Discuss the last book you read, or are currently reading

[Nigeyb]

I have just finished..




"The Mitford Girls: The Biography of an Extraordinary Family" by Mary S. Lovell

Before reading "The Mitford Girls: The Biography of an Extraordinary Family" by Mary S. Lovell, I had already read Hons and Rebels: The Classic Memoir of One of Last Century's Most Extraordinary Families by Jessica Mitford, Decca: The Letters of Jessica Mitford, and the first two novels by Nancy Mitford.

Mary S. Lovell does an extraordinary job of condensing down the lives of the Mitford girls, their parents, their brother, and numerous partners, children, grandchildren, and various other notable relatives, all of which takes place against some of the most momentous historical moments of the twentieth century. In a sense the family's story mirrors that of the century they lived in.

The parents known to their children as Muv and Farve, aka Lord Redesdale and his wife Sydney, represent the early twentieth century aristocracy. Both, to varying degrees are appalled by the changes wrought throughout the 1920s and the emergence of the post-WW1 generation of young people, dubbed Bright Young Things, who erupted into society determined to change the world for the better now once the war to end all wars was over. Oldest daughter, Nancy, and her arty friends were an anathema to her father.

Three of the daughters were split across the two political ideologies that wreaked havoc on the twentieth century: Unity (who unbelievably was conceived in a Canadian town called Swastika) and Diana both being unapologetic fascists, and Jessica (aka Decca) a staunch communist. Not only were Unity and Diana fascists but both formed a close friendship with Hitler and other leading Nazis in pre-WW2 Germany, and Diana married British fascist leader Oswald Mosley. Shortly after Britain declared war on Germany Unity unsuccessfully tried to kill herself, and Decca ran away to help the Republican cause in Spain during the Spanish Civil War. These events, along with Nancy's success as a writer, are what make this book so fascinating for anyone interested in this era.

I was slightly less interested in the early childhood years, and in the post-WW2 era. After the war, the book details how each life played out. This is all worth reading but of less interest to me than the extraordinary events detailed in the 1930s and 1940s.

All told though, a very interesting biography, with plenty of conflict (both familial and global) to keep the story moving forward. 4/5

[Nigeyb]

I have just finished...




Labels: A Mediterranean Journal by Evelyn Waugh

Recently I have fully begun to appreciate the writing genius of Evelyn Waugh. I always realised he was good, but now I am starting to understand more fully his greatness. Throughout 2013 I have read, or reread, a number of his books, along with the splendid Mad World: Evelyn Waugh and the Secrets of Brideshead by Paula Byrne. Having read all of his fiction, bar Sword of Honour, which I am poised to start, I was keen to sample some of Evelyn Waugh's non-fiction.

I am delighted to report that "Labels" is every bit as good as his wonderful fiction. In "Labels", we join Evelyn Waugh on a trip around the Mediterranean in 1929: he travels from Europe to the middle east and north Africa. Waugh chose the name "Labels" for this, his first travel book, because he thought the places he visited were already "fully labelled" in people's minds. Despite this, he brings a fresh and entertaining perspective to all that he encounters. His pen captures the local colour and the amusing idiosyncrasies of being a tourist. The writing is a delight, and each page is full of fun, amusing anecdotes, and incident. Even when he is bored, he still manages to write about it entertainingly. I look forward to reading more of his travel books, and more of his non-fiction.

Three things particularly struck me about this book:

1. The style is very chatty, humorous and self-deprecating, which is completely as odds with his misanthropic reputation.

2. His innate snobbishness results in some outrageous humour. For example, the cruise ship on which Waugh travels, occasionally encounters another cruise ship favoured by German tourists. He describes this ship as "vulgar" with inhabitants who are all "unbelievably ugly Germans" albeit "dressed with great courage and enterprise e.g. One man wearing a morning coat, white trousers and a beret".

3. By focussing on various minor details of his travels, Waugh provides the modern reader with all kinds of fascinating insights into tourism and travel in 1929. For example, the book starts with Waugh was taking a flight to Paris - he was one of only two passengers in a tiny plane, and this mode of transport was very new and unusual at the time. His detailed description of the experience is very informative about the early years of air passenger travel.

A very enjoyable read and, at a mere 174 pages, pleasingly quick and easy to read.

4/5

[Nigeyb]

I have just finished reading...




Sword of Honour by Evelyn Waugh

Through Guy Crouchback, the detached observer and would be knight, who thought his private honour would be satisfied by war, Evelyn Waugh perfectly captures the bureaucracy, pettiness, absurdity, humour, and confusion of war. It all rings true with numerous little details that make this book so satisfying. It's everything that great literature should be - beautifully written, evocative. poignant, funny, tragic and profound.

I wonder how many of the great characters are also based on real people. I really want Jumbo Trotter, Apthorpe, Ludovic, Box-Bender, Trimmer Virginia, Peregrine, and - of course - Brigadier Ritchie-Hook to be real characters, as I do, the denizens of Bellamy's club.

In April 2013, I finally read Brideshead Revisited and was captivated from start to finish. You probably don't me to tell you it's a masterpiece. Before embarking on Sword of Honour, I would never have believed that Evelyn Waugh could have written two masterpieces. He has. Brideshead Revisited and Sword of Honour. That's in addition to all the other wonderful fiction and non-fiction.

Epic and extraordinary. You really should read Sword of Honour. A wonderful book. 5/5

[Nigeyb]

I have just finished...




The Age of Illusion: England in the Twenties and Thirties, 1919-1940 by Ronald Blythe

Ronald Blythe's idiosyncratic social history of England in the 1920s and 1930s, is wonderfully interesting and informative. With no introduction, it is difficult to tell how Ronald Blythe decided what to write about. All the events described happened between 1919 and 1940, and throughout each chapter Blythe captures the mood and detail of the two decades following the carnage, confusion, grief and senselessness of the First World War.

The book concludes with Winston Churchill's appointment as Prime Minister of a war time coalition Government that was preceded by one of the most famous parliamentary debates of all time, and which resulted in Neville Chamberlain's dismissal. As Ronald Blythe observes, "there are a few sights more quelling - a cannibal banquet, perhaps - than one Tory slaying a fellow Tory for the good of the country. Against such fury the rage of the Opposition is the cooing of doves."

Ronald Blythe begins the book with the burial in Westminster Abbey of the Unknown Soldier. This was nearly two years after the last shot had been fired in the First World War, and the near-delirium of 1919 was giving way to the uneasy realisation that the world was still unfit for heroes.

