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What are we reading? 16/12/2024
message 51:
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giveusaclue
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Dec 22, 2024 11:25PM
Just remembered Logger it was the Dan Jones Henry V book!
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have a great xmas and new year one and all!i'm heading home to my parents tommorow for Xmas and might be back on here on 30th or could be in new year!
I tend to be leave the xmas period, computer free!
AB76 wrote: "have a great xmas and new year one and all!i'm heading home to my parents tommorow for Xmas and might be back on here on 30th or could be in new year!
I tend to be leave the xmas period, compute..."
Merry Christmas AB and all.
Mod
Merry Christmas, happy holidays, whatever's appropriate, to everyone!
Ruby wrote: "Just wanted to say hello; I've not been around much at all. 2024 has been pretty awful...I'm finishing out the year with Easy Rawlins...Wish there were a prequel novel-- how did Easy get to LA?"Hi Ruby - good to hear from you... saw a couple of your updates about 'read' books on goodreads.
As it happens, I also love Easy Rawlins and can 'reveal' that there is indeed a prequel book - the sixth by publication date, Gone Fishin' - which is set in 1939. That should answer some of your questions.
As the series developed, he also wrote a book of short stories, Six Easy Pieces, which sort of fills in some gaps and irons out some inconsistencies.
Although I like all the Easy books, the very recent ones have him living the high life (in a way), having become very well off and housed in a closed community - not at all the way I 'see' our hero. So I liked those less...
On the other hand, Mosley has also created a few more tough protagonists worth pursuing - including New York based Leonid McGill, and Watts-based tough guy Socrates Fortlow, released from prison after serving a term for murder - the title of the first book in this short series is among my favourites of all time: Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned. Isn't life like that, sometimes? (But I daresay not literally for most of us.)
On the subject of the interface between crime stories and racism in the USA, you might like to check out Chester Himes (you may well already have done so) and Thomas Mullen's Atlanta based Darktown series. And on the pressures on black writers to churn out clichéd ghetto novels, you could do a lot worse that Erasure by Percival Everett!
Take care!
(I'm impressed by how many books you've read... more than twice my 2024 number, I reckon.)
And if I don't have anything new to post here between now and then:Season's greetings! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! or
Joyeux Noël et Bonne Année! or even: Nadolig Llawen, a Blwyddyn Newydd Dda!
scarletnoir wrote: "And if I don't have anything new to post here between now and then:Season's greetings! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! or
Joyeux Noël et Bonne Année! or even: Nadolig Llawen, a Blwyddyn New..."
Yes, but how do you pronounce that last bit?
giveusaclue wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "how do you pronounce that last bit?"Here's a sweet version from some kids!
https://www.google.com/search?q=prono...
Gpfr wrote: "AB76 wrote: "have a great xmas and new year one and all!..."Merry Christmas, happy holidays, whatever's appropriate, to everyone!"
i must just add, as i pack, tidy and do last minute pre-xmas prep, i am enjoying the Bosman stories of the West Transvaal in the early 1900s. He taught there in the 1920s and all his fiction is based on this small area, close to the Bostwana border. Witty, dry and full of Afrikaaner culture but writing in English, these are stories everyone should read. Its a South Africa removed from apartheid, a nation in formation, post the Boer War
Unto Dust and Other Stories
Death of a Red Heroine by Qiu XiaolongA very interesting book for me, especially as I haven't read many books set in China (Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China is the one that springs to mind) and have never visited that country.
Chief Inspector Chen and Detective Yu are tasked with investigating the murder of a young woman, whose body is found in a canal near Shanghai. By dogged work, they soon alight on a suspect whose father is a 'High Cadre' - an important and powerful position in the Chinese Communist Party. Can they pursue their work to a successful conclusion despite huge political interference?
This book is anything but a whodunit... I suppose in some ways it is a police procedural, but its real subject is to provide a picture of a China in a state of flux - the year is 1990 - where although the Party retains immense power and influence, capitalist market considerations are beginning to have more and more of an effect on people's lives - 'state prices' for goods are being phased out. So if you want a fast-paced thriller, this isn't it. I found it fascinating.
A point about the inspector - Chen is also a published poet and translator, and considered (and still at times hankers for) a career in academia and literature... just like his creator Qiu Xiaolong* who is all of those things - except a cop. As a result, we get frequent quotations from Chinese poets and Confucius, but also from westerners such as TS Eliot. These were well integrated and appropriate (IMO) but some online critics objected. We also get some Chinese proverbs, including this one:
A man, once bitten by a snake, would be nervous all his life at the shadow of a straw rope.
