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Aug 9, 20231 min read
1084. Marghanita Laski - Little Boy Lost
Another very good book, although completely different. Set just after the end of the 2nd World War, Hilary Wainwright is an ex-British...
Jan 7, 20231 min read
1040. Sean Lusk - The 2nd Sight Of Zachary Cloudesly
This is very good and a lot better than no.1039. Set in the late 18th century in London, Istanbul, and elsewhere, it involves a...
Oct 9, 20221 min read
1020. Antoine Laurain - The Presidents Hat
One via P. Very light, Parisian story about a man who inadvertently steals Francois Mitterand’s hat from a Paris restaurant. He...
Mar 7, 20221 min read
954. Alison Lurie - Real People
I enjoyed this although it started slowly and ponderously. Illyria is a country estate, somewhere near New York, to which leading artists...
Feb 7, 20221 min read
942. Martin Latham - The Bookseller's Tale
Didn’t finish this but managed ½ so ½ a review. The basic concept was interesting, a book almost about the evolution of the book and its...
Nov 7, 20211 min read
914. Cristina Loggia - Lucifer's Game
This is a pretty good WW2 thriller, set in Italy. It reminded me a bit of Sebastian Faulks’ Charlotte Grey. I didn’t like the title, as...
Oct 18, 20211 min read
908. Helen Lewis - Difficult Women
Sub-titled ‘A history of feminism in 11 fights’ this is very good, a mix of intelligent journalism and at times scholarly text. The...
Aug 22, 20211 min read
887. Ted Lewis - GBH
Never heard of the author (he wrote ‘Get Carter’ apparently) and worked on the animation of 'Yellow Submarine'. This is basically London...
Feb 17, 20211 min read
848. John Le Carré - Our Game
Published in 1995, so 25 years old. Made me wonder about the author’s sexuality. There are three main characters, Tim Cranmer the...
Dec 20, 20201 min read
836. John Le Carré - Agent Running In The Field
Probably his last published book, as he died last week. Le Carré is a writer (like Graham Greene) whose prose an English middle class...
Jun 27, 20201 min read
794. DH Lawrence - Sons and Lovers
Haven’t read this for many years, and not sure I will read it again. Prolix and verbose, I struggled to get anything out of it. Paul...
Mar 9, 20201 min read
753. Marina Lewycka - Various Pets Alive & Dead
Paddy recommended this. I found it slightly hard going although as I got into it I wondered why. Maybe re-read on a beach. 3 main...
Nov 5, 20181 min read
637. Alice LaPlante - A Circle Of Wives
Wanted a detective story/thriller for a change but this was poor, although the author is quite acclaimed. A real old fashioned ‘who...
Nov 3, 20181 min read
636. Salley Vickers - The Librarian
One of Paddy’s library books; I have never heard of the author (although I think I may have read ‘The Cleaner of Chartres’), but this was...
Jun 21, 20181 min read
603. Laura Lippman - Sunburn
Quite formulaic US crime novel, with a very ambiguous villainess. Reminded me a bit of Elmore Leonard and a bit Hitchcock also. But this...
Jun 14, 20171 min read
498. John Lewis-Stempel - The Wild Life
A book about living off the land for a year. The author decided to live entirely off natural produce (animals he could kill, stuff...
Jun 3, 20171 min read
492. John Lewis-Stempel - The Running Hare
One of P’s – I had never heard of the author (nor had she) who is younger than me, a farmer who also writes books about soldiers’s...
Apr 22, 20171 min read
482. Susan Lewis - The Moment She Left
The 3rd of Paddy’s library books, after burn out with Tana French. If 480 was brilliant and 481 execrable, this was middling. The genre...
Nov 30, 20161 min read
449. John Le Carré - Call For The Dead
I think this may be his first novel (see 447); I have read it before but always enjoy it. The plot is as described above, although with...
Nov 24, 20161 min read
447. John Le Carré - The Secret Pilgrim
I was looking for a different Le Carré book, but this one was referred to in 446, so I thought I would give it a go (I must have read it...