The extent to which you will enjoy the various chapters in this book will probably depend upon your interest in the various topics Blythe chose to cover. For example, I am not especially interested in cricket so found the chapter on the body-line bowling scandal less interesting than those on the Left Book Club, the Brighton trunk murders, and - of course - the Rector of Stiffkey. That said, it really is all varying degrees of excellence - and for anyone interested in the era, chock full of insight and interest.

I really enjoyed the chapter on Sir William Joynson-Hicks, alias Jix, who as Home Secretary waged war on the progressive spirit of the 1920s. Likewise the chapter on Amy Johnson is marvellous and inspires me to find out more about this remarkable woman. And of course, TE Lawrence, the enigma, forever vacillating between post-fame anonymity and wanting something more. I was very interested to read more about Victor Gollancz, who founded the Left Book Club in 1936. I've come across his name a few times and am now intrigued to read more about him.

The chapter on Harold Davidson, aka the Rector of Stiffkey, aka the "Prostitutes' Padre" is very interesting. He's a character who would have garnered headlines in any era. As the "Prostitutes' Padre" he approached and befriended hundreds of girls, and although there was little direct evidence of improper behaviour, Davidson was frequently found in compromising situations. He neglected his parish to such an extent that he was in London six days a week, sometimes not even bothering to come back on Sundays and getting someone else to deputise. After a formal complaint, the Bishop of Norwich instituted disciplinary proceedings. Davidson's defence was severely compromised by his own eccentric conduct and was damaged beyond repair when the prosecution produced a photograph of Davidson with a near-naked teenage girl. Harold was ultimately killed by a lion at Skegness Amusement Park - truth is indeed stranger than fiction.

Reading The Age of Illusion: England in the Twenties and Thirties, 1919-1940 is akin to being in a pub with a very well informed raconteur, who throws out a stream of interesting facts and stimulating anecdotes, that bring the 1920s and 1930s to life. This is a wonderful companion piece to The Long Week-end: A Social History of Great Britain, 1918-39 by Robert Graves. As with all interesting social histories, I had to keep pausing to make notes about references that I want to follow up.

4/5

[Nigeyb]

I have just finished....




"The Rehearsal" by Eleanor Catton

I read this book for my book group. Or rather I tried. I came to it having just finished "Sword Of Honour" by Evelyn Waugh. The extreme contrast did not help the experience. One book, a masterpiece borne out of a global conflict, the other an unfathomable enigma borne out of a scandal in a girl's school. One felt profound and insightful, the other experimental and confusing.

My initial impression was that the book was intriguing. Here's the saxophone teacher addressing a mother: "I require of all my students, that they are downy and pubescent, pimpled with sullen mistrust, and boiling away with private fury and ardour and uncertainty and gloom ... If I am to teach your daughter, you darling hopeless and inadequate mother, she must be moody and bewildered and awkward and dissatisfied and wrong."

Intrigue soon gave way to frustration. I lack the patience and the inclination to ponder the improbable, non-linear plot. I also lack the patience to work out what is real, what is imagined, and what it might all mean. The insurmountable hurdle was that I just could not care less about any of the characters. About halfway through I resorted to reading the plot summary on Wikipedia. Never a good sign. At that point, I started to skip ahead. I was invariably struck by the simple and accessible quality of the writing, but also how this was married to a tedious "plot" and dull characters.

Plenty of people love this book. Some of the scenes are intriguing, and the book is very well written, ultimately though its lack of credibility and coherence was distracting and annoying. I suspect the extent to which a reader might enjoy this book would largely depend on his or her tolerance for ambiguity.

2/5

[Nigeyb]

I have just finished...




"Bright Young People: The Rise and Fall of a Generation 1918-1940" by D.J. Taylor

I thoroughly enjoyed this moving and informative account of the 1920s British band of pleasure-seeking bohemians and blue blooded socialites that comprised the "Bright Young People". D.J. Taylor's fascinating book explores the main events and the key players, throughout the 1920s, 1930s, World War Two and into the post-WW2 era.

I encountering many names that I was already quite familiar with (e.g. Cecil Beaton, Elizabeth Ponsonby, the Jungman sisters, Patrick Balfour, Diana and Nancy Mitford, Brian Howard, Anthony Powell, Evelyn Waugh, Cyril Connolly, Henry Yorke, and many more) having read other excellent accounts of the era. Theses include Mad World: Evelyn Waugh and the Secrets of Brideshead, The Mitford Girls: The Biography of an Extraordinary Family, The Age of Illusion: England in the Twenties and Thirties, 1919-1940, and The Long Week-end: A Social History of Great Britain, 1918-39.

Elizabeth Ponsonby's story looms large in this book, as D.J. Taylor had access to her parents' diaries. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, she was a staple in the gossip columns who seized upon the Bright Young People's adventures and reported them with a mixture of reverence and glee. There was plenty to report: practical jokes, treasure hunts, fancy dress parties, stealing policemen's helmets, dancing all night at the Ritz and so on. In a sense this is what the 1920s is best remembered for, and for some it must have felt right, after the trauma of World War One, and with Victorian values in decline, for young people to enjoy themselves. However, beneath the laughter and the cocktails lurk some less jolly narratives.

D.J. Taylor manages to dig beneath the glittering surface where for every success story (Evelyn Waugh and Cecil Beaton both launched very successful careers via the opportunities the Bright Young People scene afforded them) there were also tales of failure and tragedy. Some Bright Young People managed to adapt and prosper, others either continued their 1920s lifestyles or were forever trapped by their gilded youths.

Elizabeth Ponsonby provides the ultimate cautionary tale. She made a half-hearted attempt at acting, and later took a short-lived job as a dress-shop assistant, but basically drank to excess, gave parties and practically bankrupted her parents, who fretted helplessly. “It hurts us to see you getting coarse in your speech & outlook in life,” her mother wrote to Elizabeth in 1923, suggesting “you ought to enlarge your sphere of enjoyment - not only find happiness in night clubs & London parties & a certain sort of person.” This sounds like any parent’s out-of-touch lament, but the Ponsonbys had genuine cause for concern. The tone of Vile Bodies captures Elizabeth Ponsonby's routines as glimpsed in her parents' diaries. In Vile Bodies Waugh states the Bright Young People "exhibit naïveté, callousness, insensitivity, insincerity, flippancy, a fundamental lack of seriousness and moral equilibrium that sours every relationship and endeavour they are involved in". A harsh and telling view from an eye-witness,and probably closer to the truth than the more hagiographic accounts of the era.

