Michael Johnston's Blog, page 3
March 21, 2017
‘Northanger Abbey’ by Val McDermid [sic]
If you like the idea of literary pastiche, then Val McDermid’s 21st century revision of Northanger Abbey [London: HarperCollins, 2014] could be for you. Distinguished crime writer and light of the British literary scene, McDermid has reimagined the story of Catherine Morland and Henry Tilney as young people of the present day, speaking a patois …
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March 13, 2017
Video blog – Michael Johnston previews ‘H-Bombs & Hula Girls’, his new book
Set for publication in April 2017, Michael previews this account – by himself and fellow shipmates – of the aircraft carrier HMS Warrior‘s participation in Operation Grapple, Britain’s first successful thermonuclear bomb tests in the Pacific in 1957, and the goodwill voyage in the Pacific and to South America which followed. (The text of this …
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March 6, 2017
‘The White Rabbit: The Secret Agent the Gestapo Could Not Crack’ by Bruce Marshall
Not for the first time, I have been reading The White Rabbit [London: Cassell & Co, 2000] by Bruce Marshall. Probably the first time was not long after it was first published in 1952 when memories of the recent war were still green. Marshall recounts the wartime experiences of Wing-Commander Yeo-Thomas, a long-time resident …
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February 28, 2017
‘The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 83¼ Years Old’ by anon
Some seventy years older than his British counterpart Adrian Mole, elderly Dutchman Hendrik Groen pokes fun at the complicated life and lifestyle of the growing geriatric generation [London: Michael Joseph, 2016]. For those who like a good chuckle and the occasional laugh, and who like a book to dip into at times of relaxation or, …
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February 21, 2017
‘Lamentation’ by C J Sansom
Matthew Shardlake, the narrator and ‘hero’ of Lamentation by C J Sansom [London: Mantle, 2014] acquits himself well and emerges alive at the end; unlike some. The sixth of Sansom’s Tudor detective-adventure-historical novels is as exciting and as bloody as the previous five; and just as satisfying. In a way, I would love to …
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February 13, 2017
‘Do Not Say We Have Nothing’ by Madeleine Thien
A beautiful, amazing and altogether wonderful book is the Man Booker shortlisted Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien [London: Granta, 2016] which (with all due respect to the judges) would have been my choice for the 2016 prize. A multi-layered, multi-voiced story that moves around in time from the Communist victory in …
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January 23, 2017
‘Babel Tower’ by A S Byatt
A novel from Antonia Byatt is not just a book; it is a whole literary experience: and this is certainly true of Babel Tower [London: Chatto & Windus, 1996]. If one has read her earlier novels, The Virgin in the Garden and Still Life, one picks up straightaway that this is the continuing story of …
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January 16, 2017
‘The Testament of Gideon Mack’ by James Robertson
The Testament of Gideon Mack by James Robertson [London: Hamish Hamilton, 2006] is a clever contemporary fable. Robertson constructs the story such that a freelance journalist has got hold of a manuscript written by the late Reverend Gideon Mack, who, apart from being found dead on Ben Alder had previously fallen into a deep gorge, …
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January 9, 2017
‘Ghostwritten’ by David Mitchell
Ghostwritten was David Mitchell’s first novel [London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1999] and one that immediately brought him to the attention of the literary world. Here was a young man whose novel-writing skills seemed already perfectly formed and who could gently break the rules of classical form in a creative way. It consists of nine chapters …
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January 2, 2017
‘Swing Time’ by Zadie Smith
A new novel by multi-talented Zadie Smith is a literary event and deserves to be marked. Swing Time [London: Hamish Hamilton, 2016] is a major event but does it match earlier novels in quality and originality? Broadly yes it does but this is not Smith’s greatest novel. The story is narrated by one of two …
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