bookrblog

Alistair MacLean Books

Sunday, August 29th, 2010 | British Literature | No Comments

I’ve read quite a few Alistair MacLean adventures over the years, and recently grabbed half a dozen more at the CWA book fair. As a young combatant in WW2 he knew adventure and learned how to craft readable adventure stories. They’re made up of the same ingredients - a few good men, a lot of bad ones, and an extreme situation, either wartime (South by Java Head, San Andreas), arctic (Ice Station Zebra), or something similar (biological warfare in The Satan Bug - rather prescient actually). So they’re usually a lot of fun, especially the earlier ones, which have lots of twists. His later ones are pretty poor and in fact I couldn’t get through Athabasca, but on the whole they’re fairly similar - interesting, fun, not too deep, and a good entertaining read.

The Return of the Soldier

Sunday, August 15th, 2010 | British Literature | 2 Comments

I just can’t believe that Rebecca West wrote this at age 24. By which time she’d had a 3 yr old with H G Wells who was married (to someone else). This story - a novella really - was written in 1916, about a soldier who returns in 1916. He’s suffering from shell shock and has amnesia (and it’s unusual for a writer to have understood those themes so early on in the war). He has forgotten the last 15 years, thinks he is living in a particularly idyllic summer in his youth.

What a wonderfully written, beautiful, powerful story. Yes, it’s about the change in England from the Edwardian period to the darkness of the War. Yes, it’s about expectations of being an adult, growing up, taking on responsibilities. It’s about a lot of things, but it’s written so beautifully, it’s so lovely. I loved it.

The Island of Sheep

Sunday, July 18th, 2010 | British Literature | No Comments

The only problem with this John Buchan novel is its title - really doesn’t give the impression of a rollicking adventure tale! It is, of course, and is actually the last story of Richard Hannay (which began with the 39 steps). He’s aging, a bit anxious about it, a bit aware that something is always around the corner. Each chapter introduces a new character - the mysterious Stranger, the crazy Treasure-Seeker, the idealistic Dreamer. And of course these 3 characters come together in a big battle where Honour, honour, honour, is the name of the game.

I had just finished studying Old Norse when I read this, and so it was interesting that it was set in the “Northlands”, with a Norse hero who changes slowly from a timid man to a man who embraces his heritage and thereby saves the day. It was also interesting to see Hannay with his son, who has inherited his curious outlook, and of course his number one characteristic, his sense of honour. Character drives this book. Buchan isn’t perfect, and either is this, but I enjoyed it.

British Folktales and Legends

Friday, June 18th, 2010 | British Literature | No Comments

I came across Katherine Briggs as a child with her lovely Dictionary of Fairies. This is a larger sampler of stories, not particularly for children, with a wide variety of tales sorted into categories from Dragons to Jokes to Saints. The stories are all fairly short, some well-known, some ancient, some quite new, some quite new to me. It was incredibly entertaining and very informative, both the wonderful introduction, which really explained the entire science of folk-lore, and the stories themselves which really gave such a good picture of British life. A fantastic book - I read it cover to cover. It was published post-humously from her other writings, but as those books are hard to find, this one is definitely one to get your hands upon.

Rogue Male

Saturday, May 1st, 2010 | British Literature | No Comments

I first heard of Geoffrey Household’s book when I caught a snippet of a film based on the novel. I forgot about it, but after reading Roger Deakin’s books, discovered he was a huge fan of the book, and so searched until I found a copy.

It is an exciting novel, where a man is caught and tortured after trying to assassinate “an unnamed european dictator” (ie Hitler). He escapes but realises he has to go to ground - literally - because the baddies will never let him go. He digs an underground hiding place in Devon, and there has to face not only an old tormentor, but the truth of why he went after the dictator. It has a wonderful twist which I didn’t predict, and adds such depth to the character. A very exciting and fascinating novel.