As I state at the outset, I really enjoyed this book, and despite having read a few similar accounts, I discovered plenty of new information and this has added to my understanding of this endlessly fascinating era. I also found it surprisingly moving - the diary entries by Elizabeth Ponsonby's parents are heartbreaking. Recommended for anyone interest in the era of the "Bright Young People".

4/5

[Nigeyb]

I've just finished...




Goodbye to All That by Robert Graves

It is as a document of World War One that this book really shines. Robert Graves includes a wealth of little details that bring the day-to-day life of him, and his regiment, to life: the gallows humour, the values of the soldiers, the disillusionment with the war and the staff and yet the loyalty to their officers, the lice, the food, the other privations. It's all there in this excellent memoir. Robert Graves also captures the tragedy and waste of the conflict - friends and fellow soldiers dying or getting wounded all the time. Extraordinary luck means that Robert Graves beat the odds and managed to survive but not without injuries and many brushes with death.

Goodbye to All That was written in 1929, when Robert Graves was 33 years old. Although primarily known as a memoir about Robert Graves' experience of World War One, in which he served in the Royal Welch Fusiliers, the book opens with his family background, childhood, and education, before - at the outbreak of World War One - he enlists. The book also details his life for the ten years after World War One.

Goodbye to All That is an amazing memoir. For such a short volume Robert Graves packs in so much information and detail, and the book really brings alive day-to-day trench life with all its attendant horrors, boredom, pettiness, depravation, cameraderie and humour. Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand what life was like in the trenches,

4/5

[Nigeyb]

I have just finished...




The Penguin Book of First World War Poetry

Some very interesting information in the introduction that I hadn't realised. It's all quite obvious in retrospect but it was still a series of lightbulb moments for me so I'll make reference to it. The reason why there were hundreds of thousands of poems written and published during World War One was because:

- poetry was for most of Edwardian society, a part of everyday life;
- The media was also almost wholly print-based (cinema was still very much in its infancy);
- Victorian and Edwardian educational reforms resulted in increased literacy;
- the army which Britain sent to fight was the most widely and deeply educated in her history.

I find it very hard to imagine an era when poetry was so much a part of day-to-day life. Although I have never learnt the skill of appreciating poetry, as I read through a succession of these poems, and triggered by certain words or phrases, I started to get images of a grim, kaleidoscopic mix of lice, blood, death, patriotic songs, mad, futility, despair, absurdity, sickness, fear etc. It proved to be a powerful and moving experience.

As I was reading this book, I was also reading Goodbye to All That by Robert Graves. Sometimes the two books worked in tandem. Robert Graves describes the horror of The Battle of Loos and there - in this volume - are poems inspired by Loos.

One very small but moving moment was reading a poem written by Rudyard Kipling. When he actively encouraged his young son John to go to war he was expecting triumph and heroism. John died in the First World War, at the Battle of Loos in September 1915, at age 18. After his son's death, Kipling wrote...

If any question why we died / Tell them, because our fathers lied.

An important document of how World War One was experienced by a wide range of articulate and thoughtful people that brings the experience vividly to life.

4/5

[Nigeyb]

I have just finished...




"A Moveable Feast" by Ernest Hemingway

Published posthumously in 1964, and edited from his manuscripts and notes by his widow and fourth wife, Mary Hemingway, and then revised by his grandson Seán Hemingway, A Moveable Feast is a memoir by Ernest Hemingway about his years in Paris as part of a group of expatriate writers in the 1920s. The book includes references to, or meetings with, Gertrude Stein, Ford Madox Ford, Aleister Crowley, Ezra Pound, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Sylvia Beach, James Joyce amongst others, and details of how his first marriage deteriorated.

There are a surprisingly high number of very positive reviews and ratings for this book. I say surprisingly because, if you are interested in the names and locations of bars, cafés and hotels in Paris, and the locations where Ernest Hemingway's friends and acquaintances lived, along with plenty of inconsequential dialogue and tedious detail then you're in luck. You will probably find much to love in this book - and, as I state, plenty of readers appear to find this content very agreeable. To me, it read like a rather boring diary of someone who got progressively more tedious and objectionable the more I read. Was Ernest Hemingway really a crashing bore? Was he generally mean spirited about people who seem to regard him as a friend? I don't really care, however this is the strong impression I came away with having read this memoir.

I have only read one other book by Ernest Hemingway - "For Whom the Bell Tolls". It was much better that this. Much better. That's not to say it was wonderful but it was interesting and compelling and well worth reading if you are interested in The Spanish Civil War. A Moveable Feast, however, is really just very dull, unless you happen to be interested in the minutiae of Ernest Hemingway's day-to-day life in Paris in the 1920s.

There's a fascinating book to be written about this era in Paris - this is not it. For hardcore fans only.

2/5

[Val]

I must admit that I tend to agree with you on this one, which is why I am reluctant to read it again.
I did think For Whom The Bell Tolls was wonderful though and a few of his others.

[Nigeyb]

^ And yet it's garnered lots of positive reviews. I can only imagine those readers are so slavishly in awe of the Hemingway brand that they'll simply ignore his tedious and empty writing style, his detached approach to everything that happens, and the many mundane everyday events he choses to write about.

[Val]

He did not think it was ready for publication Nigey. These are his notes for a book edited by family members, not a book by Hemingway. I am certain that if he had worked on it until he was happy with it, it would have been pared down considerably.

[Nigeyb]

^ Yes, I knew it was published posthumously so I'd guessed that, had he lived longer, it might have been a very different book.

[Nigeyb]

I've just finished...




The Beautiful and Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The only other books I've read by F. Scott Fitzgerald, prior to this one, are The Great Gatsby and Tender Is the Night. Both are wonderful, especially The Great Gatsby.

The Beautiful and Damned has many pointers to the greatness that was to follow just three years later with the publication of The Great Gatsby

Unlike The Great Gatsby, this is long and sprawling novel and that is its great weakness. Some judicious editing might have resulted in another masterpiece. The Beautiful and Damned explores luxury's disappointment, and the corrupting and corrosive power of money. The couple at the heart of the story have it all and yet conspire to end the story as utterly broken and tragic.

