

This prize winning French novel tells the story of a soldier artist seen through the eyes of a troubled narrator. Moving from the Resistance to Indo China and Algeria, it shows brutal conflicts creating a legacy of violence and racial blindness from which France cannot escape. Sometimes feels overlong but there are brilliantly vivid evocations of jungle warfare and the nightmare of unwinnable conflicts. Bravura passages, on subjects as diverse as De Gaulle and a meal from the slaughterhouse, pepper the narrative. Strong meat.
(bwl 99 Winter 2021)

The Great Swindle by Pierre Lemaitre

This Prix Goncourt winner concerns two French veterans of the Great war, scarred by their experiences in different ways, seeking to survive and prosper in postwar France. From the battlefield to the lower reaches of Paris and the depiction of the inhuman, corrupt ruling class, the narrative, alternately tragic and comic never flags. With its vividly drawn characters from a superbly cynical villain, a sexy maid - no better than she should be - to a failed bureaucrat battling for justice, I couldn't put this one down - highly recommended.
(bwl 96 Spring 2020)

The Haunting of Alma Fielding by Kate Summerscale

The late 30's - a psychical researcher investigates a suburban housewife's links with the supernatural: fraud, genuine or both? The focus widens to the researcher himself, the bereavement-fed psychic movement and the growing influence of psychology as an explanatory tool. In the background, war is coming step by step. Some of this feels like padding and the mystery is not very mysterious but for me the main interest was the insights into working class life and mores.
(bwl 99 Winter 2021)

The Inheritors by William Golding

An extraordinary story of a group of Neanderthals, struggling for survival, who have no real language but some telepathy, a highly developed sense of smell and understand nature as an animated force. They encounter an alien group – home sapiens - which is both incomprehensible and a threat and what follows is highly testing and in the end, life changing. There is an astonishing switch of perspective at the end. It all adds up to a vivid and moving story, brilliantly imagined.
(bwl 111 Winter 2024)

The Invention of Nature: The adventures of Alexander von Humboldt by Andrea Wulf

Enthralling biography of the great, yet under appreciated, naturalist and explorer whose travels in the Americas and Europe added thousands to the total of known species and yielded insights too numerous to list. We are still taking on board his key insight: that nature is a single dynamic interrelated system. In a long life he influenced and inspired people as diverse as Jefferson, Darwin (both of whom he knew ) and Thoreau.
(bwl 80 Spring 2016)

The King by Andrew Taylor

If you have run out of Shardlakes, Andrew Taylor's Marwood story is a good alternative. Strong on period detail, this time of Restoration London, it centres on murder and Court intrigue with Charles II, the Dukes of York, Clarendon and Buckingham heavily involved. There is plenty of action and menace leavened with love and lust - an entertaining mixture which keeps you reading.
(bwl 93 Summer 2019)

The King of the Badgers by Philip Hensher

A child abduction focuses attention on a small Devon coastal town. What follows is a portrait of the lives and issues of the inhabitants. Well-observed and frequently funny - notably a hilarious evening in which a restrained neighbourhood soirée gets mixed up with a gay orgy - it borders on being patronising but you want to keep on reading. (Tony Pratt)
(bwl 66 Autumn 2012)

The Kingdom by Emmanuel Carrere

Described as a novel, but more autobiography and history, this French best seller turns out to be an utterly gripping investigation of early Christianity. Concentrating on Paul and Luke, it paints a vivid picture of the times and of the two individuals - plus much else besides. In a breathtaking section, the distinctive voice of Christ himself emerges. All this, plus much about himself, from an ex-Christian with a super sized ego. Unique.
(bwl 84 Spring 2017)

The Last Remains by Elly Griffiths

The latest Ruth Galloway mystery: a walled up skeleton is found and enquiries start into a twenty year old murder. Set in a Norfolk of crime detection, archaeology and occult mythology, its locations are real with engaging police and academic cross-currents. The mystery progressively, sometimes dramatically, unravels while the relationships of sympathetic but very different main characters change significantly. A consistently absorbing read – in the author’s intelligent company – but the dark deeds and undertones nevertheless felt a bit cosy and unthreatening.
(bwl 110 Autumn 2023)

The Lie of the Land by Amanda Craig

A London couple cope financially with divorce by decamping, with children, to Devon. There are pluses and minuses as they find different ways to integrate with this new way of life which turns out to combine delight and nightmare in equal measure. Devon is certainly not a blank sheet. Funny and full of insights into both rural and city life, a gripping narrative races to a dramatic climax and some partial resolutions. Left me wanting to read more by this novelist.
(bwl 87 Winter 2018)

