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Keeping a diary

Mae West once said “Keep a diary and a diary will keep you”. I am always interested in why people keep a diary. In the case of politicians diaries tend to be self serving and remunerative. Barrack Obama is reportedly getting a record advance for his. The best written political diary in [...]

May 18, 2017 // 0 Comments

A Natural/ Ron Raisin

A Natural by Ron Raisin is hardly a typical book on football. It features life in the lower reaches of the League and a gay young footballer, Tom Pearman, who was a precocious talent as a kid but descended down the leagues. From the footballing perspective I found it interesting but Melanie Gay, on [...]

April 17, 2017 // 0 Comments

You can take a horse to the river …

Today I’m announcing something of a departure from a lifetime of personal philistinism. Yesterday, I happened to be out and about enjoying a stroll in the afternoon sunshine with the ‘Ball and Chain’. Just as the local high street shops were on the point of closing we came to a Waterstone’s [...]

April 13, 2017 // 0 Comments

It’s Just Banter/ Leroy Rosenior

Leroy Rosenior’s autobiography will be of interest beyond the supporters of the 3 clubs he played for – Fulham, QPR and West Ham and the three he managed Bristol City, Torquay and Brentford. Born in Sierra Leone, whom he later managed for 2 games, growing up in Brixton in the sixties [...]

March 30, 2017 // 0 Comments

The Bugatti Queen/ Miranda Seymour

Miranda Seymour has written an outstanding biography of a woman of whom I have never heard, Helene Delangle aka Helle Nice arguably the finest female racing driver of all time. Born at the very start of the twentieth century, in a provincial French family, her father was a postman, she first went [...]

March 27, 2017 // 0 Comments

The thrill of crime

Crime/thriller-writing is a genre with legions of fans – I like to dabble myself from time to time quite separately from my reviewing duties – and it’s pleasing to note that some of its most popular exponents and indeed fictional characters are women. Here are some relevant links [...]

March 21, 2017 // 0 Comments

Daunts book festival/ Rogues Gallery and East West Street

Yesterday with Melanie Gay, Bob Tickler, Stefan Ursolini and Ken Howard I attended a book event at Daunts showcasing the above books both of which I enjoyed. Philip Mould, the fluent charming art dealer who appears in both the Antiques Road Show and Fake or Fortune, interviewed Philip Hook the [...]

March 17, 2017 // 0 Comments

Golden Hill/Francis Spufford

Francis Spufford is a historian and broadcaster whose first effort at fiction wring is Golden Hill and it’s good. He has written a novel set in middle of the eighteenth century and in the style of Henry Fielding. It’s set in New York, not the heaving massive metropolis we know today but [...]

March 14, 2017 // 0 Comments

Who dares sometimes wins

Despite my general antipathy towards technology over time I am pleased to report that I have mastered the rudiments of being able to record television programmes before they are aired – or alternatively go back and watch those I have missed via a ‘catch up’ facility –  on my cable TV [...]

February 15, 2017 // 0 Comments

Trading Futures/ Jim Powell

When it comes to writing about angst and misery some feel that women do this best. I disagree. Novelists like Edward St Aubyn and now Jim Powell can “do” self- recrimination, pathos, self-absorption, fragmentation of the character with humour and sensitivity. Jim Powell has an [...]

January 31, 2017 // 0 Comments

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