I don't know about you, but I found that pretty funny!
Highly recommended, if you like that sort of thing.
Edit: I meant to mention that Qiu is a Shanghai native and lived there for 35 years; he happened to be in the USA at the time of the Tiananmen square protests, and wisely decided not to return to China, so he now lives in the USA but visits China every so often.
*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qiu_Xia...
(It seems that the Artificial Stupidity used to create spell checkers now wants me to introduce an apostrophe into the word 'its' as used above. I'm not sure if this error is also described as a 'grocer's apostrophe' or not, but it is an egregious error. No doubt it will become the standard spelling when enough people have been conned by their ignorant checkers!)
giveusaclue wrote: "Logger24 wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "Finally finished reading The Eagle and the Hart.....Highly recommended for any other history nerds here."Looks like a definite read for me. Out of interest, did the book say anything about whether, afterwards, Henry felt any gnawings of doubt about the justice of his usurpation?"
The book doesn't dwell on that a lot. And I am now frantically trying to remember what I read that did. It makes it clear that he was very aware that if it happened to RII it could happen to him."
I have the same vague feeling and my best guess is that it comes from whichever of the Shakespeare plays that covers this period or possibly that plus the annotations.
scarletnoir wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "how do you pronounce that last bit?"Here's a sweet version from some kids!
https://www.google.com/search?q=prono......"
Right!
I'll chip in with my bit:
Buon Natale e felice anno nuovo a tutti i miei amici lettori di Ersatz TLS
Have a wonderful time everyone, wherever you are in the world.
Amusing co-incidence, i have enjoyed the work CK Stead has done on NZ literature for over a decade, he was the editor of the Mansfield diaries i read earlier in the month and supplied a great introduction and commentaryI was wondering as he would be 94, is CK Stead still with us? Within an hour, reading the letters page in the TLS, i found a letter from CK Stead himself, describing how his father, who had only a few fingers on one hand, managed to tie his laces with one hand.
CK Stead lives!
Just had the fright of my life, Replied to a message from Lass and click back a few times on my laptop and the screen went black! All well again now. After my heavyweight (literally) excursion into 14/15th century England I think I will switch back to some lighter murders for the Christmas period!!
Mod
https://www.instagram.com/p/DD9kcngtf8M/
giveusaclue wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "how do you pronounce that last bit?"Here's a sweet version from some kids!
https://www.google.com/search?q=prono......"
E Buon Natale a te!
Merry Christmas everyone! My gift was finally putting up bookshelves in the new house. And a generous amount of Oban thrown in
Hi, I'm guessing from the lack of posting that everyone has been happily busy with Christmas and not had time for reading. Certainly is the case with me. Seeing friends and watching football on tv has left little time for reading. No doubt it will all change in the next day or so.I hope everyone has had a good time.
Mod
Glad to hear you've been happily occupied and I hope it's the same for everyone.
I've had a very pleasantly full week, but have done some reading (no football for me!), though no posting.
I've been re-reading some snowy Christmas mysteries: Ngaio Marsh's Death and the Dancing Footman and Tied Up In Tinsel. Now I'm on Lament for a Maker by Michael Innes.
Gpfr wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "Hi, I'm guessing from the lack of posting that everyone has been happily busy with Christmas and not had time for reading ..."Glad to hear you've been happily occupied and I h..."
And glad to hear you have had a good time.
giveusaclue wrote: "Hi, I'm guessing from the lack of posting that everyone has been happily busy with Christmas and not had time for reading. Certainly is the case with me. Seeing friends and watching football on tv ..."I've been reading a bit, but not posting as busy with the other stuff! It's a time of year to stick to the tried and trusted (for me) and not to read anything new/too demanding - so I carried on with the second 'Chief Inspector Chen' book: A Loyal Character Dancer by Qiu Xiaolong... so far, proving to be a fascinating series.
The author lived in China until he was 35, then chose to stay in the USA following the Tiananmen square protests. He is a "Chinese American crime novelist, poet, translator, critic, and academic." (Wikipedia) and so far I've enjoyed his books very much. I don't know a lot about China, so these novels are an education. More to follow later when I finish the book.
scarletnoir wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "Hi, I'm guessing from the lack of posting that everyone has been happily busy with Christmas and not had time for reading. Certainly is the case with me. Seeing friends and watc..."I will have to have a look at those scarlet. I read the first of this series, which was a case of suspend disbelief, but you may want to take a look:
https://www.fantasticfiction.com/m/pe...