The Mirror of our Sorrows by Pierre Lemaitre

The final volume of a trilogy which began with The Great Swindle (bwl 96) followed by All Human Wisdom (bwl 102). It’s 1940 and the phoney war in France is ending. Everyone is displaced, from Paris, from the collapsed front, from prison – or simply away doing their duty or engaged on a personal quest. As their world descends into chaos, paths cross and people change. At times it feels contrived but this is a vivid story which keeps you reading and illuminates the experience of a time in France’s story often overlooked.
(bwl 108 Spring 2023)

The Misty Harbour by Georges Simenon

Maigret escorts an amnesiac from Paris to the fogbound Channel port where he is the harbour master. The amnesiac is promptly murdered. Rain sweeps constantly as his investigation is hampered by a conspiracy of silence, violent sailors and hostile local bourgeoisie. Simenon’s classic virtues are on display: sense of place, atmosphere, insight into how lives get complicated, humanity and economy. A mystery story - the mystery to me is why Simenon doesn’t seem to be more popular.
(bwl 108 Spring 2023)

The Passenger by Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz

A successful German Jewish businessman tries to escape Nazi Germany as the persecution of Jews begins in earnest. A series of rail journeys and a sense of rising desperation take a tense story to its dramatic conclusion. On the way there you see faults in the hero as well as in the society around him and are gripped by the clearly told story. Written in 1938, it has only recently seen its first publication in Germany and, like the author's equally dramatic life story, deserves its current attention.
(bwl 103 Winter 2022)

The Perfect Golden Circle by Benjamin Myers

Two friends on the fringes of societ - one a scarred Falklands veteran the other into alternative thinking - spend summer nights creating crop circles of increasing beauty and complexity. All around them the natural world hums with activity and there are occasional encounters with people, ranging from fly tippers to landowners. Rejecting the age’s materialism, they tap into an older, layered and more spiritual England, attracting media attention and tourism in the process. But the summer, like the transient circles, must end. An absorbing read.
(bwl 106 Autumn 2022)

The Places in Between by Rory Stewart

In 2002, a man - with dog - retraces the Emperor Babur's journey between Herat and Kabul. His ability to speak the language brings encounters which illuminate the impact of decades of turmoil and modern Islam on the people's lives. At the end, I understood much better why Afghanistan's 'conquerors' are doomed to fail but it is the human, sometimes funny, realities of a remarkable man's journey which stay in the mind. And there is a stunning surprise at the end.
(bwl 57 Summer 2010)

The Rapture by Clare McGlasson

Bedford seems an unlikely venue for the Second Coming but the novel is based on a real 1920's religious cult, largely run by middle-class ladies as much concerned with table manners as with spiritual matters. The author weaves a dramatic story, heaving with inadequately controlled sexual tension and power politics. Controversy surrounding the revelations of a prophetess brings matters to a head. The novel guarantees that the museum will be high on my list in the unlikely event that I return to Bedford.
(bwl 94 Autumn 2019)

The Real Jane Austin by Paula Byrne

Byrne uses objects associated with the author - jewellery, a miniature, notebooks, the bathing machine - to illuminate Austen's life and character. What emerges is both individual and convincing, a portrait of a woman with a keen grasp of the world around her, a mordant line in humour, a deep but understated faith, sometimes financially stressed but increasingly placing her writing above the possibility of marriage. The tame spinster in a narrow circle is banished in favour of a real, formidable person.
(bwl 86 Autumn 2017)

The Rings of Saturn by W G Sebald

To call it a travel book feels like a dangerous oversimplification. A journey through Suffolk becomes a haunting meditation on places, people - their works and transitory lives - and the past. Once you are onto his wavelength, which takes a chapter or two, the effect is mesmerising. Impossible to convey its unique and sympathetic flavour but the mood lingers. Best thing I read in 2011.
(bwl 63 Winter 2011)

The Romantic by William Boyd

The nineteenth century memoirs of a man whose life takes him from Ireland to England, Italy, Africa, the USA, and Austria (Trieste). Along the way he fights at Waterloo and encounters Byron and Shelley, Burton and Speke but it is his inner life – family story, love affairs, ambitions – that command greatest attention. Impulsive and passionate, he gets into numerous scrapes but emerges with sympathetic insights into what it is to live and die. A familiar Boyd formula, occasionally feeling just a little stale as a result, it is nevertheless a cracking read.
(bwl 107 Winter 2023)

The Rule of Law* by Tom Bingham

Do you see the European Court and Human Rights Act as a maddening restriction on our ability to run our own affairs with common sense? Do you think that fretting about the rights of possible terrorists is an overrated luxury in today's environment? A very eminent English judge deploys balance and lucidity in explaining the meaning and importance of the rule of law and showing that politicians' knee jerk reactions can threaten the foundations of a fair and just society.
*Winner of the 2011 Orwell prize
(bwl 60 Spring 2011)