As anyone who has already F. Scott Fitzgerald would expect, there is some stunning writing here and the book beautifully evokes the monied social milieu of the East Coast of the 1920s.

The Beautiful and Damned is worth reading - but read The Great Gatsby first.

3/5

[Nigeyb]

I have just finished...




"White Noise" by Don DeLillo

I read "White Noise" by Don DeLillo for my book group. I tried to read "Underworld", around the time it came out, and chose to abandon it. I know five other readers who had the same experience with "Underworld". I was therefore relieved to discover that "White Noise" is a more accessible, amusing and readable book. That said, there isn't much of a plot and most of the book details numerous inconsequential, every day occurrences and conversations.

There's much to enjoy, however my initial relief gave way to slight boredom with the meandering nature of the book. The book's characters are an interesting bunch that all centre around an extended small town family. As the "story" unfolds several themes emerge - death and mortality, consumerism, technology, and authenticity - which are playfully explored. It is only in final third of the book there is any semblance of a conventional plot and the death theme, that runs throughout the book, becomes more explicit.

Recommended if you enjoy clever and digressive satirical novels with various levels of meaning to ponder.

3/5

[Nigeyb]

I have just finished reading....






"Fast Exercise: The Simple Secret of High Intensity Training: Get Fitter, Stronger and Better Toned in Just a Few Minutes a Day" by Michael Mosley and Peta Bee

I bought this book shortly after reading "The Fast Diet: The Simple Secret of Intermittent Fasting: Lose Weight, Stay Healthy, Live Longer" by Michael Mosley & Mimi Spencer. I have recently started applying the 5:2 diet principles suggested in "The Fast Diet" (restricting calorie intake to 600 calories for two days a week) with impressive results.

I also watched the Horizon programme made by Michael Mosley on High Intensity Training (HIT). If you've seen the programme you probably don't need to buy the book. The basic messages are very simple:

- A diet combined with exercise is more effective than either done alone
- People with good levels of aerobic fitness are much less likely to get heart disease, cancer, diabetes or become demented
- Maximum benefit from exercise is via short bursts of high intensity activity followed by recovery periods (three bursts is sufficient to get a dramatic benefit)
- Build in strength exercises to an HIT programme
- Fast exercise will be fully effective only if you lead an otherwise active life

As with "The Fast Diet" book, Michael Mosley details various research studies to explain how and why this regime is beneficial, and co-author Peta Bee adds specific exercise routines.

The book provides simple, easily achievable exercise routines, supported by persuasive arguments that encourage the reader to get active, and all achievable in a very time-efficient way.

As Michael Mosley states at the end of the book, "We were born to move. Some of us more reluctantly than others. So let's find ways to do it more. Fast."

4/5

[Nigeyb]

I have just finished...



"Little Wilson and Big God" by Anthony Burgess



An extraordinary autobiography.

Prior to reading this, the only other book I'd read by Anthony Burgess was "A Clockwork Orange". I was inspired to read this book, having come across a short extract, photocopied and framed on the wall of The Wheatsheaf pub in Rathbone Place, London. Anthony Burgess was once a customer and he was describing the era in the 1940s when both he and Julian Maclaren-Ross were regulars. As a great admirer of Julian Maclaren-Ross, it was a desire to read this particular section (probably only six or seven pages in total) that prompted me to read it. I should add that Burgess was gratifyingly complimentary about the work of Maclaren-Ross and brings that era beautifully to life.

"Little Wilson and Big God" is only the first part of a two part biography and covers the 42 years from Burgess’s birth, in 1917, to 1959, when his time as teacher and education officer in Malaya and Brunei came to an end and he decide to devote himself to writing full time (believing he only had a year to live).

Burgess was clearly very bright and something of a polymath. He taught himself languages and wrote classical music in addition to gaining scholarships and doing well at school. Despite this he was also something of a slacker as a young man, drifting through the war, and then into teaching in Malaya and Brunei. He and his wife had an open relationship from the off, and he appears to be very honest about his conduct which was frequently drunken and idiosyncratic. He has a trove of great memories.

I found the whole book engrossing as he vividly recreated the Manchester of his boyhood; life in the army during the war with all its attendant pettiness and absurdities; and his various eccentricities, and onto ever more outrageous behaviour as an observant if unorthodox expat during the fag end of British colonialism.

His writing style is flamboyant and sophisticated, and required a few stops to consult the dictionary, and I felt I was in the hands of a great writer at the top of his game.

I eagerly anticipate the second part "You've Had Your Time".

I have also bought "The Complete Enderby" too. This feels like the start of a beautiful relationship.

5/5

[Nigeyb]

I have just finished...



Storm of Steel by Ernst Jünger

Ernst Jünger's account of his years fighting as a German soldier on the Western Front during World War One is one of the most graphic I have ever read in terms of descriptions of injuries and violence. That said, much of a soldier's life is routine and boring, and Jünger covers this aspect too.

I was surprised by Jünger's matter-of-factness. Although the book is all written in the first person it all feels at one remove. Jünger is a consummate professional, accepting everything that comes his way. Even when learning that his brother lies injured nearby he acknowledges some distress but, having done what he can, returns to the fray with barely a pause.

Jünger's sense of detachment meant the narrative was less involving, despite the visceral nature of much of what Jünger describes, and as such it is a far less successful memoir than, say, "Goodbye to All That" by Robert Graves in which I felt I got to know and understand the person as well as the soldier. That said, anyone seeking to gain an insight into the experience of a front line soldier during World War One will do well to find a better account.

3/5

[Nigeyb]

I've just finished reading...





Everybody Was So Young: Gerald and Sara Murphy: A Lost Generation Love Story by Amanda Vaill is a detailed account of the life of artist Gerald Murphy and his wife Sara. They are probably now best known as the basis for Dick and Nicole Diver in Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

They Murphys were good friends with F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway and their families, in addition to many other modernist movers and shakers, many of whom they met in Paris in the early 1920s.

The edition I read was around 360 pages long. It took around 100 pages for couple to meet, marry and then get to Paris. Not much of interest happens before they move to Europe and my main criticism is Amanda Vaill appears to be so in thrall to the Murphys, and has done so much research, that she chose to give the reader a lot of chronological detail. Whilst a logical way to structure any biography, I think this story would have benefitted from being structured thematically. The book contains some fascintating stories and insights into the world of the Murphys, the Fitzgeralds, the Hemingways, Picasso and his family, Dorothy Parker, Cole Porter, and so on, however for each nugget there's a lot of less interesting detail to work through.