I've recommended this one before too:
https://www.fantasticfiction.com/c/bo...
giveusaclue wrote: "I read the first of this series, which was a case of suspend disbelief, but you may want to take a look..."Thanks for those suggestions... I've added them to the virtual TBR pile,which seems to get longer rather than shorter as time goes on!
I think that I've read one by Peter May - The Black House - and maybe the Lewis trilogy, but I'm not so sure about that.
The other author looks interesting, but the book you mention doesn't have a Kindle edition and the paper versions are rather expensive ATM... but that may change.
My usual habit is to mix crime fiction (often with a historical or 'foreign to me' setting) with more literary stuff... I tend to like reading crime series fairly quickly in order, so that the recurring characters are familiar - it makes it easier to get into the books - and continue to the end or until I get bored!
scarletnoir wrote: "My usual habit is to mix crime fiction (often with a historical or 'foreign to me' setting) with more literary stuff... I tend to like reading crime series fairly quickly in order, so that the recurring characters are familiar - it makes it easier to get into the books - and continue to the end or until I get bored!."Haha, that sounds a bit like me. Start on a series and enjoy a few then get fed up. Some series, like the one by Rhys Dylan set in Wales, continue to appeal. And the Bruce Beckham ones set in the Lake District and M. S. Morris in North Yorkshire are very good.
https://www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb/pr...
Mod
We stopped at an exceptional used book shop and I picked up several that caught my eye, all very moderately priced:
- Chivalry in France (1957), an excellent essay on how martial qualities, religious obligations and courtly love grew and fused over the centuries, not overburdened with notes, by Sidney Painter, a professor at Johns Hopkins.
- A slim book in the lovely Collins series Britain in Pictures - there must have been 30 of them sitting there in a box on the floor (in the depths of Vermont!) - from which I chose the one on British Romantic Painters (1940) by John Piper who as well as being a prominent painter himself is no slouch when it comes to writing attractively. In 48 strong pages, plus some two dozen plates, he mixes his own penetrating comments with lively quotations from contemporaries, e.g. the bit from Hazlitt that Turner’s landscape paintings were pictures of nothing, and very like – which Piper duly assails.
- A book in the Hale series of Portraits of British counties and regions, this one a Portrait of Humberside (1983) by Ivan Broadhead, again very attractively written, even if for my taste he lingers too long on the north bank of the river.
- Ten Days that Shook the World by John Reed, which I never read before, and which will continue the story nicely once I finish Edmund Wilson.
- A couple of Folio classic novels in good condition, from 2-3 shelves of books in French.
While there I stood and read several pages of something else I thought rather exciting, The Land of the Firebird: The Beauty of Old Russia by Suzanne Massie, which came out in 1980. For the cultural history, Figes’ later Natasha’s Dance was excellent but this looks highly enjoyable too. They only had a heavily foxed HB and a tatty PB, so I hunted around on line when we got back and have ordered one in nice condition.
I read Mystery in White: A Christmas Crime Story (1937) in the British Library series, by J. Jefferson Farjeon. The intro says it is the work of a writer at the height of his powers. Myself I would say it was no better than all right – an efficient piece of plotting that is not enlivened by any special wit or charm in the writing.
I read and enjoyed about half of the Dino Buzzati Contes de Noël. Decided now to save the other half till next Christmas.
I’ve started on a thick volume entitled Reprobates: Cavaliers of the English Civil War (2011) by John Stubbs, and the early pages have really got my attention – a deftly written description of the bad relations between Sir Matthew Carew, a Master in Chancery, and his unsatisfactory middle son Thomas Carew, who is unrepentant about being dismissed from a diplomatic position for writing rude things about the ambassador’s wife. His fame as a poet arose only after his father’s death.
I picked that up knowing that I also wanted to go on to Republic: Britain’s Revolutionary Decade 1649-1660 by Alice Hunt, just out, which I saw someone describe as the most enjoyable and instructive read of the year, and which seems to be good on the political thinking, not just the personalities. It’s a period where I always feel my knowledge is inadequate – it was somehow skipped over in my history courses in school.
