Reviews

Aug 5, 20161 min read

422. Patrick White - Voss

I am not sure that (if ever) I have read this since 1976 (when it is signed as a Xmas present for P). It is quite hard going, but pretty...

May 6, 20161 min read

396. Mary Wesley - The Camomile Lawn

I am not sure if I have ever read this before; although I have seen the TV adaptation many times and the book drags back memories,...

Oct 21, 20151 min read

347. Angus Wilson - Emile Zola: An Introductory Study Of His Novels

I borrowed, purloined or stole quite a few of my parents’ now unwanted books on a visit to Bristol yesterday. This is not a great book,...

May 13, 20151 min read

302. Katherine Webb - The Night Falling

One of Paddy’s cast off’s (like no.300 above). I read too many ‘feminine’ books because they are there available. This was quite good,...

Mar 29, 20151 min read

291. Patrick White - The Vivisector

This is a long and difficult book; I did punctuate it with no.290. About a modernist painter in modern day Australia; dedicated to Sydney...

Sep 16, 20141 min read

245. Martin Windrows - The Owl Who Liked Sitting On Caesar

Paddy liked this; I found it hard work. A true story about a man who ‘adopts’ as a pet a tawny owl. The owl’s death at the end was...

Mar 7, 20141 min read

186. Evelyn Waugh - Sword Of Honour

Nearly two weeks since I finished no.185. This is very long and I gave up on another book before starting it. It is not very good either;...

Feb 5, 20141 min read

181. Patrick White - The Tree Of Man

Extraordinary. Long and difficult (although ultimately very simple) book, simply about human life. Very un-glorified. The characters are...

Jan 17, 20141 min read

178. Evie Wyld - All The Birds, Singing

Just re-read it; it is a brilliant book, once you can follow the plotting which is alternative chapters, odd numbers set on the island...

Jan 14, 20141 min read

177. Evie Wyld - All The Birds, Singing

Paddy got this from the library; it is written by some bright young thing ex Jesus College, where she used to work. It is very, very...

Jan 26, 20131 min read

74. Maj Sjowall & Per Wahlöö - The Terrorists

The last one in the series and pretty good. There is a wonderful lawyer whose name I can't remember who speaks I am sure with the authors...

Jan 11, 20131 min read

72. Maj Sjowall & Per Wahloo - Cop Killer

Same schizophrenia. Main plot good; woman murdered in town inhabited by two different murderers who appear in no.54 and no.55, so both...

Jan 7, 20131 min read

71. Maj Sjowall & Per Wahloo - The Locked Room

8/10 in the series ( I have just bought 9). The locked room is apparently analogous to a chess puzzle; how has someone been shot dead (in...

Dec 22, 20121 min read

65. Maj Sjöwall & Per Wahlöö - The Abominable Man

The 7th and best so far. I like the way they fit different (in this case a very nondescript one) detectives around Martin Beck. A book...

Dec 8, 20121 min read

63. Maj Sjöwall & Per Wahlöö - Murder At The Savoy

Another excellent book in this excellent series. It is hard to characterise what I enjoy in these books; slightly sardonic humour and...

Nov 25, 20121 min read

60. Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö - The Fire Engine That Disappeared

Pretty good, again. A book about an absent (for most of the book) criminal, the police spend most of the time looking for a murderer who...

Nov 19, 20121 min read

58. Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö - The Laughing Policeman

Very good, again; I do like these books (obviously). There is quite a gang of policemen, all with their individual quirks, and because...

Nov 14, 20121 min read

56. Maj Sjöwall & Per Wahlöö - The Man On The Balcony

This one is very Ed McBain police procedural. You get to know a lot of Beck's colleagues a lot better. Child sex murderer loose in...

Nov 12, 20121 min read

55. Maj Sjöwall & Per Wahlöö - The Man Who Went Up In Smoke

The 2nd book in the series. Wonderful descriptions of Budapest, when Beck sent over there and very much a spy story while he is there...

Nov 10, 20121 min read

54. Maj Sjöwall & Per Wahlöö - Roseanna

The first Martin Beck novel was written by a Swedish communist husband and wife team in the 1960's. Well dramatised on Radio 4 recently,...