I read about half of this precursor to The Age of Elegance<\/em>, the sequel of which is Years of Victory<\/em>, both of which I was able to download, Iliad having for once come up empty.\u00a0 It\u2019s wonderful up to the sad Death of Nelson, which saves Britain at the same time as Napoleon\u2019s military genius at Austerlitz against the hapless Austrians condemns the Continent to ten more years of his dictatorship.\u00a0 But of course the coarse Corsican can\u2019t resist hurling himself on those Russians and their endless Empire, which causes the eventual death of his.\u00a0 Excellent history if like me that is your bag.<\/p>\n Larry McMurtry is some kind of genius.\u00a0 I always enjoyed reading him.\u00a0 You look at his list of titles and he has an incredible run from Evening Star, through Texasville, through Lonesome Dove, The Desert Rose, Cadillac Jack on to Terms of Endearment and The Last Picture Show.\u00a0 An amazing writer of effortless stories, his people spring to life from the page, his characters fighting in and out of bed\u2026\u00a0 This one is almost mythical in the way he handles Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday, so that the O.K.Corrall comes up at you almost unexpectedly so used to their company have you become.\u00a0 Yes, definitely some kind of genius.<\/p>\n An exquisite early detective tale, without Maigret but in the same milieu.\u00a0 An innocent man is hounded to his death by police and public.\u00a0 The amazing part of the story is the relationship between Mr Hire and the killer\u2019s girlfriend.\u00a0 The ambivalence, the use of sex to entrap him, Simenon is brilliant, honest and original.<\/p>\n Tina Brown is wonderful and I was sorry I missed her talk with Bruce Wagner in LA.\u00a0 This is not as great a book as The Diana Chronicles<\/em> because while it fascinatingly charts the amazing rise and rise of Vanity Fair under her editorship, once that has been achieved we are left with a series of social events with New Yorkers, some fascinating, some brilliant, some merely rich.\u00a0 I found I began to skim the latter category.\u00a0 She is fascinated with the man who will provide the end game on Reagan Presidencies, but to be fair, in the mid-eighties, who could have foreseen that Donald Trump would be in the White House, even for dinner?\u00a0 As the Reagans passed from the scene the pursuit of money seemed to replace the pursuit of happiness.\u00a0\u00a0 Perhaps that all went up the nose in Studio 54 in the Seventies.\u00a0 Her achievement in resuscitating an almost dead magazine title and making it hip and smart and funny and readable is clearly and determinedly and modestly described in her extraordinary well-written diary. So I enjoyed the book but it is what it is, and unless you are fascinated by just how the wealthy designed their next party you should be prepared to skip.\u00a0\u00a0 Certainly worth it.<\/p>\n The glimpses go from early intrigue, through contempt for her, through to eventual pity.\u00a0 A sad life in many ways and surely her greatest accolade was that she ended up as The Pantomime Princess Margaret appearing at all our live Monty Python shows in the Royal Box.\u00a0 We actually once stayed at her house on Mustique with David Bowie and Iggy Pop when the chartered Yacht didn\u2019t show up for a week.\u00a0 She wasn\u2019t there of course.\u00a0 Very beautiful Oliver Messel bungalow in the most exquisite setting.<\/p>\n I was enjoying re-reading this about two innocents recruited on holiday in Antigua to deal with a proposed Russian Mafiosi defector.\u00a0 I felt the same this time, that it sags after the Paris tennis scenes, indeed once the two leave the centre of the action.\u00a0 Nevertheless some great stuff.<\/p>\n Possibly the most peculiar experience I have ever had reading.\u00a0 I was quietly enjoying Salman\u2019s latest when I entered the novel<\/em>!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Most disconcerting and slightly scary.\u00a0 I was so shocked it took me a while to go back to the book.\u00a0 The anonymity that you are guaranteed as a reader was ripped away and I realise how much we are dependent on that.\u00a0 We sit in the dark and respond but don\u2019t interfere and that is the implicit contract between writer and reader.\u00a0 When that is gone it is rather like being discovered on the toilet.\u00a0\u00a0 A most unique and interesting lesson.\u00a0 When I wrote to him Salman hoped it was a happy surprise.\u00a0 I think I\u2019m still a bit shocked\u2026<\/p>\n My lawyer wanted to charge him for appearing in his book, which I thought was pretty funny.<\/p>\n More fascinating articles from the most fascinating writer.\u00a0 Dip at will and you will find gold.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Years of Victory\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Arthur Bryant I read about half of this precursor to The Age of Elegance, the sequel of which is Years of Victory, both of which I was able to download, Iliad having for once come up empty.\u00a0 It\u2019s wonderful up to the sad Death of Nelson, which saves Britain at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reading"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ericidle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ericidle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ericidle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericidle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericidle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=690"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericidle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":691,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericidle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690\/revisions\/691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ericidle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericidle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericidle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The Last Kind Words Saloon\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Larry McMurtry<\/h3>\n
Mr. Hire\u2019s Engagement\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Georges Simenon<\/h3>\n
The Vanity Fair Diaries\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Tina Brown<\/h3>\n
Ma\u2019am Darling\u00a0 (99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret)\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Craig Brown<\/h3>\n
Our Kind of Traitor\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 John Le Carr\u00e9<\/h3>\n
The Golden House\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Salman Rushdie<\/h3>\n
The Rub of Time\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Martin Amis<\/h3>\n