The Eagle and the Hart is arriving, and a particular Christmas present was The Price of Victory: A Naval History of Britain 1815-1945, the concluding volume of NAM Rodgers’ magisterial trilogy.
So as we turn the page going into the New Year I feel buzzy about all these different reading avenues I have in front of me, not to mention getting to grips with some literature in Italian.
Dylan Thomas’ reading of A Child’s Christmas in Wales was engaging. I was surprised at the absence of a Welsh accent. Did he assume the accent of the educated English upper classes only when he spoke in public, or was that his natural voice?
All the while I have been luxuriating in Trollope’s A Small House at Allington, one or two chapters at a time. What a pleasure for winter evenings.
just back on the ranch after xmas at my folks, i read about 6 pages in total, most of time spent with little ones and watching tv or walkingi have become a fan of "Death in Paradise" after avoiding it for 13 years!
Logger24 wrote: "Reading has been a bit sporadic with me too. Quite apart from all the cooking and eating and the football and some other viewing (Band of Brothers, always utterly gripping, and, complete contrast, ..."That sounds wonderful, then to get all those books too!
Mod
That sounds lovely!
"I read and enjoyed about half of the Dino Buzzati Contes de Noël. Decided now to save the other half till next Christmas."
I've been reading one a day and just have two left.
"It’s a period (English civil war) where I always feel my knowledge is inadequate – it was somehow skipped over in my history courses in school ..."
It's the same for me and as I've said before, after reading S.G. MacLean's Damian Seeker novels, I felt I had to do some reading on the period, so last year and this read Antonia Fraser's biography of Cromwell and The Restless Republic: Britain Without a Crown, to fill in some gaps.
Wishing everyone a Very Happy 2025 and all that you wish for yourselves.
Thanks for the new thread. I've picked around my stack of books, but mostly read from books I've read before. However, I found Anthony McCarten’s The Two Popes in my TBR, and have focused on it, while carrying on private disputes with the author.
Happy New Year, all.
Mod
Happy New Year All...wishing everyone the best for 2025I'm about to start the following:
20,000 Streets Under The Sky- Patrick Hamilton(1935)
War Without Hate: North Africa 1940-43 (WW2)
The Journals of Sylvia Plath
Happy New Year everyone! May 2025 bring happiness and serenity.
Mod
For many years the village library here has sponsored a New Year’s Eve Bach solo cello concert, free and open to anyone. Last night it was Suites 1 and 3, a beautiful performance. What a perfect contemplative way to round out the year.
The Eagle and the Hart arrived and I started reading it straight out of the package. Already I’m glued. The family trees look like electrical wiring diagrams, but Ms Castor takes you through the complexity with ease.
Logger24 wrote: "Happy New Year, everyone.For many years the village library here has sponsored a New Year’s Eve Bach solo cello concert, free and open to anyone. Last night it was Suites 1 and 3, a beautiful per..."
Glad you are enjoying the book Logger. I know what you mean about family trees. I was referring to them all the way through the book and still got confused.
Gpfr wrote: "Logger24 wrote: "over Christmas we had the use of a wonderful quirky cabin high up in the snowy woods, ..."That sounds lovely!
"I read and enjoyed about half of the Dino Buzzati Contes de Noël. ..."
i'm looking foward to reading the Yale Uni Press book on the last days of Cromwells republic, though i will wait till its in paperback (The Fall: The Last Days of the English Republic)
Mod
I'm reading a French crime novel, Le Sang des Atrides (1977) by Pierre Magnan. Lent to me by a neighbour, it's the first of his books that I've read. A police commissaire and a judge have been sent to Dignes, a small provincial town. One can consider that they've been demoted, but in fact they both like it there. Mysterious murders take place, the victims are killed by being hit on the head by a galet, pebble, — how was it done and by whom?
The plot has thickened nicely and I'm approaching the end.
Mod
I'm also continuing with Michael Pearce's Mamur Zapt stories, set in Egypt in the early 20th century.Gareth Owen (a Welshman, scarlet, as he points out when accused of being English) is the Mamur Zapt, the head of the political/secret police. Egypt is run by the British, although nominally it's an independent part of the Otttoman Empire and the head of state is the Khedive.
MK recommended this series. She wrote,
One of the reasons I keep the copies of this series on my shelves is that they are a 'two-fer', which means I get a good mystery with the added attraction of learning about a different culture. The Mamur Zapt series takes place during the English rule of Egypt and brings together some of the idiosyncrasies of both societies - there's Shepheard's Hotel and words like Capitulations and corvée, plus the oddity of Egypt's police and investigations that were a legacy of France's (Napoleon) occupation.
