This has been the year I discovered Mick Herron.<\/p>\n
There are two series of thrillers. The Slough House series, which is more modern Le Carr\u00e9 territory \u00a0and The Oxford series. I read both series in order.\u00a0 They are completely addictive.\u00a0 Perfect for the road. I began with Slough House and I recommend that to start.\u00a0 Welcome to the world of Jackson Lamb.<\/p>\n
I ended up with The Oxford Series,<\/em> which is also terrific and consists of:<\/p>\n Wonderful.\u00a0 Just brilliant.\u00a0 Tense, taught and totally unexpected.\u00a0 Everything you\u2019d ever want in a thriller.\u00a0\u00a0 Set in Oxford, at a Nursery school, which ends up involving the Police and MI5.\u00a0\u00a0 A master of suspense at the top of his game.\u00a0 I thought this was magnificent.<\/p>\n An Oxford novel.\u00a0 But this time Zoe Boehm is dead.\u00a0 Drowned in the River Thames.\u00a0 Or is she?\u00a0\u00a0 A masterly piece of character detective fiction.\u00a0\u00a0 He keeps you gripped to the page.\u00a0\u00a0 Absolutely addictive.\u00a0 Read one, read the lot.<\/p>\n A stand-alone book.\u00a0 But brilliant.\u00a0 Totally absorbing.\u00a0 I seem to have read everything.\u00a0 Such a joy to discover a new writer (to yourself) and to binge.\u00a0 I\u2019m sad because I seem to have done the lot in such a short space of time.\u00a0 I hope I missed something.<\/p>\n My new Bible.\u00a0 Beautifully and very simply written, from lectures and talks, this is a mind blowing, very simple summation of what we believe to be true in the Universe.\u00a0 \u00a0It makes belief in a God created Universe somewhat simplistic.\u00a0 Many of the things described defy belief.\u00a0 I now give it to people.\u00a0 Don’t panic, there’s not an equation in sight.\u00a0 With an introduction by Eddie Redmayne and a very beautiful postscript by his daughter about his funeral which is both touching and amazing.<\/p>\n As always the perfect appetiser, or palate cleanser for longer reads.\u00a0 Maigret is on holiday but stays in Paris and can’t resist watching how his colleague Janvier goes about solving a crime.\u00a0 It’s his perspective on the reader who follows cases in the newspapers.<\/p>\n I ran out of books and picked up this and the Doer in Sydney.\u00a0\u00a0 The hallmark of a great book is you can read it again.\u00a0 This was even better for the second time.\u00a0\u00a0 I find this a lot with this amazing author.\u00a0\u00a0 Basically about his (fictional really as he admits in the intro) maternal grandfather.\u00a0 It skirts a lot of territory, memorable chapters being about Werner von Braun and his attempted capture by the Americans at the end of the war, and his real involvement with the foul camp that kept the V2 running until almost the last month.\u00a0 The camp that killed more than the victims of the flying bomb which would soon become the Saturn rocket that would take America to the moon.\u00a0 He ends his days in an old peoples home in Florida searching for a Python.\u00a0 Funny, witty, exquisitely written, I was hooked once again from the start.<\/p>\n Spy thriller.\u00a0 Or is it.\u00a0 Spoiler alerts.\u00a0 Latest thriller.\u00a0 Always surprising, always entertaining.<\/p>\n Running out of books in Sydney I picked up two I was fairly sure I\u2019d read, and re-read half of this before economising on my packing, knowing I have it at home.\u00a0 Very fine writing about a boy who dreams the short future.\u00a0 Bad things will happen.\u00a0 No one will believe you.<\/p>\n Murder, Satanism and Infanticide at the Court of the Sun King.<\/strong>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Reading on I Pad after enjoying the Netflix series Versailles.\u00a0\u00a0 It makes you want to discover whether it is all true.\u00a0 This one confirms the poisoning and is very interesting about the sexual activity.\u00a0 But of course it is France.\u00a0\u00a0 Nicely written and a good perspective on the most extraordinary of monarchs and his amazing creation of Versailles.\u00a0 The gap between the glittering court and the poverty of the over taxed peasantry would of course soon be closed by the Revolution.<\/p>\n I picked up my old copy of this excellent history, and dipped into it.<\/p>\n A very powerful, original, incredibly well-written and highly deserved winner of this year\u2019s Mann Booker Prize.\u00a0\u00a0 An interior monologue about a young girl in Northern Ireland during the troubles.\u00a0 Her skill in capturing the voice and the attitudes of a community under siege and locked into its prejudices, as the political ice slowly starts to melt and things begin to change is extraordinary.\u00a0 I found it gripping, fascinating, fresh and honest.<\/p>\n We had been watching Versailles<\/em> on Netflix and I was intrigued to know just how much was actual history.\u00a0 I knew many scenes were completely made up obviously, so I turned to the masters, Volume VIII of their incredible Story of Civilization,<\/strong> a complete set of which was presented to me by my wonderful Spamalot<\/em> Producer Bill Haber. Beautifully written this is the finest historical record ever and an amazing achievement.\u00a0 Louis\u2019 Age was of course 66, and he dies sadly, amidst the financial collapse of the gilded honeytrap he created to destroy the nobility.\u00a0 The Revolution would complete the work in only a few more years.<\/p>\n A long epitaph poem by Clive musing about his own life and forthcoming death.\u00a0 Like his life, I enjoyed lots of it.<\/p>\n After being blown away by his short stories his latest novel somewhat disappointed me. \u00a0It\u2019s a romance.\u00a0 In the cinema sense.\u00a0\u00a0 Fascinating, and occasionally very moving, I never quite believed in this 19th<\/sup> Century tale of the love of an Edinburgh piano tuner for an enigmatic Russian beauty. Mainly, I failed to believe in her.\u00a0 And I often felt manipulated, in so far as things happened, because the plot needed them to happen.\u00a0 That\u2019s what I mean by cinema writing.\u00a0 It might make a very fine movie.\u00a0 I was never bored, I was engaged, until perhaps the last quarter, where I felt him thrashing around to find an end, and when he did it was pure movie writing.\u00a0 Novels are bloody hard work, and I often wish novelists would write the end first, because even the best of them tend to run out of steam.\u00a0 I think William Boyd is up there with the best of them, but this is not his best novel.<\/p>\n Somewhere along my book tour, possibly Manchester, some fan slipped this tiny Penguin book into my hand.\u00a0 Like an idiot I signed it and tried to hand it back.\u00a0 Mercifully I took it away with me.\u00a0 It\u2019s tiny, delightful and extraordinary and one I shall continue to re-read and I thank the anonymous donor.