The Search Warrant: Dora Bruder by Patrick Modiano

Writer pieces together the story of a Jewish girl who goes missing in wartime Paris, throwing light on a dark period but it is the precarious nature of people's lives - how they slip beyond memory, and how they are lived n equally changing Quartiers and buildings of Paris = which registers. Nobel prize winning author who reminds me of W G Sebald. Highly recommended.
(bwl 75 Winter 2015)

The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt

Mid-19th century USA: two brothers, hired killers, pursue their target from Oregon to San Francisco. Here they get caught up in the California Gold Rush and an ambivalent relationship with their resourceful target. A compelling story takes them through frontier lowlife, their natural milieu, and reaches a dramatic conclusion which fundamentally affects their relationship. By turns funny, sad and eventful, it's recently emerged as a well-reviewed movie. You don't need to be a western fan to enjoy this entertaining read.
(bwl 92 Spring 2019)

The Spider Network: The Wild Story of a Maths Genius and One of the Greatest Scams in Financial History by David Enrich

The manipulation of Libor, too technical for most, but a financial yardstick which impacts millions, was the perfect illustration of why bankers and the City got a bad name. This is the story of how one brilliant trader but limited human being became the fall guy while his equally culpable collaborators lied themselves away from trouble and the bosses smoothly walked clear. A vivid story of eye popping excess which leaves the reader questioning an entire system.
(bwl 90 Autumn 2018)

The Theory and Practice of Lunch by Keith Waterhouse

Pud or cheese? It has to be the sweet course: you never hear a couple ordering one piece of cheese and two knives. A menu bound in simulated pigskin like a nonaggression treaty between two very minor nations = a pretentious restaurant to be avoided. Crammed full of witty lines to make the committed luncher punch the air in delighted recognition. Almost as good as the thing itself.
(bwl 64 Spring 2012)

The Trouble with Europe by Roger Bootle

A clear, objective and challenging discussion of the weaknesses of the EU and why leaving it might not only be a good idea but would also, in the author's opinion, be eminently possible. Bootle is a respected economist and if you believe we should be in the EU you also need to know how you would answer his case. A relatively easy read which, whatever you think about its conclusions, is full of valuable insights.
(bwl 73 Summer 2014)

The Wager by David Grann

The true story of an eighteenth century ship sent to South America to strike a blow against the Spanish and bent on plunder. Shipwreck, death, deprivation, mutiny and a reckoning are elements in an extraordinary tale which reveals much about naval life and ethics as well as colonial conflict. A dramatic story superbly told and populated by intensely realised personalities placed in equally vivid landscapes.
(bwl 111 Winter 2024)

The Way we Live Now by Anthony Trollope

A great financier rises above a dodgy background, his enormous wealth getting him the patronage of politicians, City fathers and the aristocracy. All cluster round his wealth but there is a catch. His empire is sustained by - to put it politely - sleight of hand and, if confidence weakens . . . reputation, ruin and love are all at issue. There is more to it than this in a devastating portrait of a society in thrall to money. Sound at all familiar? A very good read.
(bwl 82 Autumn 2016)

The West End Front: The Wartime Secrets of London's Grand Hotels by Matthew Sweet

An account of the big London hotels during the war, this is full of sharp judgements and fascinating detail but it is what Sweet has unearthed about selected individuals - guests, staff, proprietors - that is the main attraction. A spotlight is turned on a series of hitherto mainly obscure lives at critical moments, illuminating a whole society in the process.
(bwl 66 Autumn 2012)

The Western Wind by Samantha Harvey

1491: A priest narrates a death and its impact on his remote and poor Somerset village. How and why did the largest landowner, a cultivated friend, die? And what are the intentions of the investigating Dean? Will and should the bridge, main lifeline to the outside world, be rebuilt? Not a conventional whodunnit, although there are mysteries to be unravelled, but an unfolding of the inner lives of two troubled men and a vivid portrait of village life in its austere struggle for survival. Beautifully written.
(bwl 99 Winter 2021)

The Wide World: Book 1 of The Glorious World trilogy by Pierre Lemaitre

The four children of a wealthy French, Beirut based, soap manufacturer embark on widely varied lives which bring them to postwar Paris and colonial Vietnam and into close contact with corruption in high places. The mix of secrets, ambition, murder, sex and drugs is irresistible. While the context of the novel is an overall series depicting France in the twentieth century, and loosely linked by certain characters and incidents, the novels stand perfectly well alone. Highly entertaining.
(bwl 110 Autumn 2023)