My current one is about the question of exporting Egyptian antiquities.
They're easy, enjoyable reads.
Mod
This book sounds fun:https://www.theguardian.com/books/202...
Incidentally, I'm surprised to see how many books share this title. In fact I'm gobsmacked!
Mod
I remember that comment from MK.
Gpfr wrote: " I'm also continuing with Michael Pearce's Mamur Zapt stories, set in Egypt in the early 20th century.Gareth Owen (a Welshman, scarlet...a good mystery with the added attraction of learning about a different culture...."
Thanks for that - it may be for me, as I do like crime stories which are also a bit 'educational' in that way, as are the Inspector Chan stories by Xiu Quiaolong stories I'm reading just now. I've not read much set in that society apart from Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria quartet (too wordy, rather pretentious - but I did read them all) and another wartime novel by a well-known female author which I thought overpraised... I've forgotten what it was or who it was by!
Mod
Olivia Manning? The Levant Trilogy ... or no, maybe Penelope Lively, Moon Tiger?
Both of which I love!
The Lively was the one I was thinking of, but I've also read Manning's 'The Great Fortune'. I thought both suffered from a distinctly 'superior' air (Manning especially) and a feeling of detachment from the local populace. No wonder authors such as Abir Mukherjee (for Bengal) are filling in the gaps from the POV of the 'locals'. Perhaps there are such authors who have written about these areas, too. (I thought the Lively wasn't bad, really, but didn't connect with it - certainly not enough to read any more by that author. Manning did herself no favours by her account of walking by a dying peasant in the snow.)
Edit from Wikipedia: "(Manning) was both dazzled and appalled by Romania. The café society, with its wit and gossip, appealed to her, but she was repelled by the peasantry... Manning described Bucharest as being on the margins of European civilisation, "a strange, half-Oriental capital" that was "primitive, bug-ridden and brutal", whose citizens were peasants, whatever their wealth or status."
Since I assume Manning spoke no Romanian I'm not sure how she could come to a conclusion about Romanian society, especially as she appears to have stuck to expat circles AFAIK.
I'm impressed byTwenty Thousand Streets Under The Sky a triology of novels by english author Patrick Hamilton
The novels of 1930s London all have a distinct feel for me, bringing home the teeming city and its lonely millions via the public house, the lodging house or other such haunts. There seems to be a huge gulf though between fussy, over worked novels like Angel Pavement. by Priestley, which i loathed and novels by Kersh, Greene, Orwell and Maclaren-Ross
Hamilton sets his novel in Fitzrovia, close to the Euston Road, around a pub called "The Midnight Bell". His style is engaging, gritty and realistic, this is the london of the lower middle and working classes.
I remember this novel or novels being very popular about 15 years ago, i instead read his 1940s novel Hangover Square which was superb and very downbeat.
scarletnoir wrote: "The Lively was the one I was thinking of, but I've also read Manning's 'The Great Fortune'. I thought both suffered from a distinctly 'superior' air (Manning especially) and a feeling of detachment..."I liked The Great Fortune well enough to read the second book in the trilogy, but I agree on the author's superior air. She treats the Romanian peasants as if they contributed nothing to the economy. Who bore the burden of all the half-finished projects she saw in Bucharest?
Much of the book centers on the cafes and bars that attracted foreigners-- British and pro-British here, Germans and their satellites there. And yet the aging British governesses, and the opportunists anxious for new support (from the Germans) and new passports (from the British) are watching real changes.
Robert wrote: "Much of the book centers on the cafes and bars that attracted foreigners..."Indeed. I had two or three problems with the book, iirc. First - the condescending attitude towards the locals from a clearly privileged expat. Second - the fact that as a result we don't actually learn a great deal about what the Romanians were thinking or doing - it is their country, after all. The doings of the expats were pretty marginal in the great scheme of things. Third - I didn't find the book all that well written... just average.
It also seemed ludicrous that, with the war drawing ever nearer, the Brits seemed to be obsessed with one thing only: putting on a Shakespeare play!
Having said that, I did enjoy the TV series based on Manning's books - 'Fortunes of War' (BBC, 1987).