<\/p>\n An extraordinary book, musing on the movie Where Eagles Dare<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0 Almost a scene by scene description of what happens in a movie I haven\u2019t seen, with Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood, it is hilarious, very witty, occasionally wonderful rude, and captures something quite original, managing to talk about telling a tale on the screen and how unreal that world usually is.\u00a0 I picked up a beautiful signed special edition published by and at Hatchards.\u00a0 One for the stocking.<\/p>\n I spent this month largely on the road.\u00a0 So, I packed some preferences for travel, Maigret of course and some Mick Herron, the new essential travel companion for binge reading, but then, a superb discovery, that William Boyd has become my all-time favourite short story writer.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n This, the fifth in his Slough House series, was easily my favourite, intensely plotted and very well written, kept me happily entertained during a long trip across America and many changing scenes and airports and hotels.\u00a0 What a joy he is.\u00a0\u00a0 And so much as yet unread, waiting for me in the wings.\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s such a pleasure to stumble on a new writer you\u2019re going to treasure.\u00a0 I began the month with him and ended it too.<\/p>\n I found this at the end of the month in Waterstones and it was here almost before I was.\u00a0 Very impressive to shop on a Saturday in London and start reading on a Tuesday in California. Short and sweet and almost a tease, as I want to know more, but I like his short Maigret length novellas, like a good appetizers it whets without satiating the palate.\u00a0 Oo you pretentious git, says the inner editor.<\/p>\n Maigret out of his depth, a fish out of water, amongst the rich in a luxury Parisian hotel, with an attempted suicide by a countess and the sudden death of a billionaire.\u00a0 He is particularly good describing \u00a0his inadequate feelings in the strange backstage world of the hotel, while plodding on regardless with his investigation into what does not feel right to him.<\/p>\n I stumbled across this book of short stories in Hatchards and was totally blown away.\u00a0\u00a0 I have never read a collection of stories like it.\u00a0 He was always good, but now seems to have evolved into the finest short story writer I have ever read.\u00a0 It was never my favourite form, but I devoured these, immediately bought the previous collection and then thoroughly enjoyed reading some of the earlier ones I remembered, such as On The Yankee Station, and Nathalie X now republished in a more recent collection as:<\/p>\n I re-read these.\u00a0\u00a0 This is what I wrote before.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cThese funny, surprising and moving stories are a resounding confirmation of Boyd’s powers as one of our most original and compelling storytellers.\u201d<\/p>\n I enjoyed this, the second recent collection, even more than the republished older ones.\u00a0\u00a0 They seem to come out of nowhere with so much detail and precision, I found them over-whelmingly great. Powerful, germane, and almost out of nowhere.\u00a0\u00a0 Impressive and extremely enjoyable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" December This has been the year I discovered Mick Herron. There are two series of thrillers. The Slough House series, which is more modern Le Carr\u00e9 territory \u00a0and The Oxford series. I read both series in order.\u00a0 They are completely addictive.\u00a0 Perfect for the road. I began with Slough House and I recommend that to […]<\/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-728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reading"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ericidle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728","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=728"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericidle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":731,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericidle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728\/revisions\/731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ericidle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericidle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericidle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Down Cemetery Road\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Mick Herron<\/h2>\n
The Last Voice You Hear\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Mick Herron<\/h2>\n
Why We Die\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Mick Herron<\/h2>\n
Reconstruction\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Mick Herron<\/h2>\n
Smoke and Whispers\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Mick Herron<\/h2>\n
Nobody Walks\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Mick Herron<\/h2>\n
Brief Answers to the Big Questions\u00a0 \u00a0 Stephen Hawking<\/h2>\n
Maigret Enjoys Himself\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Georges Simenon<\/h2>\n
Moonglow\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 Michael Chabon<\/h2>\n
This is what happened.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Nick Herron.<\/h2>\n
About Grace.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Anthony Doer.<\/h2>\n
The Affair of the Poisons\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Anne Somerset<\/h2>\n
The Sun King \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Nancy Mitford.<\/h2>\n
November<\/u><\/h1>\n
Milkman\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Anna Burns<\/h2>\n
The Age of Louis XIV\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Will & Ariel Durant<\/h2>\n
The River in the Sky\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Clive James<\/h2>\n
Love is Blind\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 William Boyd<\/h2>\n
The Gifts of Reading\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Robert Macfarlane<\/h2>\n
\u201cBroadsword calling Danny Boy\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Geoff Dyer<\/h2>\n
October<\/u><\/h1>\n
Spook Street\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Mick Herron<\/em><\/h1>\n
The Drop\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Mick Herron<\/em><\/h1>\n
Maigret Travels\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Georges Simenon<\/h2>\n
The Dreams of Bethany Mellmoth\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 William Boyd<\/h2>\n
The Dream Lover \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 William Boyd<\/h2>\n
Fascination\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 William Boyd.<\/h2>\n