I was speaking last week at Lee Abbey at a Writer’s Festival and as one of the events I hosted a book group on Dissolution – one of the books in the pile by my bed. It’s a real page turner. Or finger swiper to be precise: yes, dear reader, this was my first real [...]
OK, we’re ticking off the books, but the situation is slightly complicated by the fact that I’ve added more to the pile. Ho hum. Anyway, here’s the latest batch in what is turning out to be a gargantuan task. Sebald. The Rings of Saturn Is it fiction? Is it fact? Does it matter? Sebald’s books [...]
Started reading this as kind of research, because one of the books I’m working on at the moment is a thriller. But I’ve given up. Firstly it’s based around the Talpiot tomb and the claims by Tabor and others and the moment that comes in I struggle to take it seriously. More annoying, though, is [...]
Duncan Hamilton: Harold Larwood A great biography of a great sportsman. Larwood is famous, of course, for his role in the Bodyline series of 1932-33, but there was more to him than that.He was, in fact, the fastest bowler that England has ever produced, and possibly the fastest of all time. And, because of Bodyline, [...]
I don’t know where I bought this. Or, indeed, why I bought it. I remember having a badge of Che Guevara as an eleven year old in the early seventies: the romantic image of the revolutionary hero. Then I grew up. This book is a bit like that. As a historical document it’s quite interesting, [...]
If you’re a type addict like me you will love this book. It’s the story of type design – something which affects all of us, but which not many of us consciously notice. In the early nineties, I started commuting into London from Oxford by coach. Along the Westway there was a large building called [...]