Edit: Perhaps the reason I enjoyed that series was that it was adapted by the excellent Alan Plater!
scarletnoir wrote: "Robert wrote: "Much of the book centers on the cafes and bars that attracted foreigners..."Indeed. I had two or three problems with the book, iirc. First - the condescending attitude towards the ..."
i have the first book of the triology on my pile...
A Loyal Character Dancer by Qiu XiaolongFirst, the plot setup: A body is found in Bund Park, and gang involvement is suspected - but Chief Inspector Chen is miffed to be told that he has to instead look for a missing woman whose husband has promised to testify in the USA against a gang of people smugglers - so long as the woman - his pregnant wife - is safely delivered to that country. Chen has to collaborate with US Marshal Catherine Rohn to find the woman. Rohn is attractive, and so there is a complication there...
TBH, I don't read these books for the plot - which in fact is OK except that the final unravelling is more complicated and lengthy than expected, and comes right at the end. Structurally, this could have been better handled.
What I like about them is the way Qiu portrays Chinese (or Shanghai) society both in the moment and historically, and also gets in his criticisms of the cultural revolution (his parents suffered) without forgetting to also balance that by pointing out less than perfect aspects of life in the USA. He also introduces a good deal of poetry (Chinese and English language) here and there, as Chen is a poet and studied literature... as did Qiu. In addition, we learn a great deal about exotic Chinese cuisine (snake blood soup etc.) His experience of two cultures - having lived 35 years in China before being exiled in the US - allows him to understand and represent the good and bad in both, not the stupid one-eyed version of some monocultrualists.
A real pleasure if you enjoy learning about life and cultural history in a country other than your own. Not so great if all you want is a fast-paced thriller or convoluted whodunit.
The Guardian has just published an obituary of novelist and academic David Lodge, who it seems died on New Year's Day:https://www.theguardian.com/books/202...I've read most of Lodge's novels, including (of course) his campus trilogy - from Changing Places, who can forget his pushy American professor Morris Zapp? A hilarious creation. From what I remember, Lodge definitely improved after rather patchy early novels... of the later books I especially like Deaf Sentence in which he uses his own experience of hearing loss to create a hilarious misunderstanding... this one seems all the more relevant now, as I adapt to life with hearing aids.
I also liked one of his non-fiction books about writing - either The Practice of Writing or The Art of Fiction - I'm not sure which.
War Without Hate covers the North African conflict in WW2 and is a very readable account of the only part of WW2 i have read very little about, not sure why that is the caseThe regions of Eastern Italian Libya and Western British Egypt was where 80% of the conflict was fought until the long allied advance after El-Alamein towards the Italian Libyan capital Tripoli
A sparsely populated vast desert was the setting, loaded with huge sand seas, depressions, oases and a small coastal strip of roads and ports, it had lain silent and peaceful for almost 22 years after the fall of the Ottomans in WW1, when Mussolini ordered his dashing and vile General Graziani to invade British Egypt, accross the Libyan border in 1940.
The author focuses more on the British than the Italians in 1940, although not without some excellent information about the rather average state of the Italian Army. One officer in a letter that never reached Italy declares " we are not fighting Abyssinians now", this is pre-Rommel where the Italian Empire met the British Empire in direct action. The Italians had around 200,000 troops of mixed ability, the British had NZ, Australian, South African and Indian trooos alongside their own regiments
Interesting characters abound, the daredevil exploits of the small raiding parties that became the SAS are very amusing and almost reckless. The idea of racing at the sand "seas" at full pelt ended the illusion both sides had that the desert inland was impassable by vehicles. Before the italian invasion, british raiding parties popped up all down the italian l;ibyan border destroying and attacking the italian forces, capturing the oasis town of Kufra and raising merry hell.
Desert conditions were not quite what either army expected, the heat was a torment in the warmer months but at night for most of the year, it could get very cold indeed out in the dunes. Oddly it seems the Italians were far less comfortable than the British, complaining of the flies and the heat.
Operation Compass, the attack which totally nullified Graziani's invasion and led to mass Italian surrender, is the topic of the next chapter...
giveusaclue wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "how do you pronounce that last bit?"Here's a sweet version from some kids!
https://www.google.com/search?q=prono......"
Thanks.
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Ersatz TLS
Books mentioned in this topic
Charisma and Disenchantment: The Vocation Lectures (other topics)The Art of Fiction (other topics)
Deaf Sentence (other topics)
Changing Places (other topics)
The Practice of Writing (other topics)
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