The Murphys' personal story has more than its fair share of tragedy, and the shadows that darken the story of this handsome, talented, and wealthy American couple, who were at the centre of the artistic scene in Paris and Antibes in the 1920s, is what sticks in my memory.

3/5

[[deleted user]]

I've just finished notorious Nazi sympathizer Louis-Ferdinand Celine's Journey to the End of the Night, the blackly comic version of his own years from first world war to the early 30s.

It is relentless in it's misanthropic view of pretty much everything.
I quote "When you stop to examine the way in which our words are formed and uttered, our sentences are hard put to survive the disaster of their slobbery origins. The mechanical effort of conversation is nastier and more complicated than defecation. That corolla of bloated flesh, the mouth, which screws itself up to whistle, which sucks in breath, contorts itself, discharges all manner of viscous sounds across a fetid barrier of decaying teeth—how revolting! Yet that is what we are adjured to sublimate into an ideal. It's not easy. Since we are nothing but packages of tepid, half-rotted viscera, we shall always have trouble with sentiment. Being in love is nothing, its sticking together that's difficult. Faeces on the other hand make no attempt to endure or grow. On this score we are far more unfortunate than shit; our frenzy to persist in our present state—that's the unconscionable torture." Anyway, more tea vicar?

His landlord is described earlier in the book as being "shittier than shit..." Which is pretty damn shitty I can tell you.
Celine doesn't mince his words, indeed there are 409 pages worth of words here entirely unminced.
It's a first hand, fictionalised and fantasised account of Celine's life from Great War to working in an asylum in France via colonial Africa and America.

This starts out as an anti-war novel, the narrator Bardamu railing against the stupid heroics and mindless brutality he sees around him. "Could I, I thought, be the last coward on earth? How terrifying!... All alone with two million stark-raving heroic madmen, armed to the eyeballs?"
Then after the war he endures a Kafkaesque journey by a boat on which everyone seems to want to inflict physical beatings if not death on him for no visible reason. Africa is his destination and things aren't much better there and it's here in Africa that I started to think this was an anti capitalist novel.
Regardless of what kind of book this is Celine doesn't let anybody off the hook, rich, poor, you, me and himself are all on the receiving end of his ranting style but the unseen forces of capitalism are always in the background. Sometimes far in the background but always just about visible. Celine asks lots of questions in this novel, questions about life and how it should or shouldn't be lived, he doesn't answer many of his questions but then I suppose that's what a great novel does, asks questions.
America troubles Bardamu for a short period before his return to France and his becoming a Doctor. It's in the final section that we get occasional glimpses behind his misanthropy, just little slips here and there. Sometimes he shows a little empathy, other times a little sadness, always weariness.

Celine was an anti-semite who wrote pamphlets for the Vichy Government and appeared unrepentant in the aftermath of the war. Don't let that sway you though, this book was published in 1932 and was even, apparently, taken up by the left-wing intelligentsia at the time. The book seems to take an equal opportunities view to prejudice aiming it's barbs at anything that happens to get in it's way. It can be a little wearing on the reader to be bombarded with so much negativity but it's leavened with plenty of humour and a nice turn of phrase and despite the constant haranguing tone it is in my opinion not at all judgmental.
I think there is actually a lot of humanity in this book, maybe Celine was embarrassed by caring and hid behind his vitriol but somebody this angry must care an awful lot surely?

[Nigeyb]

Thanks Cqm - I enjoyed reading your review. I am not sure I could face over 400 pages of misanthropic ranting, indeed I feel you've read, and reported on it, to spare me the the experience. That said I'm very glad to have a little slot in my brain where I have an impression of what Journey to the End of the Night by Louis-Ferdinand Céline is probably like as a reading experience.

I notice our very own Mark has also read it and lavished it with five stars - as you did. He may well pop up and add a few words when he can carve out a few minutes from his punishing schedule.

Thanks again for a splendid review. This bit was especially chucklesome...

His landlord is described earlier in the book as being "shittier than shit..." Which is pretty damn shitty I can tell you.

[Mark]

Nicely done! 'Journey To the End Of The Night' is an all-time favourite of mine. Sadly, as far as Celine goes, it all pretty much starts and stops right there. I've tried four or five other novels of his, with no luck at all. My guess? His madness got in the way of producing anything on par with his masterpiece.

Based on your review, I can heartily recommend 'Hunger' by Knut Hamsun... another of my all-time favourites. In fact, if you pick it up and don't enjoy it, I'll reimburse you in full!

[[deleted user]]

Mark wrote: "Nicely done! 'Journey To the End Of The Night' is an all-time favourite of mine. Sadly, as far as Celine goes, it all pretty much starts and stops right there. I've tried four or five other novels ..."

Oh that doesn't sound very good. I was set on Guignol's Band, London Bridge and Death on the Installment Plan. Still you never know. Hunger is on my to read list by by crikey that list is long.

[[deleted user]]

Nigeyb wrote: "Thanks Cqm - I enjoyed reading your review. I am not sure I could face over 400 pages of misanthropic ranting, indeed I feel you've read, and reported on it, to spare me the the experience. That ..."

It's not as much of a slog as I have made it out in my review, that said I know of several friends of mine that would have got a quarter of the way through and hurled it out the window or at me for recommending it.

[Mark]

I've heroically had a go at each of those, with fairly disastrous results. 'Death On The Installment Plan' generally gets high marks, so maybe I should try cracking that one again? Either way, I'll be curious to hear your opinions if you dig any deeper into his canon.

[Nigeyb]

I have just finished...




The Great Silence by Juliet Nicolson

I had high hopes for this book, and was looking forward to finding out more about the two years immediately after the end of World War 1 which presaged a period of enormous social change. The book takes a chronological approach, and gives almost every chapter a one word title (e.g. Wound, Hopelessness, Yearning, Resignation etc.).

For every interesting piece of information (e.g. the tragedy of the Scottish soldiers returning to the Isle of Lewis, the Spanish flu epidemic, or the development of reconstructive surgery), there seemed to be coverage of less relevant issues (Lady Diana Cooper's addiction to cocaine and morphine, Lady Ottoline Morrell having an affair with a younger stonemason, Tom Mitford's dietary choices, or the King's uncertainty about a two minute silence).