To Serve Them All My Days

Saturday, April 10th, 2010 | British Literature | No Comments

I read this book by R. F. Delderfield back in my first year of teaching. It is the story of a young man who becomes a teacher in a second-rate boys’ boarding school just as WW1 is ending. He ends up staying there permanently, moving to headmaster. It covers his loves, his children, his friendships, the political situation within the school and in the wider community as the poverty of the ’30s transforms into the war of the ’40s.  While it’s pretty basic, it’s incredibly readable and has both humour and pathos. I enjoyed it when I first began teaching, and I enjoyed it now. A good read.

Nevil Shute

Saturday, March 6th, 2010 | British Literature | No Comments

I’ve been reading a number of books by Nevil Shute which I  found in the local library. Of course, “A Town Like Alice” and “On the Beach” are his most famous - and best. But he wrote a large number of other books over the years, some set in Australia, some in the UK, all starring a working man of some sort, including Landfall, No Highway, Pilotage and An Old Captivity. He even wrote a WW2 escape story called Pied Piper.

 Nevil Shute was an engineer who worked on airships, and who emigrated to Australia after the war, partly because he didn’t like the socialism government in the UK. Most of his books star a character who is a success because they worked hard. They are well-crafted books rather than well-written books, and tend to focus on small details rather than move the plot along. I enjoy them as historical novels, as a picture of the times in which they were written, and a picture of the man who wrote them, too.

The Children’s Book

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010 | British Literature | No Comments

I was uncertain as to whether to read A S Byatt’s new book, as I haven’t always enjoyed her previous novels. But this was eminently readable, well-researched, with a sheaf of fascinating characters. It follows the lives of a group of families living in the Edwardian period, families from a Fabian background - sort of like hippies, with free love and fresh air and art being all important. The children in the family struggle with the world that is presented to them by their elders, a world which on one hand is idyllic and hopeful, but on the other has dark, ugly secrets. The matriach, Olive, writes a story for each of the children, based on the fairytales she is fascinated by. The stories also don’t turn out quite the way Olive thought.

Knowing that the Great War is coming up does put all their dreams and plans into perspective. They had no idea that their entire world was going to fall apart. It makes all the anguish seem wasteful. Quite apposite for where we are now, with no real sense of what will happen. A good book.

Shades of Grey

Tuesday, January 12th, 2010 | British Literature | No Comments

I was disappointed when I picked up Jasper Fforde’s new novel and realised it wasn’t a Thursday Next book. This is the beginning of a new series, set in a future world where people are ordered by their colour vision, where no one can see in the dark, and where colours hold powers of healing - and death. And yet, strangely enough, I found the world Fforde created to be rather barren. I couldn’t really “see” the houses, the village, the countryside, and I couldn’t feel as though I really knew the characters, either. In fact, it reminds me a little of his Nursery Crime series, where it’s such a caricature you can’t relate to it at all. He adds in his usual jokes - rabbits are rare but rhinos aren’t, onions are eaten with custard, and headless corpses aren’t horrible - but they aren’t as funny or clever because they’re now expected in a Fforde novel. I really wish he’d return to the style of his very first Thursday Next novel, The Eyre Affair, which had a depth this book lacks. Yes, hierachies are bad, closed societies are bad, lack of books and history are bad; but let’s face it, after 1984 who can say it any better? And when it’s so extreme, what does it do but make the readers feel self-righteous about their own culture? I expected more from Fforde, and I didn’t get it in this book.

The Keys of the Kingdom

Tuesday, January 5th, 2010 | British Literature | No Comments

I still can’t work out why the name A J Cronin is so familiar to me when I really can’t say if I’ve read anything by him before. However, it was familiar enough to me so that I picked this book up, and I’m glad I did, because I enjoyed it. It’s the story of a Catholic priest from Scotland and his life, from a troubled boyhood to life as a missionary in China and then resettlement back home. While it is a picture of its time in many ways, it’s also quite modern in its ecumenicalism - the priest embracing an atheist and a methodist  equally! It’s a gentle story, and I enjoyed it.