This Thing of Darkness by Harry Thompson

Fictionalised but fully researched life of Captain Fitzroy of the Beagle - an epic of sea-faring adventure, dramatic landscapes, tragi-comic Fuegians, scientific discovery, personal disaster and the Empire. Dominated by Fitzroy, brave, able well-intentioned but his own, troubled, worst enemy, and the inexperienced, affable Darwin in whom brilliant observation and independent thought are balanced by some less sympathetic behaviour. A friendship soured. Terrific story, grippingly and movingly told.
(bwl 58 Autumn 2010)

Tickbox by David Boyle

Ever filled in a Feedback which lets you award stars but not make a comment? In an often amusing but deadly book, the author skewers how organisations destroy complexity via bureaucratic categories and targets which provide useless information while impairing the end product. Want to set targets for NHS waiting lists or response times? Trolleys become beds, definitions change, but nothing actually improves. Call centres are a nightmare. The author sees few easy remedies but you feel better because he’s onto what’s wrong.
(bwl 110 Autumn 2023)

Tombland by C J Sansom

The latest 'Shardlake' was a disappointment. The historian has taken over the novelist to produce an 800 page slab - to the detriment of the usual well-researched detective story. Half way through we leave the central plot in virtual abeyance and by the time we get to the slightly perfunctory ending, I had rather lost interest. Instead we get a lot on Kett's rebellion, the realities of which may be under-appreciated but could have been more economically woven into the story and the historical appendix expanded. A minority view?
(bwl 91 Winter 2019)

Under Another Sky: Journeys in Roman Britain by Charlotte Higgins

Part travel book, part history as Roman remains from Colchester and Pevensey to Scotland and Hadrian's Wall are visited. Major centres like London and Bath feature beside less well known ones such as Silchester. Out of this come insights into the history, starting with the fiasco of Julius Caesar's attempts to invade, and fascinating accounts of the long uncovering of Roman Britain which say a lot about later times.
(bwl 71 Winter 2014)

Under the Skin by Michael Faber

A sexily dressed young woman cruises a remote part of the Highlands picking up lone male hitchhikers - provided their bodies are good enough. What happens next is part of a strange and haunting story, a unique and moving mix of horror, tension and the unexpected with a deeper subtext about the human species.
(bwl 77 Summer 2015)

Victorians Undone: Tales of the Flesh in the Age of Decorum by Kathryn Hughes

A 'pregnancy' in Victoria's court, Darwin's beard, George Eliot's right hand, attributes of one of Dante Gabriel Rosetti's favourite models and the brutal murder of little Fanny Adams are considered in turn, ostensibly for the light they throw on Victorian attitudes to the body. Some interesting insights do result but the book's main appeal - which is considerable - is in the particular and gripping tales which they unfold.
(bwl 88 Spring 2018)

Watling Street: Travels Through Britain and Its Ever-Present Past by John Higgs

A journey from Dover to Anglesey in which the author explores English identity at a time when who we are and where we're going are live issues. A varied, if confused, picture emerges in which everything, from Robin Hood and St George to Bletchley Park and the prostitutes of 16th century Southwark, mixed up with the sometimes tatty everyday scene and the imaginings of counterculture, add up to something richer and deeper than the idea of a current selfie might suggest.
(bwl 87 Winter 2018)

We Had it So Good by Linda Grant

An American meets a girl at Oxford in the 1960s and the story of their lives together follows. I was thoroughly absorbed by these baby boomer biographies and those of their family and friends over 50 years. Interesting also as a critical re-appraisal of that generation - part of what seems to be a growing trend.
(bwl 65 Summer 2012)

West by Carys Davies

In the early 19th C. a man moves west, first to the USA in pursuit of a better life, then out west searching for creatures which have captured his imagination. Accompanied by an Indian himself displaced westwards, like his tribe, but in their case by white settlers, the man leaves behind a young daughter now exposed to the perils of growing up. Told with great economy, this gripping tale seems like a tragic allegory but gives complexity its due. A rather too neat ending does not detract from the impact of a beautifully written and compelling story.
(bwl 108 Spring 2023)

Winds of Change: Britain in the Early Sixties by Peter Hennessey

Macmillan's last years as Prime Minister covering Cuba, De Gaulle and the EU, Profumo, the 'Night of the Long Knives' and the advent of Wilson. Hennessey, a serious historian, is seemingly a clubland figure who had access to newly declassified information and the private reflections of many involved, the perspective is very much Establishment. Very readable, with fascinating insights and some rich entertainment. Hard to forget Macmillan struggling to phone in the nuclear codes from a call box or the after-life of Selwyn Lloyd's dog at Chequers.
(bwl 97 Summer 2020)