I wonder if the immediate two year period following the war was an insufficient timeframe to understand the social impact of WW1. Certainly I found The Long Week-end: A Social History of Great Britain, 1918-39 by Robert Graves, and The Age of Illusion: England in the Twenties and Thirties, 1919-1940 by Ronald Blythe, which cover the longer period between World War One and World War Two, to be far more interesting and satisfying to read.

Overall I thought there was far too much emphasis on the aristocracy and, whilst a quick and easy read, ultimately it felt superficial, incoherent and a missed opportunity. It frequently read more like an upper class gossip column than a serious social history. Very disappointing.

2/5

[[deleted user]]

Brilliant. Who can fail to be charmed by a book in which one character pronounces the name Henceforth as "Anusfart"?
Kersh seems a little unfocused sometimes, like he was maybe a little manic. One character takes precedence before something else catches Kersh's eye and he'll be off and telling us a different story. For all that though it holds together extremely well. You care about everyone in this book from good natured Steve Zobrany, proprietor of the Angel and the Cuckoo cafe, around whom everything hangs to Gaza Cseh the little Napoleon who cheats and lies his way to Hollywood.
Tom Henceforth, the artists apprentice turned novelist who doesn't write is, on the surface of it, a thoroughly unpleasant chap but like most of the characters in the book you can't help liking him.
It also contains a superbly throwaway murder scene, lazy, almost somnambulant much like the killer.
It's funny and sad and sadly funny and that's just how I like it.
As an aside, I was pleased to see the author Guy Boothby get a mention in the sequence where Tom Henceforth tries to convince Geza to make a film star out of Era Moon. It reminds me that in The Gorse Trilogy Hamilton refers a couple of times to an author (in a vaguely disparaging way if memory serves)who's name I cannot for the life of me remember.
My Mum has told me about this author in the past and said how she and her brother used to avidly read his books of gentlemen of the road and highwaymen. Anyone remember what his name was?

[Nigeyb]

^ Splendid review CQM.



I'm guessing most of the people who frequent this group will instantly realise that you are reviewing...



The Angel and the Cuckoo by Gerald Kersh

...but I mention it only for any passing waif or stray who might be rubbing a chin in frustrating puzzlement wondering how they might read this book for themselves...

Paul Auster, Ian McEwan and Don DeLillo all know that the city is a place of absurdity, and each of them have played with the form of their novels to accentuate and clarify the absurdities that city-dwellers face on a daily basis. Yet before any of them had their first novel published Gerald Kersh had written his last masterpiece The Angel and the Cuckoo. This is a novel of London that cuts back and forth in time through the Depression years between the two World Wars, following artists, criminals, lovers, singers, conmen, film producers, writers and other lowlifes as they each follow their singular obsessions.

There are three love stories, all connected by Steve Zobrany, proprietor of The Angel And The Cuckoo, a café in a hidden courtyard at one end of Carnaby Street. Through Zobrany we meet film producer Gèza Cseh, the sublime Alma, artist without an art Tom Henceforth, omnipotent criminal mastermind Perp, and many others. Kersh shows that each of them carries the seeds of corruption, and what they do with these desires will define them for the rest of their lives. All this, and the book is as funny as hell.

I will also take the liberty of copying and pasting your review on our Gerald Kersh discussion thread....

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

I will come back to you on your Mum's author as I plan to re-read Mr. Stimpson And Mr.Gorse very soon.

[[deleted user]]

Nigeyb wrote: "^ Splendid review CQM.



I'm guessing most of the people who frequent this group will instantly realise that you are reviewing...


The Angel and the Cuckoo by [author:Gerald Kers..."

It does help to tell people what book you are reviewing I suppose, me though, I prefer to nurture an air of mystery.

[Nigeyb]

CQM wrote: "I prefer to nurture an air of mystery...."

[Nigeyb]

I have just finished....





The Love-charm of Bombs: Restless Lives in the Second World War by Lara Feigel

Lara Feigel, the author of The Love-charm of Bombs: Restless Lives in the Second World War, was one of the interviewees on a very interesting, 2013 episode of BBC's The Culture Show entitled "Wars of the Heart". "Wars of the Heart" explained that whilst for many Londoners during the Second World War, the Blitz was a terrifying time of sleeplessness, fear and loss, some of London's literary set found inspiration, excitement and freedom in the danger and intensity. The imminent threat of death giving life an immediacy, spontaneity and frisson absent during peace time.

The Culture Show documentary seems to have been inspired to some extent by The Love-charm of Bombs: Restless Lives in the Second World War as they both cover similar territory, albeit Lara Feigel's account goes into much more detail.

In this book, Lara Feigel explores the war time experiences of five writers: Graham Greene, Elizabeth Bowen, Rose Macaulay, Henry Yorke (aka Henry Green), and Hilde Spiel. During the Blitz, and with the very real chance of not surviving the next 24 hours, the social classes mingled more freely, in the underground and the streets, and, in some cases, with partners and/or children evacuated, there was the opportunity for extra marital affairs.

Between them, the writers profiled were variously ARP wardens, an ambulance driver, and an auxiliary fireman. Hilde Spiel was the odd one out, being an Austrian exile, with responsibility for her parents and a young child. Her story is an interesting and informative counterpoint to those of the other four writers.

Lara Feigel uses letters, diaries, and fiction, along with historical information, to illuminate the lives of these writers during and after the Second World War, before summarising what became of them all.

I enjoyed this book very much however I think Lara Feigel chose to go into a bit too much detail. My edition was 465 pages, with another 55 pages of notes and acknowledgements. I would have preferred a more succinct account. That said, I come away from this original book, more knowledgeable about five interesting writers, and keen to read more books by these writers, in particular these books specifically inspired by this period...

Caught by Henry Green
The Heat of the Day by Elizabeth Bowen
The Ministry of Fear by Graham Greene
The End of the Affair by Graham Greene

[Nigeyb]

I have just finished reading...




Put Out More Flags by Evelyn Waugh

Informative, funny, flawed, and inessential

I recently read, and very much enjoyed Sword of Honour, like this book, Sword of Honour is a satirical novel about the Second World War.

The books that comprise the Sword of Honour trilogy were written in the 1950s and 1960s when Evelyn Waugh was able to put the Second World War into some kind of perspective. Sword of Honour also happens to be one of Evelyn Waugh's masterpieces.

Put Out More Flags, an earlier war novel, opens in the autumn of 1939 and all takes place during the twelve months of the war. It was published in 1942.

I have read most of Evelyn Waugh's major works now, and, as usual, the quality of the writing is a pleasure. The story follows the wartime activities of characters introduced in Waugh's earlier satirical novels Decline and Fall, Vile Bodies and Black Mischief.

The uncertainty and confusion of the so-called "phoney war" are brilliantly evoked, and - as is so often the case - the satire and humour are very black. Basil Seal, who readers may recall from Black Mischief, is the star of the show. His opportunism creating all manner of mischief for those he runs into, and his scam involving a troublesome family of evacuated children sums him up perfectly. To suggest this book is full of humour would be misleading: one scene involving the troubled and tragic Cedric Lyne visiting his estranged wife Angela, with their son Nigel, for once impressed by him in his army uniform, is absolutely dripping with sadness and melancholy, and demonstrates Waugh's extraordinary skill.

Overall the book felt slightly uneven and a bit rushed. There is much to admire and enjoy, however I conclude this is one of Evelyn Waugh's less successful novels (against his exceptionally high standards). It's of most interest to Waugh completists (of whom I am definitely one) and should not be prioritised ahead of his key works: (Brideshead Revisited, Sword of Honour, Decline and Fall, and A Handful of Dust.

3/5

[Nigeyb]

I have just finished....





The Railway Man by Eric Lomax

The Japanese treatment of their Prisoners Of War during World War Two is about as monstrous as it's possible to imagine. Curiously though, and despite some horrific personal experiences at the hands of his captors, Eric Lomax's account is most memorable as an inspiring, humbling and remarkable reminder of much that is good about humanity.

There is so much in this book: early Scottish childhood memories; a lifelong obsession with railways; joining a Christian sect as a teenager; travelling to India as a Royal Signals soldier; the disastrous fall of Singapore in 1942; torture and beatings by the Kempetai (the Japanese secret police); Changi, the notorious labour camp in Singapore in 1945; survival against the odds; liberation; Eric's undiagnosed Post Traumatic Stress Disorder; Eric's eventually rehabilitation; an unlikely love story; and finally, acceptance, forgiveness, and friendship and reconciliation with one of his captors.

The writing is simple and accessible, the contents profound and memorable. An exceptional memoir.

5/5

[Nigeyb]

I have just finished reading...




"Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Story of Modern Pop" by Bob Stanley

Arresting, beguiling, comprehensive, diverting, exciting, fabulous, groovy, hit-filled, inspiring, joyous... you get the idea.

"Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Story of Modern Pop" is a trove of fascinating opinions and insights from Professor Bob Stanley who - in addition to being a a member of Saint Etienne, a journalist, compiler of fine compilations, and a film producer - has a PhD In Musicology.

If, like me you ever listened with impatient anticipation to the latest top thirty chart run down, pen in hand, or pause button primed, then "Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Story of Modern Pop" is your Bible. It's all here, the entire modern pop era, from NME's first chart published on 14 November 1952 (Al Martino's "Here In My Heart" at number one pop pickers) to "Crazy In Love" when, as we know, the story becomes far less interesting.

750 pages of illuminating excellence. I came away with a c500 song poptastic playlist. Yes, it's really that good.

5/5

[Nigeyb]

I have just finished...





The Ministry of Fear by Graham Greene

A perfect book: accessible, clever, beautifully written, evocative, tense, and quietly profound. A palpable sense of dread and unease runs throughout the story set in the early years of World War 2 in England, primarily London.

On one level the book is a simple story of espionage, fifth columnists, and a hapless man who gets caught up in things he does not understand however there is far more to it than that. The story, which starts at a sinister fete, and rattles along from the word go, also muses on innocence, patriotism, self-delusion, psychology, memory, complexity, love, deceit and heroism.

A superb book.

5/5

[Nigeyb]

I have just read two books about World War One....





All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

I've read a lot of great books about World War One - and this is the best.

In a mere 200 or so pages, Erich Maria Remarque perfectly captures the absurdity, tragedy, humour, horror, camaraderie and waste of war. This book packs so much in, and it is beautifully and simply written.

A room full of German schoolboys, in 1914, fresh-faced and idealistic, are goaded by their teacher into enlisting for Germany's glorious war, where inevitably the young boys become old men in a matter of months. No one back at home can ever understand the horror of this new mechanised style of warfare and quickly the boys, robbed of their lives and their youth, realise they only have each other. Inevitably, one by one the boys die or get injured.

Erich Maria Remarque touches on many aspects of the conflict: the violence, the terror, the politics, the home front, the pettiness, and so on.

If you only have time to read one book about World War One then read this. It's stunning.

5/5

* * * * *



Silent Night: The Remarkable Christmas Truce of 1914 by Stanley Weintraub

This is an enjoyable and well written account of the 1914 truce that happened during World War 1 on the Western Front in the improbable setting of the trenches. Time and again Stanley Weintraub uncovers examples of how, despite orders from senior officers, the troops in the trenches came together to sing carols, exchange gifts, eat and drink together, and even play football. In most of these examples the troops discovered how alike they were and how much they shared in common.

I am not sure this subject warrants a whole book and there is quite a bit of repetition as Stanley Weintraub gives numerous different examples of the different ways the truce occurred in different parts of the Western Front.

The book concludes with a short chapter titled "What if....?" in which Stanley Weintraub speculates what might have happened had the war ended with the 1914 Christmas truce which felt a bit pointless.

Interesting, if inessential.

3/5

* * * * *

What have you just read?

[Nigeyb]

I have just finished....





"Charles Hawtrey 1914 1988" by Roger Lewis

This is a very short, affectionate and touching biography of Charles Hawtrey who, whilst best known for his roles in the British Carry On films of the 1960s and 1970s, made his first stage appearance in 1925 at the age of 11 and continued to have a career of sorts through to the 1980s. In 1972, after he was dropped by the Carry On producers, he slipped into the relative obscurity of pantomime and provincial summer seasons, whilst his alcoholism had steadily increased from the mid 1960s until his death in 1988.

As Roger Lewis acknowledges, as much as we love the Carry Ons (and I do) our affection isn't based on their artistic merits. Part of the pleasure of this 98 page monograph is reading Roger Lewis's obvious love for Hawtrey's abilities and comedic skills ("the positive joy of Hawtrey's performances imply the possibility of happiness"), coupled with his forthright opinions on some of the other Carry On regulars. His fiercest criticism is reserved for the two Kenneths: Kenneth Connor ("what a pain in the arse") and Kenneth Williams ("an appalling actor, affected, caustic, shrieking like a peacock and with no sense of dramatic rhythm").

Ultimately though, this is the tragic tale of a very lonely man: "Poor old Charles Hawtrey, he had a craving for the things that wouldn't come - superstardom, wealth, the love of naked sailors - and so developed a drinking habit, to put it mildly".

This may well be the perfect little book to sum up one of the sadder stories of British showbusiness, albeit one about a natural comedian who, like a select few (e.g. Eric Morecambe and Tommy Cooper), was funny even whilst doing very little.

4/5

[Nigeyb]

I've just finished...





This Little Ziggy by Martin Newell

A terrific memoir by Martin Newell, the greatest living Englishman. This wonderful 260 page book contains describes Martin's life from childhood to the mid-1970s and the end of his Colchester glam rock band Plod.

Who is Martin Newell you may be asking? He is a musician, singer, guitarist, songwriter, poet, author, gardener, and all round good guy.

His "career" from when this book ends to the present day probably warrants another book. It includes making music as Gypp, The Brotherhood of Lizards, The Stray Trolleys, Cleaners From Venus, and as a solo artist, in addition to his poetry, and all on his own terms. Anyway I digress, back to This Little Ziggy...

Martin Newell was born in 1953, the child of a British Army family, who moved around extensively and included stints in Hertfordshire, Hampshire, London, Cyprus, Dundee, Chester, Singapore, Malaya and Essex This made for an interesting childhood and some incident-packed teenage years, many people go a bit off the rails as a teenager but Martin's experience really is something else: drugs, overdoses, arrests, busts, bikers, violence, sex, indeed it wasn't until he joined Plod, the aforementioned Colchester glam rock band, that things started to settle down, and as he ruefully observes, there's not many people who get into a rock n roll band to settle down and get away from drugs.

This Little Ziggy is compelling, full of great anecdotes, interesting social history and some hard earned wisdom. It perfectly captures the 1960s and 1970s, and the highs and lows of life in band. In short, it's splendid and you should read it. I don't keep many books but this is a keeper - and I am already looking forward to a re-read in a year or two.

As he states at the end of this book, in the music industry, where lack of success is not necessarily the same thing as failure, he and his Colchester glam rock band Plod had done alright really. Too right.

4/5

[Nigeyb]

I have just finished....





Adolf Hitler: My Part in his Downfall by Spike Milligan

Adolf Hitler: My Part in his Downfall, is the first of Spike Milligan's seven memoirs that recount his recollections of life in the army during World War 2. I read this book as a teenager in the mid-1970s (or, put another way, a very long time ago) and I loved it and have always meant to read it again. It was even better than I had remembered.

For all the privations of army life, it is clear that Spike had a lot of fun during this period, and the humour that was to make his name with the Goons and beyond is here in abundance. That said, Adolf Hitler: My Part in his Downfall ends just as Spike's regiment arrives in Algiers for its first taste of action and, whilst there is some tragedy in this memoir, things will inevitably get more serious from here on in.

Spike's silliness is infectious and the book contains a winning combination of word play, self deprecating humour and social history. And, a very credible evocation, of the life of a conscript at the start of the war right down to the smelliness of the army uniforms and how nobody got the correct size. The book contains plenty of surprising and frequently outrageous, anecdotes many of which are loud out loud funny.

4/5

[Greg]

I have just read Hangover Square, my first by Patrick Hamilton. A masterpiece. Five stars. I would be grateful for Hamiltonians suggestions of their preferred order to read his other titles. I am soon to start The Slaves of Solitude.

My initial thoughts of Hangover Square was the unity of the book. No jarring element as I found with Brighton Rock, which was the Catholic theology, all that 'between the stirrup and the ground' stuff in a crime gang murder.
Hangover Square is perfect. Character, time, atmosphere and place.

[Nigeyb]

Greg wrote: "I would be grateful for Hamiltonians suggestions of their preferred order to read his other titles."

Greg, click here (it's the Hangover Square thread) to see my attempt at ranking Patrick's novels.

[Nigeyb]

I've just finished....





The KLF: Chaos, Magic and the Band who Burned a Million Pounds by John Higgs

Click here to read my review.

5/5

[Nigeyb]

I've just finished....





All the Madmen: Barrett, Bowie, Drake, the Floyd, the Kinks, the Who and the Journey to the Dark Side of English Rock by Clinton Heylin

Click here to read my review.

3/5

[Nigeyb]

I have just finished...




Lost in Music by Giles Smith

Click here to read my review

3/5

[David]

Sorry to have been out of circulation for a while. Vegetable garden, Himalayan piles of review stuff blah blah blah.

I've just read Kerry Hudson's second novel Thirst and it is splendid. I'm currently reviewing it for the local online independent news service and I'll link to that when it's published.

Set in London (and later on Siberia), grimy backstories, cagey and tempestuous interpersonal relationships - now whose work does that resemble?

[Nigeyb]

^ Hurrah. Great to see you round these parts again David.



I look forward to your review of Thirst - which sounds very promising.



This is quite a claim...

It should do for Aberdeen what Trainspotting did for Edinburgh'

[David]

And here's the review, published today. I can't recommend it highly enough.

http://aberdeenvoice.com/2014/07/kerr...

[Nigeyb]

^ Thanks David. It's on the list.

[Nigeyb]

I have just finished....





Jeeves and the Wedding Bells by Sebastian Faulks

Sebastian Faulks, in the book's introduction, describes this book as "a tribute" by "a fan" and not "an imitation".

For my money, and as a fellow P.G. Wodehouse fan, I'd say Jeeves and the Wedding Bells is every bit as good as the real thing. Sebastian Faulks is to be congratulated for pulling off the perfect homage.

I smiled, chuckled and on a couple of occasions guffawed, through this charming Jeeves and Wooster story.

P.G. Wodehouse would have approved I'm sure. Jeeves and the Wedding Bells reminds me how much I love the work of P.G. Wodehouse and inspires me to get reading and rereading his books. There is no higher praise.

As you may now, P.G. Wodehouse won the Mark Twain Medal in 1936 for "having made an outstanding and lasting contribution to the happiness of the world". Sebastian Faulks has now further added to the happiness of the world with Jeeves and the Wedding Bells.

4/5

[David]

The Neighbors reviewed here

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Not bad at all.